A team of professors at the University of South Florida (USF) has a new weapon to fight Alzheimer’s disease and dementia — a $44.3-million grant for the next five years to continue a study that has shown some positive results.
Jerri Edwards, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is heading up the school’s Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training (aka “PACT”) study.
Dr. Edwards says the grant could help finally find a way to prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which are among the most expensive medical conditions to treat — along with heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These diseases also are becoming more and more common.
“Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia are an increasing public health crisis,” Dr. Edwards says. “One in every nine persons 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease right now and the prevalence of the disease increases with age. It could be that as many as 33 percent of people 85-plus have dementia. We’re living longer so that means the prevalence of Alzheimer’s is increasing exponentially.”
Edwards and many of her colleagues have been investigating an intervention commonly known as brain training for the past decade. “It is the first intervention ever shown in a randomized clinical trial to reduce the risk of dementia,” she says. “So, we’re very excited.”
Brain training is basically using computerized programs to train the cognitive abilities of participants. The trial, called the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent & Vital Elderly (ACTIVE), had more than 2,800 healthy older adults ages 65 and older participating.
The trial was essentially focused on the functional ability of older adults when it came to things like managing their finances, driving and going grocery shopping — essential tasks required to remain independent with age.
“Dementia essentially is diagnosed when you lose that functional ability,” Dr. Edwards says.
That study, after 10 years, showed that participants had a 29-48 percent lower incidence of dementia than people who received no training.
The PACT study will be expanded to across the U.S. at five different sites and will be enrolling 7,600 older adults.
“We really believe this intervention can reduce people’s chances — reduce their risks — of Alzheimer’s disease,” Edwards says. “It’s a very exciting opportunity to be a leader in the field here at USF and engaging our Tampa Bay community area.”
Dr. Edwards encourages anyone healthy and age 65 and older in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa to participate in the PACT study. She says that one of the goals of the study is to have a diverse sample. She also says that blacks are twice as likely as other adults to get Alzheimer’s, and Hispanics are 1.5 times as likely, yet both are typically less willing to participate in clinical studies.
Participants will be screened and tested during their first two visits — at a choice of the Cognitive Aging Lab on USF’s Tampa campus off E. Fletcher Ave., the St. Petersburg campus, as well as at locations in Lakeland and Winter Haven in Polk County — and will be asked to continue the brain training for three years at home.
“We really need people who are interested in joining the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Edwards says. “We need healthy, older adults 65-plus willing to do that. It’s low burden — we’re asking for a three-year commitment.”
If you want to volunteer for the PACT study, call (813) 974-6703, or visit PACTStudy.org.
The social media team at The Grove put out a Facebook teaser that a national coffee chain and national grocery store were coming to their ever-expanding property this year.
As far as a national coffee chain, well, we’d be shocked if it wasn’t…wait for it….Starbucks.
But, a new national grocer?
Now that is intriguing.
So, naturally, because this is Wesley Chapel and everyone seems to go ga-ga for anything new coming to town, the Facebook post exploded with people using ALL CAPS and multiple exclamation points to demand that their choice be the one, ordering The Grove to make it so and seemingly ready to fight anyone who disagreed.
And, that (of course) were just the Trader Joe’s fans!
Some cast their votes/begged for their favorite and made predictions, while others — transplants from other states, we’re guessing — clamored for their favorite grocers from their hometowns in the Midwest and Northeast.
More than 350 comments rolled in, and we read every one of them, and the winner — if the locals were allowed to make the choice — was Trader Joe’s.
Uhhh, we mean TRADER JOE’S OR BUST!!!!!!
That’s no surprise, of course. When we ran a similar poll on our Facebook page, asking what should replace the old Sweetbay on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in New Tampa, Trader Joe’s trounced the field — although, ahem, we don’t recall anyone threatening to move away if it wasn’t a Trader Joe’s.
The Grove post was a mishmash of grocery store debate, which led us to wonder what could be coming.
PUBLIX: The obvious, predictable choice, even though the Publix on the corner of S.R. 54 and BBD is just down the road. But, since when has having a nearby location mattered to Publix? Heck, in New Tampa, you can throw a BOGO bag of lettuce from the Cross Creek Blvd. location at Morris Bridge Rd. and hit the New Tampa Blvd. at BBD store.
Besides, the Hollybrook Plaza Publix is going to relocate to the east one of these days back (near the Walmart), creating some additional distance from the new store in The Grove.
