Santa Rosa Beach and Surrounding areas – Real Estate Report
The Emerald Coast Association of Realtors real estate report for February, 2015 is out and there are some interesting observations to be made. January’s numbers were impressive and February’s numbers are looking even stronger with the total number of closings on single family dwellings (houses) up 31% over the same month last year. The total number of “pending” sales are up 14% over last year. The most interesting statistic I find is that the average sales price for a home is up 23% over last year. Growth and value increases like this are usually good news but a word of caution is needed here. The MLS here for our area is showing “cash sales” accounted for 47% of all sales. That is an extremely high number and bodes well for the level of demand in our market but this also means that we are seeing an unsustainable increase in prices due to the fact that almost half of these sales do not involve any financing and many with no appraisal contingencies. Cash sales are driving prices up due to transactions that do not require any “comps” being used because there are no appraisals being done on many of these sales. I believe we are going to see a bit of “blowback” by buyers who are getting a little nervous about these price increases and this will have a moderating effect on selling prices that seller’s are able to get. Overall, the market here is very strong but sustainable increases in property values of 3 to 5% a year, long term, would be a great scenario. Let’s see what the remaining Spring months bring us.