HOME SALES UP IN OKALOOSA & WALTON COUNTIES IN FLORIDA

Home sales up, why yes. As mentioned many times before, we have a massive number of folks coming to our area because of the Army’s Special Forces, F-35 Training Program, and a number of other transfers to the area. Also, we have a large reduction of military housing because of the shift in military housing philosophy. This will continue to place a drain on our quality housing inventory. In our RE/MAX offices we are seeing a number of families coming to the area on a housing hunting visit in hopes to find a quality home to purchase or rent, only finding both are in low supply. Thus forcing them to make other choices, such as making a decision not to move the family to their new duty station locally or finding temporary housing with family or friends, until they find a place they can call home.

Single-family home sales up
Okaloosa, Walton counties see large gains in July; fewer homes sold in Santa Rosa
By DUSTY RICKETTS
Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4448 dricketts@nwfdailynews.com  
Single-family home and condominium sales in July outpaced last year’s numbers, but property values continued to fluctuate in Northwest Florida. Metro Market Trends released its July sales reports for Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties earlier this week. The number of single-family homes and condominiums sold in Okaloosa and Walton counties increased compared to July 2010, but sales of houses in Santa Rosa County lagged by about 7 percent. “I think we’re just going to build this year,” said Jean Floyd, a local Realtor and president of the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors. “The confidence is up and you’re at a great bargaining position on some of these distressed properties, and interest rates are still at an all-time low. It’s the best time for a buyer to get in a market.” In Okaloosa, 305 single-family homes were sold last month. That is an increase of almost 22.5 percent compared to July 2010, when 249 homes were sold. Condominium and townhome sales saw an even larger increase, at 80 percent. Walton County saw similar increases. Single-family home sales were up 35.19 percent, and condominium/townhome sales jumped 78.18 percent. However, the number of single-family homes sold in Santa Rosa fell nearly 7 percent in July, although the condo/townhome market was up 40 percent. “People are investing in the condo and attached homes more, so the supply and demand is driving up the cost,” Floyd said. “In the single-family, there is a supply and demand (issue), but we have so much supply and so many distressed sales that it’s keeping that value down.” Real estate values continued to fluctuate in July. Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties both saw their average sale price for condominiums and townhomes increase compared to July 2010, while the average price of single-family homes dropped, according to Metro Market Trends. The average price of each condo/townhome sold in Okaloosa in July was $290,741, while the average price in Santa Rosa was $241,071. In July 2010, the average price in Okaloosa County was $224,094 and the average price in Santa Rosa County was $214,380. For single-family homes, the average price in Okaloosa dropped from $232,651 last July to $213,498 this year, In Santa Rosa, the price dropped from $182,132 in 2010 to $171,142 this year. “What that means is the people are seeing good deals,” said David Goetsch, a local economist and vice president for community relations and workforce development at Northwest Florida State College. “The foreclosures are getting cleaned out of the inventory on the basis of cash sales, and that’s very good news because until the inventory is gone, people don’t start buying the new ones. “Home values, I think, are going to continue to remain stably low for at least another period,” Goetsch added. “Sales are good. Although there’s an upswing in the selling of single-family residences, that’s still primarily cleaning out the (foreclosure) inventory. Until you really get that inventory completely cleaned out, your home prices are not going to start to go up. You almost have to be building new homes before you see home prices start to go up.” In Walton County, values shot up dramatically in both the condominium/townhome market and in single-family homes. The average price of each condo/townhome sold in July was $287,976, compared to $238,327 last July. Single-family homes had an even larger increase, from $328,640 last July to $619,942 last month. Goetsch said he recently spoke with one of the area’s condominium professionals who told him that 90 percent of the area’s condo sales were cash purchases. Goetsch said he does not expect to see the large increase in property values in Okaloosa County, and that the recent downgrade in the nation’s credit rating could hurt prices in the future.
“(July’s numbers are) positive. This is going to be the new normal I think for the next five years,” Goetsch said. “We’re going to see slight upturns, I don’t think we’re going to see any major upward swings. I think our economy’s recovery is going to be so slow that it’s going to feel like it’s in molasses.”