Buyers Have Started to Weigh Into the Palm Coast Housing Market. Why?
You don’t make money selling real estate. You make money buying real estate.
March 14, 2008 – Palm Coast, FL – The old adage that you make your real estate profit on the front end, when you buy, rather than on the back end, when you sell, is clearly shown in today’s market. There is a lot of very affordable property. But if you enter the market now, you wouldn’t be first. The smart money has already begun to buy, and it looks like they found the perfect time.
To demonstrate that timing is everything, let’s look at some recent transactions. There are scores of examples, but here are a few that illustrate my point.
-
A salt water canal property originally purchased in ’88 for $143K was subsequently sold in ’05 for $390K, again in ’06 for $575K. It was recently purchased for $279.5K.
-
An oceanfront lot costing $549K in ’00 was bought for $780K in ’03, again in ’05 for $1.1M. It sold recently for $770K.
-
A "near the ocean" lot went for $199K in ’00, $315K in ’04, $600K in ’05, and $412K in ’07.
-
Two Grand Haven homes, three doors apart, closed this month at a comparable price per square foot. One was purchased in ’00 for $156.5K. The seller realized a profit of $58.5K. The other property was purchased in ’05. The seller took a $67,5K loss.
-
One Palm Coast home purchased in ’05 for $178K sold this month for $115K while another purchased in ’02 for $110K sold for $155K, a nice profit.
It doesn’t matter which category of property is examined; condos, lots, Intracoastal property. The picture is the same. Generally, 2005 and 2006 were bad years to buy. Any year before that was good. And it’s not a good time to sell, especially if you bought in 2005 or 2006. However, some sellers are still realizing nice profits because they bought at the right time.
Between distressed sellers and an increased number of foreclosed properties, there are lots of good buys. And these good buys are being snapped up by savvy buyers. As of today, there are 243 pending sales of single-family homes in Flagler County. Only a few months ago, there were barely 100. Nearly every day, the number of new pending sales exceeds the number of sales closed as reported by MLS. And the number of unsold homes dipped below 2,200 today, signaling that the flood of foreclosed property entering inventory is being sold as quickly as it arrives.
Real estate is cyclical with an overriding upward trend. Each peak is generally above the previous one. Each valley is above the previous low. So if you buy near the bottom of a cycle, you are protected against the next cycle’s bottom. Some years in the future, we will look back and wish we had bought in 2008. Don’t we wish we still had some money left?
nail on the head!
I coulld not agree more! getting the media to report facts like that would make things even better!
But Who’s Buying?
Toby — I’d be interested to know what portion of this latest increase in sales is made up of foreign investors. Do you track that?