Past Month Activity Recap
October saw a continued hot real estate market in South Walton County, Florida. The strong Seller’s Market continued, as indicated by the shrinking amount of homes for sale and the continued increase in prices compared to October 2020. Average sale prices in the Miramar area of Walton (far west) have increased an incredible 40% from a year ago. Below are some summary stats of Residential homes in key areas of south Walton County for October 2021.
Another important point to note is that desirable homes sell quickly. The average days on market was 13 days for homes that sold in October, compared to 31 days in 2020.
What About Panama City Beach?
Panama City Beach (PCB) is located in Bay County, immediately east of Walton County and 30A. It is an incorporated city in Bay County and is a separate city from Panama City. Confusing, right?
For years, Panama City Beach was known as a major Spring Break destination. In the past 10 years, local authorities have worked hard to better manage festivities, including a ban on alcohol on the beach during the spring break season. The result has been the return of families, and in general, a much better vacation vibe.
PCB is very different from 30A, and is more like Myrtle Beach, Destin, and Cocoa Beach. There are many tourist attractions, shopping, and restaurants. Perhaps most importantly, the beaches are wonderful, and if you know where to look, you can find great condos that will generate high rental incomes.
Prices in PCB are also significantly lower than in the 30A. Beachfront 2 bedroom condos are about half the price of what you’d find on 30A. Demand for vacation rentals remains high. The Visitor Information Center maintains an excellent website with information about the area.
PCB regularly wins accolades as having some of the nicest beaches and being one of the best places to own a vacation property. Check out this recent article to understand why.
Realtors® Are Dead
Long Live Realtors®
For those of you alive in the late 70’s and early 80’s you may remember when Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) came on the scene. Some suggested that banks could lower their costs/increase their profits by using these machines to replace human tellers. Predictions swirled that hundreds of thousands of people employed as tellers would be unemployed. Today, there are more people employed as bank tellers in the US than there were in the early 80’s. What happened? People began to do more transactions. They used ATMs for simple tasks like getting small amounts of cash, and used tellers for more complex transactions.
Similarly, there’s been much speculation that automation would eliminate the need for almost all real estate agents. Online information systems would give buyers and sellers all the information required, and eliminate the need for a third-party “broker”.
There have been smaller, regional operations that would buy your home directly, without an agent. These operations usually focused on distressed sellers, offering less than market value, and then flipping the home for a significant profit. Most sellers did not find this approach enticing.
In the last few years, larger corporations have dipped their toe into the real estate flipping market, in particular Zillow. Zillow’s idea was that with their advanced data technology and predictive models, they could flip homes more efficiently, and eliminate the need for listing agents.
The following article documents their spectacular, meteoric failure. Perhaps they forget to program “buy low, sell high”, or “sell for more than you bought it for”. Whatever the reason, they are leaving this business and leaving a lot of broken contracts and damaged markets in their wake.
There are lots of lessons to be learned, but perhaps the ATM parallel is a good one. Good agents will always be needed, especially in today’s complex transactions involving inspections, mold, contingencies, market analysis, timing, and appraisal issues. Good agents can help you buy and sell at a better-qualified price, and reduce the amount of time their customers invest in a real estate transaction.
Interested in more information for your specific area, or thinking of buying/selling? Contact me – I’d be happy to help.