Here’s the thing, though — while we all love Publix, it’s still just Publix. And it’s literally everywhere.
Does it really fit the fresh, hip new energy coming from The Grove, even though one could argue that a Publix chicken tender sub trumps fresh, hip new energy any day, and we wouldn’t necessarily disagree?
However, you know what’s hipper than Publix? A new Publix, like the prototype store that opened in December on Gandy Blvd. in South Tampa.
The 48,000-sq.-ft. store has two floors, with a large dining area on the second floor. It has a fresh, cleaner design that seeks to modernize the usual Publix.
There are self check-out lanes, lots of grab-and-go fresh foods, a free-standing deli, two grocery pickup spots and drive-through service at the pharmacy, according to progressivegrocer.com.
There’s also a Publix Aprons Cooking School kiosk located in the center of the new store.
While the Gandy location is a prototype, landing the first actual “new” Publix would give off lots of that exciting energy The Grove developer Mark Gold prides himself on generating.
WHOLE FOODS: The popular and pricey organic grocery chain, headquartered in Austin, TX, and now owned by Amazon, was mentioned by more than a dozen Facebook commentors.
Whole Foods would certainly fill a void left by Earth Fare, Wesley Chapel’s first, albeit ill-fated, organic grocer, which shut down after less than a year in existence in 2019 and is now a Total Wine & More (see pg. 34).
Today, there are no large organic grocers in the area — although Nutrition Smart on BBD is a nice, smaller option — and Whole Foods would no doubt be a perfect fit in an area that still clamors for family-friendly, fresh organic offerings. It also fits The Grove’s vibe better than just about any other option.
TRADER JOE’S: This would be a home run for Gold, although also a tough get, but as made clear by the Facebook comments of more than 50 posters, by far the most popular one.
Wesley Chapel, New Tampa and Carrollwood wanted a Trader Joe’s so badly a few years back that there was a campaign to petition the store online in the hopes of landing a location. Hillsborough County commissioners even got involved in the Tampa efforts.
But alas, nothing. New Tampa has since added a Sprouts, an Aldi and it appears a Lotte Super Market is coming as well. Trader Joe’s still has just its location on Swann Ave. in South Tampa.
Could Wesley Chapel break through and succeed where New Tampa didn’t?
IT BETTER OR WE’RE MOVING!!!
(Kidding….kind of).
WEGMANS: You think we have a lot of Northeasterners living here in Wesley Chapel? Consider this: Wegmans received more online interest than Publix, Aldi and Sprouts combined.
In fact, the Wegmans discussion spun off into its own little debate. We half expected someone on the thread to start a Wegmans podcast.
Wegmans, based in Gates, NY, has a large organic food selection, a hot food bar and really, really happy employees, making some transplants downright misty-eyed in the comments talking about the store.
Wegmans has a pretty impressive resume, being named the best or favorite grocery store in the country by Food Network, Consumer Reports subscribers and marketforce.com.
Apparently, new openings draw thousands willing to wait in lines.
Janette Vazquez Driesslein used many exclamation points in pleading for a Wegmans, and commented that when she moved to Florida in 2004 she reached out to Wegmans about moving stores here. “Here we are almost 20 years later and nope. So, sadly, I think it’s pretty unlikely.”
Janette, we agree. Wegmans stores generally only come as far south as North Carolina, and don’t appear to have any plans to expand here.
Road trip?
KROGER: Some transplanted Midwesterners have a soft spot for Kroger, and while the chain has no Florida locations, a May announcement that the chain is beginning deliveries from a new fulfillment center in Tampa at least gives reason for hope, right?
If you love Kroger that much, for a $9.95 fee, you can order your groceries right off the company’s website or app.
As for Kroger coming to The Grove? Probably not. But, stores in Florida could be in the future.
THE OTHERS: Judging by some of the passionate responses, everyone has their favorite grocery store. Thank goodness the Piggly Wiggly folks didn’t show up en masse, or there might have been an actual online brawl.
Some others that were mentioned more than once in the grocery thread include the three-location, family-owned Detwiler’s Farm Market based in Sarasota, Texas-based H-E-B, which has a cult-like following, Sprouts, Fresh Market and yes, even another Aldi, which would be ironic because the location on S.R. 56 was originally approved to be built near The Grove.
John and Sheri Thrasher of Excel Music on Cross Creek. Blvd. have survived more than a year of virtual music lessons only.
