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30 A - A CHANGE IS A COMING !!!

Hi all:

I have a lot of news for you since my last update some three months ago.

The long talked about “International Airport” is going to open the third week of May. The new airport is located on 4,000 acres North of Panama City Beach and is a little closer to 30-A. St. Joe donated the 4,000 acres and owns another 72,000 acres surrounding the Airport. Delta/Nothwest airlines will continue to fly into the area plus Southwest Airlines has now signed up with 8 direct flights from 4 hub cities (Baltimore,Nashville,Houston & Orlando) a day to come into the airport. Their passenger load will allow them to bring 2,000 additional tourists to our area daily. I see this as the first step to additional hub cities being added. Most Florida cities have 8 direct hubs flying into them. St. Joe's vision is to make this airport truly an International airport. A rumor I have heard is St. Joe is negotiating with Virgin Atlantic to fly into the airport. I know they pushed hard to get the longer runway built to bring larger planes, so this all makes sense.

Also, our beaches just received a huge plug as well. Each year , Frommer's Travel Magazine picks their “Top Destinations in the world” to see. This year the “Florida Panhandle” was picked as one of 12 places in the world to visit in 2010. Just to quote one sentence from the Frommer's author, Lesley Abravanel “Stunning beaches, nature trails…great restaurants, and a cozy, yet quirky, sense of community.” Yep, that's why I live here.

Ok, so now you know it's easier to get here and it's a great place to visit. Let's go over why it is a great time to think about buying property along 30-A. I will speak primarily about “Single Family homes but the same rationale fits condos and land along 30-A as well.

First, sales have heated up considerably over the last 8 months. I can honestly say I have never been busier. 8 months ago we had a total of approximately 1125 single family homes in all price ranges for sale along the 18 mile stretch of 30-A. Today this total has dropped to 664 homes due to sales. That's just over 40% less homes on the market in 8 months. This is quite a change. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great buys, and bargains along 30-A. I still have not seen price increases coming into the market but with this type of sales volume I don't see it taking more than another 8 months to start.

What I am seeing is fewer and fewer price reductions and the reductions are smaller except in some well deserved over priced situations. Also, a lot of the price reductions are being made on what I call B class location properties, not the A class location properties.

As usual I'm enclosing a link to some of my favorite 30-A property picks. Each property on this list has it's own strengths. Please feel free to E-mail me or call me for the full MLS report and my reasons why each property “holds value”. Since my last newsletter approximately 50% of my previous list has sold so I must be pretty much on target.
Click here Jon's Best Buys
or paste this into your browser http://www.gotothebeach.net/Best_Buys_List.html
Lastly, I would like to introduce you to two new members of the GoToTheBeach.net staff.

Adam Miller and Tracy Miller, my son and daughter-in-law. They just moved here from Lawrence, KS to help Judy and I in the Real Estate and Rental business. Adam was a realtor in Lawrence and has spent a lot of time at the beach the past 20 years growing up, coming here on vacations.
Tracy will be helping Judy and I in the office. She will assist in our rental business and help Adam and I keep organized in the Real Estate business. Karen Bennett continues to work in Real Estate Sales as an agent as well. Karen and her husband Rep own some 8 rental properties at the beach and know the business as well as I do. I think between the 5 of us we have a pretty good staff and we are anxious to try to help you in any way we can. Please don't hesitate to give us a call or E-mail with any questions.

We look forward to hearing from you;
Take Care,
Jon, Judy, Adam, Tracy and Karen
GoToTheBeach.net
850-231-3344