A Peek at the Current Market

REAL ESTATE
NEWS
By Joe Savage,
Real Estate Broker




The data used are for the period January 1, 2013 through May 31, 2013, and for the same period in 2014. The measure for each metric was the median. The “Beach Market” was defined as Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach properties that are "gulf front" or "beachside."

We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we have seen some price appreciation overall:

PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT, January 1 - May 31

YEAR	BEACH MKT	COMPLEX	PHASE I	PHASE II	PALMS	PHASE III	PUD
2013	$260	$265	$165	$185	$213	$156	$114
2014	$285	$200	$162	$223	$242	$197	$130
GROWTH-%	9.62%	21.21%	-1.82%	20.54%	13.62%	26.28%	14.04%

The number of sales are too few for the per-phase, year-to-year comparisons, but I felt owners might like to know the break down in each phase.

In general, it appears that Plantation Complex is beating the market, but it could be pointed out that it had “more opportunity,” euphemistically-speaking. Either way, it is heartening to see price growth wherever it is.

The bad news is the pace of sales has fallen off rather sharply, relative to the market:

NUMBER OF UNITS SOLD, January 1 - May 31

YEAR	BEACH MKT	COMPLEX	PHASE I	PHASE II	PALMS	PHASE III	PUD
2013	$260	$265	$165	$185	$213	$156	$114
2014	$285	$200	$162	$223	$242	$197	$130
GROWTH-%	9.62%	21.21%	-1.82%	20.54%	13.62%	26.28%	14.04%

While the Beach Market has seen a growth in sales volume of over 25% year-over-year, Gulf Shores Plantation has seen a virtual equal amount of shrinkage. This concerned me, as it makes it appear that the market is heating up, but Plantation is being left out. My first thought was to see if it was “a Fort Morgan thing.” So, I pulled the stats for Beach Club:

BEACH CLUB, January 1 - May 31

YEAR	# UNITS SOLD	PRICE/SQ FT
2013	16	$277
2014	27	$287
GROWTH-%	68.75%	3.61%

It didn’t appear to be a “Fort Morgan thing,” as Beach Club was growing in both pricing and sales volume! Thus, it appears Plantation may risk being left at the station for that “growth-train” if we can’t figure out why our numbers aren’t up relative to our neighbor and the beach market.

Even in this environment, Mandoki Realty remains the greatest promoter of Plantation properties. This is evidenced by its brokerage of 46% of all 2013 sales, of five of the 14 sales YTD in 2014, and of three more Plantation properties currently under-contract for sale. No other single agent or entire brokerage even comes close to this level of performance, so if you are considering the sale of your Plantation property, you can do no better than Joe Savage at Mandoki Realty.

Mailbox Full of Postcards Recently?

REAL ESTATE
NEWS

By Joe Savage,
Real Estate Broker



It seems like they just keep coming in. I just received a couple from an agent boasting that he had “…sold 50 condos already in 2014.” WOW, I had to go see which ones they were! I could only find 10 condos that he had sold so far this year in the Baldwin County Multiple Listing Service (MLS.) Not looking good so far. Maybe he’s counting the ones he listed, but somebody else sold. Only 19 of those, for a total of 29. Well, most important is how many he has sold here at Plantation, as those were the owners he was soliciting with the card. Now, where was that number? …had it here somewhere…. Oh! Here it is: NONE! That’s right, zero sales in any of the four condos or the PUD here at Plantation in 2014 so far.
Well, that’s why I warn my readers to be good consumers and critical readers of these mass-mail pieces…a grain of salt is usually required for their digestion. Read the postcards carefully…are they announcing how effective the agent is in selling condos like yours, or are they announcing how many listings they have taken? Getting a property listed is one thing, getting a property sold is something altogether different…recognize the difference when evaluating agent performance.