At Excel Music in New Tampa, the rooms are cozy and the lessons have always been intimate, as children and adults file in each day to work on honing their musical skills with professional instructors.
But, cozy and intimate don’t work well with Covid-19, so like so many small business owners, John and Sheri Thrasher had to make some drastic adjustments, primarily going virtual with their lessons. It wasn’t easy, but they have survived.
Now, in their 15th year of running Excel Music, which is located in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd., the Thrashers are hopeful things are getting back to the old normal.
“We are starting out by just having all instruments, except voice and wind instruments,” John says. “We’ll start with that and see how comfortable everyone is with it and how things continue to proceed over the summer.”
However, they continue to proceed cautiously, John adds. The school, whose physical building has been closed since March 2020, is hoping to be fully open by the end of this month or in August.
“Like most of the school systems around the country, we’ll want to be back to full in-person lessons by the fall,” he says. “We’ve been maybe accused of being a little overcautious, but that’s always been my nature. (Safety) has always been really important. I just didn’t want our school being responsible for bad things happening to anybody.”
Fortunately, John says, Excel Music’s virtual lessons have been a success. Although often confused with online lessons, which are more like videos that students follow along with, the virtual lessons have kept Excel’s staff of music teachers — all of whom are either university trained (many with Master of Music degrees) or with at least 10 years of study and performing experience — engaged with those receiving lessons.
John says the staff adapted during the pandemic and has now mastered the art of virtual lessons.
“The results we’re seeing from students and hearing from teachers is that the kids are still progressing very well,” he says.
Bill Effingham has been teaching guitar at Excel Music since it opened. He says he would never have considered virtual lessons prior to the pandemic, but now sees it as an additional tool. He says the Thrashers were able to make the transition seamless.
“Considering that everything happened so quickly and last minute and that it was a totally new thing, John and Sheri were right on top of things,” Bill says. “Obviously, I was a little panicky that first week, but I think by week 2 or 3 we were totally transitioned over. They did a great job with it.”
While they may not have the same effectiveness of hands-on, in-person lessons, virtual lessons won’t be completely abandoned by Excel Music once students return to the classrooms. While some parents declined to even try the virtual route, it did offer some convenience to others who, for example, travel during the summer. John estimates that students taking a month off require two months to get back to where they were before.
“It’s been one of these weird things that’s helped us become more fleet of foot,” John says. “We can now adjust more quickly to what students and parents want. That’s probably been the one advantage of us jumping head-first into the virtual lessons.”
However, John says that everyone at Excel is eager to get the classrooms back open.
“We have some wonderful parents and students that stuck it out, and we’re looking forward to getting back to what we’ve always done,” he says.
A Variety Of Programs & Ages
The music school has always offered lessons in voice and practically every instrument, with piano, violin, guitar and drums being the most popular, although quite a few students study brass and woodwind instruments, too — including trumpet, tuba, saxophone and clarinet.
While Excel’s choir program remains on hold for now, John hopes to get the popular pre-school program up and running again this summer. John says the music school has had students as young as 5 years old and as old as the 86-year-old trumpet player who once took lessons at Excel.
Both John and Sheri have strong backgrounds in music, giving them perspective on the value of learning an instrument.
John, who continues to play in a band with friends, was the drummer for country singer Mickey Gilley for many years, which gave him the opportunity to perform on TV on “The Joan Rivers Show,” “Solid Gold” and “Hee-Haw,” as well as on telethons hosted by Lou Rawls and Jerry Lewis. He also played at such venues as the White House and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN.
In the 1990s, John and Sheri had success together with a band of their own in Japan called Tz, where he says they sold tens of thousands of CDs.
It was in Japan, where there is a culture that reveres teachers, that led them to start thinking about something like Excel Music, which they opened in 2006.
“There’s so much data about how great studying music is for your brain for spatial learning and big-picture thinking,” John explains. “There are always studies coming out saying that because music is a whole brain activity, when kids learn music, their math and other school skills improve, too.”
Bill is one of two teachers who have been with Excel Music since it opened in 2006, and a number of others have stayed with the Thrashers for five, six, or eight years.
“We definitely have stability,” John says. “We’ve been doing this for a long time.”
Like several instructors at Excel Music, Bill teaches and plays gigs. He is in a band called Lorelei On The Rocks (check them out at loreleirocks.com) and hopes to instill in his students the same love of playing that he has had for more than four decades.
