Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

Stuart, FL - The numbers are in and it’s looking like another good month for the Martin County real estate market.  April makes the third straight month in a row now that have seen an increase in residential home sales in Martin County.  Now I’m no expert and I’m not a realtor, but I can spot a trend when I see one.  One or even two months could be a possible fluke, but three months in a row is a trend and it’s headed in the right direction.

According to information released from the Realtor Association of Martin County, April has seen an increase in the dollar value of homes sold from a year ago of over 24 percent.  The number of units sold, which may be a better indicator was flat at the same number of units sold last year.  If nothing else, that means we may be at the bottom of the downward trend.  The large percent increase in home values sold could be contributed to a small number of high dollar homes sold. 

On the listing side, another good indicator of the market, the number of homes available for sale has dropped again this month by nearly 9 percent.  The average asking price for the homes currently on the market have seen a decline of almost 3 percent this month which is down from an over 4 percent decline the month prior.  Again I’m not an expert but this feels like it’s leveling off to me.

Stuart, FL - That’s the idea behind the future restoration project to the St Lucie Inlet North jetty.  The county is planning a $5.4 million project to help reduce the year to year costs of maintaining the jetty and the navigational waterway.  The thought behind the restoration is that the increased size of the seawall will block waves out of the Northeast and prevent excess sand from getting into the waterway, instead funneling it into a basin to make future dredging projects easier and less costly.

Besides the obvious tax savings benefits to the county there will be significant benefits to your average boater.  The upgrades to the North jetty seawall will help to make the inlet calm which will make navigating the inlet safer and easier.  Another proposition from county engineers is to install navigational aide lights to the ends of the inlets which will make entering and exiting the inlet after dark much safer.  This could be called a win, win….win situation.  Add to that the cost to Martin County taxpayers right now is $675,000 for the upgrade, the rest of the $5.4 million bill is being picked up by the state of Florida and the Army Core of Engineers, the brunt of which is from the engineers.  On top of that, Martin County officials have put in for a grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District which, if accepted, will reduce the costs to Martin County even further to only $375,000.  If that goes through, you can add another win to my list.

Inlet photo courtesy of www.StLucieInlet.com

Port Saint Lucie, FL - It looks like Tiffany Sheppard, the bikini wearing teacher, is cashing in on her new found fame for being a bikini mate onboard Smokin’em Charters and subsequently fired from her job as a biology teacher.  Tiffany, now with manager Kathi Coombes (one of the Smokin’Em owners), is on her way to New York for guest appearances on TV and talk shows.  She has offers of appearances on talks shows, tv shows and radio stations all across the county.

On top of all this, she now has received an offer from Playboy for a full photo spread.  Kathi Coomes said she heard that the photos paid around $25,000 a piece.  When Tiffany’s story first hit the headlines, she claimed she wasn’t one of the girls willing to take off her top for money.  She says now she is rethinking that in light of Playboy’s offer and is considering taking it.  So much for morals.

It is unbelievable to me that she has gone from an apparent bad employee of the school board, being fired for excessive absentses to someone getting handed loads of cash just because she claims she was a victim of discrimination.  Any person with common sense can see she was fired because of bad work ethic not because she wears a bikini on a boat.  But with that being said, as a teacher she is a role model to many children, if she was fired because of being a ‘bikini bimbo’ then I personally wouldn’t complain.  Being on a boat in a bikini is not bad in and of itself.  Being paid to strut around a boat to arouse clients of said boat is another story.  That’s not much different than a adult entertainer and not the caliber person we need teaching and setting an example for Florida’s youth.

Read the side from her students and their parents here