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.
Tags: flagler beach, flagler beach real estate, flagler beach realtor, flagler county, flagler county home staging, flagler county real esate, flagler county real estate, flagler county realtor, foreclosure, home buying, palm coast, palm coast home show, palm coast real estate, palm coast realtor, real estate, real estate market, short sales
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
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%
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
Tags: flagler beach, flagler beach real estate, flagler beach realtor, flagler county, flagler county home staging, flagler county real esate, flagler county real estate, flagler county realtor, foreclosure, market, market report, palm coast, palm coast home show, palm coast real estate, palm coast realtor, real estate market
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
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”
*After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!
Tags: flagler beach, flagler beach real estate, flagler beach realtor, flagler county, flagler county home staging, flagler county real esate, flagler county real estate, flagler county realtor, foreclosure, home buying, home staging, palm coast, palm coast home show, palm coast home staging, palm coast real estate, palm coast realtor, realtor, seller, short sales
So you searched through homes. You’ve visited each one. And you’ve narrowed it down to which homes(s) your 
are interested in. Now it’s time to make the offer. The question becomes . . . how much? This is the part that is a little more complex than most people think and a lot of factors should be taken into account.
- Remember, an offer is the first step in negotiation. It is about opening up the door to a conversation. Offers that are reasonable and have attractiveness to them can lead to a very good discussion that is very beneficial to both parties.
- What is the ‘market value’ of the property if it were listed for sale today? This is derived from reviewing the comparable sales in the area recently. The list price on the property today may have been derived from information that is several months old and conditions may have changed. By doing this you:
- Have real data that backs up your offer.
- Gives you better guidance of the property real value
- Reduces speculation and better opens up the lines for real negotiation
- Consider the type of sale (i.e. Short Sale, Foreclosure, neither).
- Short sales and foreclosures are not the same nor can offers be tens of thousands of dollars less than the list price in most cases. Short sales, for one, are on the market because the lender is owed more than the property can sell for so they are attempting to reduce their loss. They look at the ‘market value’ of the property very closely prior to giving their approval of what they accept. Again, a CMA of the property will give you better information as to the best offer. Foreclosures are often listed below market value and tend to sell very quickly in our market. Therefore, offering a great deal less is often times a flat-out rejection or a case of losing the property to another buyer.
- In the ‘neither’ scenario, the motivation of the seller may not be as much of a priorty as one thinks. Some owners may ‘want to move’ but do not ‘need to’. This is about determing how motivated they really are.
- How long has the property been on the market? There are a couple of things to look at here:
- Under 60 days. This is actually not a long period of time for most properties. Therefore, motivation for sellers in ‘normal’ listing situations may not be highly motivated at this point.
- 60-90 days. This is the range where sellers begin to get more motivated. This is also especially true if there has been low activity or no previous offers. Does this mean they will ‘accept anything’? No. This is point where sellers are often more open to negotiation conversations.
- Over 90 days. At this point sellers are usually motivated and willing to enegage in real negotiation conversations. Again, this does not mean this is ‘desparation’ time for a seller and they will accept ‘any offer’. This is a time where they are often more open to conversations.
Again, making an offer is intended to open up the door to a negotiation conversation. The offer should be arrived at by looking the information available to insure the conversation will be productive and beneficial to both parties.
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
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”
*After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!
Tags: flagler beach, flagler beach real estate, flagler beach realtor, flagler county, flagler county real esate, flagler county real estate, flagler county realtor, foreclosure, palm coast, palm coast home show, palm coast real estate, palm coast realtor, seller, short sales
Recently the Flagler County Association of Realtors began transitioning over to Sentrilock lockboxes. These lockboxes add far greater security and peace of mind for sellers. These lockboxes add in the following security features for sellers:
- Double coded entry system.
- Wireless updating and reporting. Local Realtors are now able to see and be notified as to who is accessing a property and when.
- Realtors can assign ‘day codes’ for out-of-town Realtors showing a property which reduces appointment conflicts and insures properties can be shown when requested.
- Sturdy rubber-coated construction protects doors and handles while insuring the security of keys.
This past year, the Association also transitioned over to a new MLS system known as Navica by Systems 
Engineering. This online MLS system added great new features to provide better services to buyers and sellers. Some of these great new features are:
- Seller Gateway. This option allows us to provide sellers with a login to see their property as it appears on the MLS, view showing schedule and activity, and view feedback from showings.
- Online showing scheduler for properties that is customizable. Realtors are able to add-in black-out times and recieve notifications as requests come in.
- Online consistent feedback form. All properties use the same feedback form which allows us to recieve a consistent set of information back from visitors that is crucial to the selling process.
- Quick feeding to Realtor.com. Getting out in front of potential buyers is important. In the past, processing took about 24 to 48 hours for a property to appear on Realtor.com. Now those properties are appearing on the same day as they are entered.
Customers are loving the benefits of these great new systems. The added services are great bebfits to present and future customers. Both companies are outstanding service providers in our area and we appreciate all they do and the support they provide.
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
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”
*After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!
Tags: flagler beach, flagler beach real estate, flagler beach realtor, flagler county, flagler county home staging, flagler county real esate, flagler county real estate, flagler county realtor, palm coast, palm coast home show, palm coast home staging, palm coast real estate, palm coast realtor, seller, short sales