“In the beginning, they memorize notes and learn the mechanics,” Bill says. “But, when they start to ‘hear’ the music and a little light bulb goes off and you know they got it, that’s what I love about teaching.”
Soon, John hopes lots of little light bulbs will go off in the heads of local music students who return for in-person lessons.
“We’re just eager to get back to what we usually offer,” John says. “This has been really, really challenging for everybody. “It’s been a trying and learning experience, but like anything that is hard, you grow from it, you learn from it and you’ll be better for it.”
Excel Music, located at 10353 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite I, is still open for virtual lessons only right now. For more information, visit ExcelMusic.org or call (813) 991-1177.
Glenn and Gretchen Schmidt started building in Wesley Chapel’s Estancia community last July, before things got crazy in the housing market. When their new house was ready, they were able to sell the home they owned in New Tampa pictured above, in just two days. (Photos: Charmaine George)
When it came time to sell their home in West Meadows to move into their new home in Estancia, Glenn Schmidt and his wife Gretchen knew they were entering a pretty good local housing market for sellers.
So, when the Schmidts finally listed their home with long-time New Tampa Realtor Kristy Darragh of Florida Executive Realty, they were hoping there was enough interest that they’d at least get their asking price.
On a Friday, the Schmidt’s four-bedroom, three-bath house was officially put up for sale. On Saturday, they had 33 people show up for a showing.
On Sunday morning, there were 22 more scheduled showings by 2 p.m.
“I had to stop setting appointments,” Glenn says. “My phone would not stop blowing up.”
By the end of the weekend, the Schmidts had 15 offers, including two buyers offering to pay in cash, and they eventually accepted a bid well over their asking price.
“We significantly more than doubled what we originally paid for the house,” he says. “It’s one thing to hear that you’re going to do very well when you sell, but then to see (this)? It was ridiculous.”
The Schmidts’ story would have been highly unusual just a year ago. But nowadays, it’s normal.
“This market, it’s a phenomenon,” says Darragh. “It’s mind boggling.”
*****
In Wesley Chapel and elsewhere, the sky seems to be the limit, as soaring prices and sinking inventory make the market a real dogfight.
In our coverage area in Wesley Chapel, which includes zip codes 33543, 33544 and 33545, there were only 60 single family homes listed for sale as of June 24. The median home was a 4BR/3BA, with 2,573 square feet of living space and a listing price of $507,498.
Of those 60 homes, only eight were new construction, and the median price on those was $650,000, or a staggering $246 per square foot.
The 52 resales, with a median size of 4BR/3BA and 2,654 square feet, had a median price of $498,000, or $198 per square foot.
(Florida Realtors)
Countywide, the numbers are staggering as well.
According to the Florida Realtors, the median sale price of all 1,083 houses sold in Pasco County in May was $300,380, a 20.2% increase over the $250,000 median price in May 2020.
Meanwhile, the average price soared to $343,070, a 27% increase from the previous year.
The median time to contract on the homes sold this May was five days, while last year it was 27 days.
Inventory is down to 637 homes, compared with 1,746 last year.
Although Wesley Chapel is a growing housing market with thousands of homes coming along the S.R. 56 extension and in large communities like Epperson, Avalon Park West and the Connected City corridor, builders can’t keep up, hence the lack of inventory.
Realtor Chris Henry says that the current craziness in the local real estate market isn’t likely to suffer another “housing bubble” anytime soon.
Combine all of that with historically low interest rates (around 3%) and a massive influx of new residents running away from coronavirus-ravaged states to Florida, which also has friendlier tax policies and “you have a perfect storm,” says local Realtor Chris Henry.
He says that there are 20 or more buyers for almost every house being sold, and anything under $350,000 sells almost instantly, usually for more than the asking price — and often with cash. In fact, 27.1% of sales in May were paid in cash, a number that has increased every month since November 2020, when it was 17.6 percent.
Henry says he recently listed a client’s home for $25,000 more than he normally would have because of the market, and it led to 74 showings over the next two days, resulting in 33 written offers. The house sold for an additional $30,000 over that already-inflated asking price.
“You know, it’s cliché to say, but this is really unprecedented,” Henry says.
Another of Henry’s clients, Noemi Delgado, sold the Riverview townhome she had only lived in for eight months for a $40,000 profit, and turned around and used that money to put down on a new home. “With money to spare,” she says.
