People that have bought or sold real estate or considered buying or selling real estate on Pensacola Beach over the past ten years understand how the market has changed.
The condo market in particular has changed markedly. Factors in this include the building boom in the early and mid 2000’s, two hurricanes, the credit boom and bust, the economic down turn and the BP Horizon oil release. Wow, that’s a lot of events in ten years. All of the occurrences worked to drive down prices.
Well thing on Pensacola Beach have been pretty calm and quiet for the past couple years, a welcome respite after all that. The condo market here bottomed out in 2011 and prices appear to be on the rise.
So, why are prices now on the rise? Inventory, or better stated, there are significantly fewer number of condos for sale. Realtors refer to inventory as the number of active condo listings available and on Pensacola Beach the inventory has decreased dramatically. This is classic case of supply and demand, the supple is low and the demand is rising, so prices begin to rise.
According to the Pensacola Association of Realtors MLS statistics, the number of condos for sale here peaked in September 2007 at 349 units, the number in November 2012 was 111 units, 68% fewer units! Inventory is back to 2005 levels and still falling.
Average Monthly Sold Prices seem to have hit a low in 2010-2011 near $325,000 and in November 2012 the average price was almost $478,000.
The economy is slowly improving and more people that have put off buying are looking to buy at bargain prices. The only problem is, most of the best bargains are gone and improving real estate conditions are make this more of a “sellers market”.
Availability of capital has improved for those beach buyers. There are still many cash buyers but purchases using credit have been on the rise.
In conclusion the market here is at the early stages of a seller’s market. If you are interested in purchasing a condominium on Pensacola Beach now is the time. The availability and reasonable prices you see right now will not last forever.
