Sorry for the delay in sending out my 30-A Real Estate Update… My only excuse is, we have been busy!
Having said that, I want to tell everyone, if you need some help please give us a call. I will make sure one of us fits you into our schedule. We are here and we want to help you with your real estate
needs!

So, what has been going on?

I read in the news media that single family sales are down. True, in some parts of the country, but not here on 30-A, or in the rest of Florida either. Florida's existing home sales in May rose 18% statewide when compared to May of 09. Condo sales were up 40% for this same period. According to my 30-A yearly sales statistics, we had 295 single family sales from July 08 - 09 and 395 from July 09 - 10. This is a healthy sales increase for one year. Also, the median sales price rose from $525,000 in 09 to $530,000 in 2010, showing we have already hit the bottom of the trough. Now, I believe we are going to slowly show price stabilization and increases.

What's happened to the beaches with the BP oil spill?

It has made for a very interesting rental year. We spend a lot of time updating our future guests on the state of our beaches. So far, 70 plus days into this “disaster,” we have been very fortunate to have little to no effect on our beaches. I look forward to the next 60 days as I expect the leaking well will be corrected and some real headway will be made towards cleaning up much of the damage west of us. While this whole oil spill is horrible, I believe it will only be a blip in the sales activity and pricing of real estate on 30-A.

I recently read an article published by Forbes called, “Where America's Money is Moving.” Surprise: Americas' wealthy like warm weather and low taxes. Sound like Florida? Coming in 5th in the country was our own Walton County.

This past Friday, I went to the Tarpon Club (On top of Bud & Alleys at Seaside) to meet a friend. While waiting I sat down with another friend who happens to be a real estate broker of one of the larger companies on 30-A. I asked him how he ended up moving here from Colorado and he went on to tell me it was all because someone told his partner that our area has some of the best beaches in the world. He went on to say that 30-A is a “world class resort area”. Well, I agree with him wholeheartedly!

Every year I'm reminded of this by the great events hosted in our area. I've attended three events this year, which are either in their first or second annual season at the beach.

1. The 30-A song writers' festival - A weekend long event of well known performers and songwriters, performing at different venues along 30-A.

2. Digital Graffiti -A laser and light extravaganza projected on the white, stucco walls throughout Alys Beach. As I walked around this event, I imagined I could as well have been walking in New York, taking in the art scene.

3. Grand Cirque -A Circus (Cirque de Soleil) type performance.

These are just three of the newer events on 30-A which are truly world class.

Also, it seems I can't go a week without hearing about a well known political figure, Hollywood actor or celebrity sited at the beach, or hearing about how one of them has purchased a second home on 30-A. Actually, I've worked with 3 song writers this past year. Two of them have purchased property and the third is very interested in finding a home at the beach.

Example: there was a One Seagrove Condo priced at $369,000, which was reduced to $289,000. This is $61,000 less than any other units that have sold in the same building. Instant equity and quite a bargain. I wrote a contract within 3 days of seeing the price drop. From now on I will post these types of buys on FACEBOOK. If you are a FACEBOOK user please go to our page and “Like” us. This will help me keep you up to date.