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Tag Archives: flagler county real estate

Palm Coast & Flagler County Quarterly Market Update

04 Apr
Palm Coast & Flagler County Quarterly Market Update

As you might have been hearing in news reports, the Real Estate Housing Market is showing positive signs.  The truth is that the local market has been showing positive signs for the last couple of years.  The best way to characterize these first three months of 2012 is . . . explosive!  Let’s take a look:

1. The number of residential house closings (aka “sales”) has been well above last year for the same period each month.  About 435 houses closed in Flagler County from January 2012 through March 2012 which is 50% above last year’s 289 for the same period.

The Number of House Closing By Month Comparing 2009 through March of 2012

As you can see, most years follow a similar trend in terms of the number of closings with this year being way above last year and the other prior two years.  The one trend exception to note here is 2010 when the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit was expiring in June of that year.  This caused volume to be “pushed up” to the earlier part of the year.

You can also look at this trend in one line and you see the overall trend moving upwards quite a bit.

2.  But there are still a lot of houses for sale, right?  Actually, no.  The number of active house listings has been decreasing quite a bit every month locally and we are currently looking at 887 houses for sale for all of Flagler County and 642 for the Palm Coast area.  The other great part about this is the significant decrease in the number of Short Sale house listings which is 164 for all of Flagler County and 145 for Palm Coast.  Short Sales were typically accounting for around 36% of all houses for sale in the area.

3.  Cash is still making up for the majority of house sales to the tune of 53% of all house closings through March of this year and the next biggest contributor being Conventional Loans at 28% of all house closings.  Here’s a chart of the financing types for closings in the area from January 2012 through March 2012.

4.  What about price?  Median Price has been stabilizing and is showing signs of “inching” up.  As I’ve said before, price is always dependent upon supply and demand mainly.  With the number of houses available for sale (supply) decreasing and the number of closings (demand) increasing, we are seeing the positive impact on prices.  Should we expect “explosive” gains in price?  No, but we should begin seeing more normal value appreciations in general.  Remember that individual house values are dependent a number of factors and feel free to contact me for a local free Comparable Market Analysis for your home.  Here’s the Median Price Trend for house closings in the are from 2009 through March 2012:

Again, it’s been a great start to the year.  There are still great deals available in the area.  With interest rates at truly historical lows and current prices, owning just makes perfect sense.  Give me a call today if you are thinking of buying or selling in the area.

Disclaimer: Information based upon the Flagler County Association of Realtors MLS as of  4/3/2012  for Residential Houses.  Information may be deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed

 
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Posted by on April 4, 2012 in Buyer Advice, Local Market Reports, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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Trulia Adds “Trulia Estimates”: Novelty or Not?

20 Mar

Let me start by saying, Trulia.com and Zillow.com are great companies that I think bring great additional resources for home shopping to consumers.  I love their websites and resources they offer.  Zillow.com became a hit with it’s “Zestimate”.  Just recently Trulia.com launched, what I am guessing is a competitive response to Zillow’s “Zestimates”, called “Trulia Estimates”.  These are these companies attempts to provide real-time property valuation using proprietary algorithms.  Sounds simple enough right?  Think again.

One of the things any Real Estate Professional will tell you they wish was automated is . . . property pricing.  This is one of the most daunting tasks that truly requires a hands-on approach.  The common question is, “Why?”  Seriously, look at all the amazing things computers can do today and they can’t automatically tell me the price a property should be just by typing in an address?  Computers can tell you a price, but they can not tell you the price a property should be priced at accurately.  The biggest reason being is that no two properties are the same.  Even houses of the same model have different features added by owners over times, conditions can be different, location, etc.  All of these factors play a role in pricing a property.

Novelty or Not?

Novelty . . . definitely.  Be very careful with these valuation systems because we are not talking about possibly sacrificing just a few dollars with wrong information, you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars if not more.  Let’s take a look at Trulia Estimate’s Accuracy for my area Flager County, FL:

  1. Properties on Trulia: 65,001
  2. Properties with Estimates: 40,669
  3. Median Error: 14.3%
  4. Within 5% of Actual Selling Price: 19.2%
  5. Within 10% of Actual Selling Price: 35.6%
  6. Within 20% of Actual Selling Price: 67%

At their best range of “Within 20%”, 67% of the properties fell within that range.  What does “20%” equate to in dollars?  On a $150,000 that 20% is $30,000.  No small amount of money at all to be guessing about.  Zillow’s Zestimates are not much different for the area either.

Again, be careful with these systems.  Believe me, I would love for an as-close-to-accurate automated pricing system but unfortunately it just doesn’t exist right now.

 

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Buyer Advice, General, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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Florida & Local Market Looking Up: The Bigger Picture

18 Jan

As I’ve said on several occasions it’s been an exciting last few years in Real Estate both locally and for Florida. Yes, I said “exciting”.  It has been because there are a great deal of positives.  All “markets” will naturally have their ups and downs.  Real Estate is no different.  What happened a few years ago was unprecedented that’s for sure.  But the good news is that we are seeing “market correction” here in Florida.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s take a look at residential house sales for Florida going back to 1994 through 2010  (stats provided by the Florida Association of Realtors):

Number of House Sales For Florida 1994 to 2010

2011 totals and are waiting on December numbers, but the state and local markets exceeded last year in terms of quantity of sales.  Notice that rise towards the end and then take a look at the level it’s getting back to.  Market correction.  Demand is important because if people aren’t buying then price can not recover.

