Hey there! Happy New Year! I hope 2023 brings you and yours great health, much of success and peace of mind. And if you have any real estate related goals, rest assured, we can accomplish those together!
In the next few weeks I will be looking at 2022 more closely, so I can give you the best advice when it comes to our local real estate market, but for right now, let's see what happened in December.
As usual, we are looking at single family homes only, along the 30A corridor and that includes Watersound Origins.
Other property types (condos, townhomes, etc.) follow very similar pattern, but there are different micro markets in different communities. If you have specific community in mind that you are interested in, let me know and I will look into it with you happily .
To put December Real Estate on 30A in one word, I would say that word would be predictable.
Here are 3 things that typically happen over the holidays with real estate:
Inventory goes down. For the most part, only sellers that have to sell urgently put their homes on the market between Halloween and New Year's.
Amount of transactions goes down. Typically it's primarily buyers that have to buy that keep actively looking during holiday season. With us being mainly second home market, we see this even more. Vacation homes are not exactly a “must buy” for most folks.
Price of the average sold property goes down - when the “deals” are made at the end of the year it's because the seller really wanted to sell. Rarely that translates into premium pricing.
All three things happened in December here on the beach:
Amount of total active listings went down by 7%, amount of NEW listings down by 27%
Amount of transactions went down by 10%
Average sold price dropped by 4% and ended up at $1,976,516
When it comes to CDOM (cumulative days on the market), it went up by 25% and is currently at 94 days.
There is one interesting thing to note here though - the amount of new listings has been continuously declining since June. If this trend continues, we will end up having such low inventory that the prices will remain steady, even if the rest of the US markets continue to adjust. I would say that majority of 30A owners are more informed and knowledgeable about economy and real estate market than average Joe, so they make decisions with long term success in mind.
Also, I can tell you that there are a lot of buyers out there right now looking and ready to purchase, once they find their dream beach home. I talked to several people this past week who are committed to finally spending this summer vacation in their own place after the years of renting. As always, I encourage you to make your offers, even if they have to be below asking. You may just find a seller willing to make you a GREAT deal!
Also, if you are looking to buy in Prominence, Watercolor, Naturewalk Seagrove, Watersound Origins or Estuary, let me know. I have some off market opportunities available.
