The Year Vero Was Discovered

If there’s one thing Vero’s real estate brokers agree on, it’s that 1998 was a year for the history books.  “The best ever,” says Rita Curry, who, after 24 years in local real estate, recently launched her own firm, Curry & Company. “A wonderful market that should continue through ’99,” enthuses Michael Thorpe of Michael Thorpe Real Estate, Curry’s former employer. “Phenomenal,” agrees Anna Nichols, president-owner of Nichols & Associates. “The finest year in a long time,” adds Gena Grove, broker-owner of Norris & Co.

What’s got these veterans of Vero’s steady, but unspectacular, housing market so excited? For starters, a combination of a strong economy, low interest rates and supplier demand that has seen the area’s supply of properties dwindle down to a precious few, with even less-desirable homes being snapped up in 30 to 60 days. In the first 10 months of 1998, compared to the same period in ’97, sales of homes in Indian River County burgeoned $36 million, a 16 percent increase.

Read the entire article in the January 1999 issue