Delgado initially planned to live in her townhome for two years before selling but with some prodding from Henry, took a more aggressive approach.
In this market, it might be the only way to succeed.
*****
While traditionally 3-4 months worth of inventory is considered good, the latest numbers say there isn’t even a month’s worth of homes for sale right now. The number currently is 0.6 months supply, meaning that if nothing new came on the market over the next 2-3 weeks, there would be zero houses for sale.
“We are accustomed to low inventory, but I think we are all surprised to see the influx of buyers from out of state coming to the Tampa Bay area,” says Florida Executive Realty Realtor Judi Beck. “To have less than one month of inventory is really uncharted waters.”
The inventory in the Greater Tampa area in April 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic was right around 10,700 homes for sale, with an average selling price of $271,000.
Just 12 months later, inventory was down to just 2,500 homes, but the average sale price had rocketed to $358,000.
In New Tampa, there were only 34 single-family homes listed for sale as of June 11, and 14 of those were asking for more than $500,000 — pricing a lot of first-time buyers out of the market.
Only five homes were listed under $300,000.
For a 3BR/2BA, the prices ranged from a low of $324,900 to $408,000; for a 4BR/3BA, the range was from as little as $307,000 to $1.25 million.
“I think personally, the local people aren’t moving out in as big numbers as the people coming in,” says 17-year real estate veteran Molly Nye, of Century 21 Bill Nye Realty. “There is a supply problem. We’re six months out from this being exciting and frustrating.”
Nye says she is seeing home seekers bidding on empty lots, “which is unheard of.”
It’s a seller’s market, so buyers may need to be more aggressive than usual. The fewer contingencies a buyer has, the more attractive the offer is to the seller, and they typically have many offers to choose from. The seller just needs a place to go once he or she sells. Nye says she has a friend who sold her home to cash out, and is now living with another friend because she can’t find a place to buy.
“She told me that she didn’t think that would happen to her,” Nye says. “I’m seeing a lot more of that.”
*****
In the early- to mid-2000s, a similar boom was instigated by poor lending practices and rampant investor speculation. That led to the average list price in New Tampa, for example, rising from $272,000 in 2003 to $443,000 in 2006.
Then, the real estate “bubble” of 2007-08 popped..
By 2011, the median home in New Tampa was down to $236,000.
Economists and Realtors alike will tell you that this boom is related primarily to the migration of people to Florida, from places like New York, California and all points in between. The ability to work remotely here has been another driving factor. Henry says that four of his last six sales have been to New Yorkers. Because of Covid-19 and the economy, thousands of people each day are leaving states that are not as “open” as Florida, or as tax-friendly, selling their homes and showing up on the doorsteps of local Realtors flush with cash.
Do we risk another real estate bubble/crash reminiscent of 2007-08?
“There is no bubble,” Henry says.
*****
According to Darragh, the New Tampa market is healthy and finally realizing the growth in appreciation it has long deserved.
“The New Tampa market has been undervalued for more than eight years, with a slow growth in appreciation, due to the amount of new construction available,” she says. ”Now that the new construction inventory in Wesley Chapel has come to an abrupt halt, the re-sale market pricing in the New Tampa area has jumped overnight.”
Kristy Darragh.
Over the past six months, home prices across the country have risen by 17 percent. Nationally, the typical home asking price in May was $380,000, up 15% from last year.
“Absorption rate is a term used in the real estate industry to describe how fast homes are selling,” Darragh says. “A normal absorption rate for Tampa for the first quarter of this year should have been 40-50% per month. That means that each month, when new listings come on the market, the number of buyers will buy up 40-50% of those new listings. This year, that number is a staggering 179%-200%!”
That means this aggressive absorption rate is sucking up everything that is being built, every new listing that comes on the market, plus the existing inventory of homes. And, as Nye says, even empty lots.
Realtors agree that supply and demand are dangerously out of balance, and question whether this is economically sustainable. The only thing that can slow it down, they say, would be more inventory. However, there’s no indication of an inventory build-up anytime soon.
Henry is convinced that higher interest rates will eventually cause some paralysis. He says it happened in 2018 for a brief period, stopping home owners from selling out of their low mortgage rates and also slowing demand. But, he believes that situation could be at least a year or two away.
“I feel very strongly that in the end, we’ll come in for a soft landing,” Henry says, “but it’s going to take, unfortunately, interest rates increasing and making it impossible for people to buy at 4 or 5 percent. They will be unwilling, and in many cases, unable.”
