On St. Croix, breadfruit is something very familiar to us. We see beautiful breadfruit trees on island, and breadfruit used in restaurant menus, snacks, and cocktails. We love breadfruit and all of its uses. According to a recent Forbes article, “With its immense potential for food resilience and security, breadfruit or Artocarpus altilis is being celebrated as a staple crop with the opportunity to boost global climate smart sustainable development.” This article highlights examples of how breadfruit is being used in products and menus (such as in an episode of the National Geographic series, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted). St. Croix’s Mutiny Island Vodka which is made of a combination of breadfruit and Caribbean rainwater is also featured. Read the full article here.
Nutritionally, breadfruit is an energy-rich food and a good source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Here on St. Croix, USVI, it is an ingredient common in West Indian and Latin cuisine. It has potato-like consistency when cooked, and a good source for gluten-free and vegetarian recipes.
According to The National Tropical Botanical Garden, breadfruit is an important component in traditional agroforestry systems and can be grown with a wide range of plants. Trees begin to bear fruit in three to five years, producing for many decades. The trees require little attention or care, producing an abundance of food with minimal input of labor or materials, and thrive under a wide range of ecological conditions. The ethnobotanist Diane Ragone from the NTBG said in a NPR interview, “compared to other food staples, these fast-growing perennial trees require far less labor, fertilizer and pesticides than crops like rice and wheat. They’re also more productive. A single tree yields an average of 250 fruits a year and can feed a family for generations.
For some ways to use breadfruit in your meals, take a look at the Cruzan Foodie’s blog article about how she uses breadfruit!
Find the monthly sales data, inventory, and days on market for the St. Croix, USVI real estate market! We have downloadable Coldwell Banker real estate reports — available below for each category: Homes & Condos, Condos, Homes, and Land!
If you are not familiar with with the implications of the data, please give us a call or email us directly with any questions. We are Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR) and Seller Representative Specialist (SRS) and have the experience and local knowledge to help you in every step of the process. We can help you narrow down neighborhoods based on your priorities. We can also advise you on the market trends in your desired neighborhoods.
Question: “Why don’t so many condo complexes qualify for financing?
Chris’s Answer:
Currently most condos on St. Croix must be purchased for cash since they don’t qualify for financing. A condo complex is warrantable if it operates as closely to a residence as possible and is not seen as a “condo hotel” and complies with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Mortgage guidelines. When lenders are considering loans on condos in a specific complex, they look at many factors: some HOAs, while insured, don’t meet the lenders guidelines for coverage, the number of vacation rentals in condo complexes is increasing, and a couple of condo complexes rent office space to agencies that rent condos inside the complex which can appear to lenders that the complex is a condo hotel.
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, insurance companies paid claims which were sometimes substantial. Many insurers decided to raise their premiums in subsequent years. Condo complexes handled those rate increases in different ways. Some passed them along as either increases in the monthly HOA fees or as special one time assessments. Some HOAs reduced their premiums by increasing their deductibles or by lowering the amount of their insurance coverage.
Lenders want the properties they finance to have a certain amount of insurance coverage. Some lenders have become unwilling, in the short term, to lend into some complexes until these issues can be resolved by the insurers and individual HOAs. Many of the Condo Boards on St. Croix are currently reviewing these issues, and working with the insurers to make adjustments to their coverage so that lenders are satisfied.
Do you have other real estate questions, contact us!
Question: “Why does it seem like Home Owner’s Association (HOA) fees are high on condos?”
Christie’s Answer:
Often people compare condo fees on St. Croix to condo fees in the states. A big difference is the HOA fees here usually include windstorm insurance. This is essential to have because it means that each individual condo and the common areas are insured and that the entire complex would be covered for damage from a storm. Those HOA fees cover other things too. While they vary from complex to complex, those other items usually include: maintenance of the exterior of the buildings, professional landscaping, pool maintenance, administrative expenses, monthly pest control, TV, and internet. Basically the complex can’t run and be maintained without the owners sharing in the expenses of the upkeep. When looking at HOA fees, consider what they include, and what they are not including, so that you know your own responsibility for other services.
Do you have other real estate questions, contact us!
Pleasant temperatures and low rainfall make December through May a great time to go to St. Croix especially if you are trying to escape the cold temperatures and precipitation that comes with living in states that have harsher winters. If you are planning to visit St. Croix in the winter, this is a great time to be on the look out for flight deals. We recently saw The Points Guy (TPG) mention winter flight deals to St. Croix for less than $400 (depending on when and were you fly from). You can read the article here.
Travel deal articles, industry-related newsletters, etc. that report flight sales are helpful in alerting consumers on certain deals, but often the deals are for very specific routes and dates, and often may not meet your requirements. That is why we recommend trying search engines like Google Flights to find cheap flights (note, Google Flights does not track Southwest Airlines flights) for more personalized deals. We have used it before and have read about it on The Points Guy and Thrifty Traveler. Enter your flight preferences, and the search engine shows flight options along with a historical price guide, which indicates whether the fare you found is low, high or near the average price for flights on this route. We find this very helpful when trying to book a flight that is best priced for our requirements.
“It can help you quickly find the best flights for your travel, but it can also track prices and let you know if you are getting a good deal.”
The Points Guy, 9/8/23
Want to learn more about Google Flights? These two articles will be helpful:
