South Walton Beach Residential Lot Prices Coming Back to Reality
December 14, 2009 by Craig Baranowski
Filed under From My Blog
I remember the news headlines back in 2004, “It’s Like Winning the Lottery!” This article made me think of a very similar article I read about the dot.com boom in Silicon Valley right before the company I worked for restated their earnings and our CEO lost $6.3 Billion in one day. The return on investment for land in South Walton Beach was too good to be true…and with all things that are too good to be true…reality comes crashing at you hard when it finally hits.
The Real Estate industry has experienced a rough few years after the Real Estate Boom and we have seen home prices in the Scenic 30A area decrease as much as 58% in some areas. During the boom land development in South Walton Beach became the chic thing to do and the quickest path to becoming an instant millionaire. People were subdividing large parcels of land in droves and pushing through development orders to get the projects marketed and sold as quickly as possible. This giant surge of residential lots filled the South Walton Beach area with an incredible amount of excess residential land inventory.
I run a monthly analysis on residential homes and land in South Walton Beach and I remember sending one of my customers a report in February of 2009 that showed there were 4,390 Residential Lots in the Emerald Coast MLS with a paltry 14 contingent properties, 52 pending and only 69 sold since December 2008! The numbers have improved some since February but not by much.
In February it was clear that we would be in for a wild ride with land prices over the next 18 months since land values had yet to decline to levels that were comparable to residential homes and condos.
If we compare residential lot inventory to Single Family Home inventory we see a very healthy volume of homes sold versus available inventory, where as residential lot sales are still stagnant. We are seeing lot prices adjust in some key areas on Scenic 30A and the amount of distressed residential lot sales has increase 609% compared to 2008.
Scenic 30A Distressed Residential Land
Lots in Draper Lake Coastal Village
Here is a break down of the numbers in the entire Emerald Coast MLS…however there are signs that residential lot prices in South Walton Beach are coming back down to reasonable levels.
If you are a troubled landowner, or have a family member or friend facing foreclosure, please give us a call for a confidential consultation about the possibility of a short sale. Call Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email us @ info@teambaranowski.com. Team Baranowski has a 100% success rate for all of our short sales for 2009!
This site, Craig Baranowski or Keller Williams Realty is not providing legal or tax advice. The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is recommended that sellers considering a short sale should consult an independent legal and tax adviser for more information.
