Palm Bay looks better on the flood map than it does in the soil survey, and that gap is where people get caught. Sixty three percent sampled outside the flood hazard area, but eighty eight percent of the soil came back poorly drained.
Check any Palm Bay lot in secondsFlood zone, wetlands, soil, owner and zoning, in one search.See how it worksWe sampled 121 points on an even grid across Palm Bay on 15 September 2026 and ran each against the same public layers the app queries: FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, the US Fish and Wildlife National Wetlands Inventory on the point and within 500 feet, and the USDA soil survey. Soil figures come from 117 of those points, because the survey does not cover open water. These are measured numbers, not estimates.
A lot can sit in Zone X and still be wet. FEMA maps the risk of a flood event; the soil survey describes how water behaves in the ground every day of the year. In Palm Bay eighty percent of our soil samples came back poorly drained and another nine percent very poorly drained, while sixty three percent of the same grid was outside the flood hazard area.
That gap is the single most useful thing to understand about this market. A Zone X lot on poorly drained soil still needs fill, still needs a drainage plan, and still prices a septic system higher than the number in your head.
Thirteen percent of the sample had wetland on the point itself and seventy nine percent had wetland on it or within 500 feet. Palm Bay's grid was cut across the headwaters of the St Johns and a lot of that drainage is still there between the platted blocks.
Sixty three percent Zone X, thirty five percent AE, two percent Zone A, which leaves thirty seven percent inside the special flood hazard area. The Zone A points matter more than their share suggests, because FEMA has mapped a hazard there without publishing an elevation, so nobody can price the fill from the map alone.
Soil and wetlands before flood zone here, which is the reverse of Port Charlotte. Then utilities: Brevard County publishes a colour coded map for city water and sewer against well and septic, and the app reads the underlying layer rather than the picture.
Mostly Zone X, but a long way from all of it. Of 121 evenly sampled points on 15 September 2026, 63% were Zone X, 35% Zone AE and 2% Zone A, which puts 37% inside the special flood hazard area. Zone A is the one to slow down on, because FEMA has mapped a hazard without publishing a base flood elevation, so nobody can price the fill from the map alone.
Frequently. 13% of sampled points had wetland on the point itself and 79% had wetland on it or within 500 feet. Palm Bay was platted across the headwaters of the St Johns and much of that drainage is still there between the blocks.
Because they measure different things. FEMA maps the risk of a flood event; the USDA soil survey describes how water behaves in the ground every day. In Palm Bay 88% of our soil samples came back poorly drained and another 9% very poorly drained, while 63% of the same grid sat outside the flood hazard area. A Zone X lot on poorly drained soil still needs fill and a drainage plan.
Parts do. Brevard County publishes a colour coded utility map, and Land in Seconds reads the underlying data layer rather than the picture, so you get the answer for the specific parcel.
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