SOLD in Grayton Beach!

Kitty and I just sold "Conch Out" in Grayton Beach.  This is a fantastic house - amazing views of the gulf - lots of room for multiple families to hang out together and enjoy time at the beach.  Details

Southwest Airlines Announces Routes From Northwest Florida International Beaches Airport!

If you live in or near Houston, Texas;  Baltimore, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; or Orlando, Florida; it just got a whole lot easier to enjoy the beautiful beaches of South Walton!  Southwest announced today that they will have 2 flights per day to these locations.  Book your flights now for travel beginning May 23, 2010 and take advantage of discounted fares ($49 one way to/from Orlando).  Read more about it here: Southwest Article

Our area (Florida's Panhandle) was also recently name one of the top 10 destinations for 2010 by Frommers Travel guide.  Read about it here: Frommers

Pre-approved Short Sale

Bank approved $250,000 for this great little, gulf view beach house - directly on 30-A, one off the beach.  No long wait on this one!  Check out the details here: 4 Fun Cottage.

Southwest Airlines Makes Their Announcement!

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, made the official announcement at 1:00pm today that Southwest will be bringing 2 daily flights to 4 destinations to the new Northwest Florida International Airport in Panama City, Florida, US. Southwest Airlines Press Release

Southwest Airlines has teamed up with St. Joe to bring these flights to the panhandle of Florida. St. Joe has guaranteed to Southwest Airlines that they will at least break even for the first 3 years of operation at the new international airport. St. Joe Press Release

The NW Florida International Airport is the newest international airport in the United States since Denver's International Airport over 15 years ago. The new airport is a Leed Certified "GREEN Airport."

Needless to say, there's lots of excitement here in the Panhandle of Florida. We're looking forward to more visitors experiencing our beautiful area and seeing why we think we have the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Short Sales? Really!

We hear pretty regularly that "the only properties that are selling are short sales". Year to date, 441 residential properties (houses, condos, townhomes) have sold along 30A. 70 of those were short sales - or roughly 16%. 63 were REO (properties that had already been foreclosed) - or roughly another 14%. This gives a total of 30% of sales that were shorts sales or REO. 70% were just priced right for the market.

How short are short sales? Also year to date and for the same area, their was an average of 80 days from contract to close for short sales. The shortest time period was 6 days and the longest was 300! The average difference from list to sales price was 12%.

And how about REOs? The average time period from list to close was 30 days and the average difference from list to sales price was 7%.

And then just to keep it all interesting, read this article on Banks making short sales more difficult! http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=225103

Rosemary Beach - Sales History

We all know prices have fallen and I wanted to take a real look at how much. Take a look at the following graph. This graph represents single family home sales in Rosemary Beach since 1999. It is categorized according to proximity to 30A - north or south. This graph includes gulf front property. A future post will separate out gulf front from non-gulf front, south of 30A. (click on graph for larger image)

It should be noted that the 2009 sales are ytd and will change with subsequent sales. It should also be noted that the only single family sales in 2009 in Rosemary have been short sales, one on the north side and one on the south side. This chart would seem to indicate that as of May, 2009, prices on single family homes in Rosemary Beach, south of 30A, have fallen back to 2001 levels. North of 30A homes have fallen to 2003-2004 levels.

Foreclosures and Short Sales

Our area has not been immune to the increase in foreclosures and short sales. Click here for a list of properties that have been foreclosed and are bank owned: Foreclosures

This is a list of properties in Watercolor and Watersound that are currently short sales (being offered at less than the mortgage(s) on the property and subject to the bank(s) approving the sale) Watercolor and Watersound Short Sales

And here are short sales in Rosemary Beach: Rosemary Beach

Give us a shout if you want more information!