Darragh has spent hours poring over the data to figure out the current market. Her desk is covered in pie charts and bar graphs, while her computer constantly refreshes to update her on the local housing market in real-time.
With her 30 years of experience selling in the New Tampa area and, with more than $1 billion in sales over that time, she is fascinated looking through her pages of housing statistics. While conventional wisdom says a good seller’s market is bad for buyers, that’s not the case if you are a believer, like she is, that this will continue for another year or two…or longer.
“This market is a once-in-a-generation kind of market, because of what stimulated it (a pandemic),” Darragh says. “It’s a very good market for both buyers and sellers — and people don’t think about it that way — but looking at the charts and listening to real estate experts and economists, they don’t think this is going to end anytime soon. This could be the beginning of something that, in theory, goes on for years.”
The pricing surge has been eye-opening, especially in places like Seminole Heights and South Tampa, but while the urge to cash out may be strong, buyers waiting for a slowdown may be waiting a while.
That’s because, she says, New Tampa is only just now catching back up from the crash of 2007-08.
Based on a Florida Executive Realty “Pent Up Equity” chart, New Tampa’s median home price was $236,000 in 2011, well below the $289,000 it should have been, according to a normal rate of appreciation of 3.5 percent per year.
New Tampa’s median home price is currently up to $380,000, but the normal rate of appreciation says it should be $407,570.
“We haven’t even gotten back to normal yet,” says Darragh. “There’s still plenty of room to run before you even see a bubble.”
That means “deals” can still be found.
In other areas of Tampa, the average “Sold” price far exceeds the price in a market with a normal rate of appreciation. In South Tampa, for example, it’s $175,000 over normal market value; in Carrollwood, it’s $125,000 over; in Seminole Heights, it’s plus-$120,000; and, in Wesley Chapel, it’s almost $100,000 over.
It’s a befuddling market and, while there are plenty of online options to do your home shopping, selecting the right Realtor might be the most important decision you ever make. It is a sentiment strongly echoed by Henry, Beck and Nye, because the market is more complicated and moving faster than ever.
“If you ever needed a local expert, it’s now,” Darragh says.
They say Wesley Chapel has a little something for everyone.
Newly buily communities? Check.
Homes with land? Check.
Crystal clear lagoons? Check.
A house that can survive a missile strike? Check.
Wait…What?
Yes, you read that right. Built on a 4.5-acre lot and located right off Quail Hollow Blvd. at 25910 Queen Sago Pl., this $500,000 listing has just what someone expecting the end of the world could want.
The listing, which was active when we went to press but is now off the market (and expected to be re-listed eventually), actually sounded pretty peaceful — the home “provides the luxury of being close to all the shopping centers, biking trails, and hiking routes while living in a peaceful wooded abode.”
Then, you get to the part about the 8-inch-thick, 4,000 pounds per square inch (psi) concrete roof, and you realize, that these folks weren’t messing around when it came to home security.
The home, or fortress if you prefer, was built in 1982 by David VanDercar, a survivalist, and his wife Candy. It is 3,000 square feet, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and, naturally, a bunker.
Oh, and did we mention that the master bedroom doubles as a panic room, which features a thick bulletproof picture window and steel door? Check.
The VanDercars were quite thorough, however, in prepping for that missile strike.
The property has a hidden trail through the heavily-wooded area to ensure “adequate area land and wildlife in the nearby vicinity,” according to the listing on Realtor.com, plus a 10-foot deep pond “stocked with several species of fish,” a well and water source “designed and installed to avoid contamination and ensure an independent water supply, in case of local services shutting down.”
Secure living lifestyle, indeed!
And, to answer your obvious question —yes, there’s even a hot tub, too.
But, this isn’t the first listing in the area to generate some serious buzz. Back in May, the manufactured home (photo above) at 3650 New River Rd., with 1,089 square feet of living space, was listed for a whopping $450,000 (it can now be had for $399,000).
That may still seem outrageous, until you considered that the garage is twice the size of the home and can accommodate six cars, and probably more important for whoever built it, a Class A motor coach.
While the 2BR, 2BA living area may be small — and the garage a tad oversized — for most of us, the property is located on more than an acre of land gorgeously landscaped with flowers and bamboo trees, and also featured a botanical garden and beautiful rock-scaped pool with a tiki hut.