In terms of the local market we are seeing a similar month-to-month trend in activity with slight increases each year.  2009 appears a bit strange graphically, but this was due to the expiring Home Buyer tax credit that pushed activity up during that year and number of sales finishing about 1% higher than the year before.  Let’s take a look (Information based upon the Flagler County Association of Realtors MLS. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed):

Number of Residential House Sales For Flagler County Month-to-Month

The positive thing here is activity trends remaining similar.  This is key to knowing the better times to plan if you are thinking of selling.  For example if you place your house on the market for sale in January or February, your expectation should be that you will most likely see lower levels of activity.  The reason really isn’t “the market” but rather the normalcy or the local trends in activity.  Likewise, contrary to common assumptions . . . December is actually an active month for Real Estate locally.  Look at the consistent upticks for December each of the last 3 years.

Things are looking up, and we are seeing some great positives locally and at state level.  The numbers tell the story.

 
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Posted by on January 18, 2012 in Buyer Advice, General, Local Market Reports, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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2011 Palm Coast/Flagler County Market Recap

12 Jan

So how did the local market do for 2011?  Very well, and here’s just a few highlishgts on the Residential Housing sales in the area:

  • A total of 1,665 houses closed from January 1st to December 31, 2011
  • The total number of sales was up 14% compared to 2010 when 1,460 houses closed
  • 82% of all houses sold were in the price range up to $199,999
  • The luxury market ($500k+) also saw a slight uptick as well making up 3% of the area houses sold compared to 2% for 2010
  • 3 bedroom homes were the most popular making up 62% of all houses sold, and 30% were 4 or more bedrooms
Palm Coast/Flager County Houses Sold By Bedroom 2011
Palm Coast/Flagler County Houses Sold by Price Range
Financing Type

This is where the statistics get really interesting and often very surprising for people, because 54% of all residential house sales in 2011 in the area were cash.  Here’s some highlights for financing:
  • Again, 54% of all residential houses sold in 2011 were cash sales compared to the number of cash sales in 2010 which contrbuted 47%
  • Conventional loans contributed 31%
  • FHA and VA loans made up 10%
Palm Coast/Flagler County Sold By Financing Type
2012 Outlook

I am confident the area will see another solid year.  For the past couple of years we have seen slight rises in the number of residential house sales.  We are currently at much lower inventory levels than the past several years (1038 houses litsed for sale in Flagler County as of 1/11/12) and there is continued activity in the area.
Disclaimer: Information based upon the Flagler County Association of Realtors MLS as of  1/11/2012 for Residential Houses.  Information may be deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed
 
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Posted by on January 12, 2012 in Local Market Reports

 

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Looking Up: Palm Coast/Flagler County Real Estate Recap

15 Nov
Looking Up: Palm Coast/Flagler County Real Estate Recap

We’re through October and the local real estate market has been another year of some real positives.  It’s also been a year of interesting

developments too.

Highlights through October (Click here for a full market report):

  • Inventory levels remain lower.
    • As of 11/14/2011 there are 1024 houses for sale in Flagler County and 762 in Palm Coast.  Palm Coast alone has typically remained above 900 for the last few years.
  • The number of house sales has increased 10% compared to this period last year.
    • There have been 1,345 houses that have closed through October 31st.  Palm Coast has contributed 1,170 of those.  This is an average of 134 closings per month for the area which has typically been about 100/month over the last few years.
  • The percentage of Short Sale houses for sale has dropped to about 26% for Flagler County and 30% for Palm Coast as of 11/14.
    • This has averaged about 36% pretty consistently
  • What about price?
    • Median and Average sale prices are slightly below last year.
    • Taking into account lower inventory levels and increased demand, next year will be one to watch.  We could see positive gains next year.
  • Foreclosures (“Lender Owned”, “REO”, “Government Owned”) all remain at low levels for sale in the area and move at very quick paces.
    • There are currently 55 houses for sale that are “Foreclosures”.
    • Average days on the market for this category this year has been 80 days compared to 188 days for all house sales.
There’s also been some nice and interesting surprises as well.
  • Cash sales for houses has contributed about 53% of the 1,345 houses closed through October.  The highest of which was $1.8M.  The average cash sale has been $157,483 for the area.
  • The Luxury housing market ($500k and above) has seen an uptick this year as well.  50 houses listed $500K and above have closed through October compared to 31 during the same period last year.  Likewise, last year the highest sale was $1M during this period and this year it is $1.8M.
So, yes, it’s been an exciting year with some nice surprises.  We are in our “traditional” slower period right now.  Decembers are typically an up month and there are a decent number of pending house sales which should contribute to a good end of the year.
If you are planning on buying, now is a good time to get serious as inventory levels are lower and demand is trending up (as it has been over the last few years).  If you are looking to sell, it’s also the perfect time to start planning.  On either side it’s very important to be open to reasonable negotiation to get to your goals especially with these market conditions.  Low offers initial offers as a buyer can lead to the house not being available as another offer comes in while the seller is contemplating what they should do.  Sellers not pricing realistically can cost you dearly in the long run as the house sees little or no activity (# of showings can be an indicator that you are priced too high).
Don’t forget to visit www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com for your local real estate needs whether it being shopping all area houses for sale through a custom feed of our local MLS or getting started to offer your house for sale.

Kathleen West, Realtor

Trademark Realty Group of Palm Coast

2 Pine Lakes Parkway, Suite 1
Palm Coast, FL  32137
Office: (386) 446-5930
Email:  Kathleen@PalmCoastHomeShow.com
www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com
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Posted by on November 15, 2011 in General, Local Market Reports

 

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