While Island sales are still down by half of what they were for this same time period when compared to the peak market in 2006, the numbers I pulled today are fairly positive.
In looking at sales in our area from the beginning of the year to today, April 26th – the numbers fall out like so:
St Simons Island
Single Family: Overall, the number of sales on the Island is up 258% with 43 closed transactions versus only 12 this time last year. The average asking price was up 48.2% at around $615,000 with sales averaging $515,000, up 38.9% to last year’s numbers. The average Days on Market (DOM) was flat at 230 days from list to close. The list to sale percentage is down slightly from 89.3% last year to 83.7% this year. This means that seller’s on average sold their homes for 83.7% of their asking price.
Looking at the various sections that make up the Island – the South (S1) end saw the greatest increase in sales at over 600% to last year. Traditionally the most active part of the Island due to it’s proximity to the beach and Village, S1 saw 14 closing this year as opposed to only two last year. Average asking price was about $1.0 million – up 96.1% from last year’s average which was around the half million mark. The average sale price was $838,000, up 112.2% from last year’s average of about $395,000.
Condos: Condo sales are up 66.7% from last year with 25 closed transaction so far this year. Compared to this same time frame during one of our busier years, this is not that far off from the 35 transactions closed for this same time frame in 2006. Keep in mind that 1st quarter is traditionally quiet here. Average asking price is up 51.7% with an average list price of $388,000 and the average sale price is up 56.3% with a sale averaging $370,000. DOM is actually up 9% while the list to sale ratio is up slightly by 3% which means sellers of condos are getting 97% of their asking price. One possible explanation is that condos, having suffered greatly as the resort/second home market languished under the pressures of this economic downturn, sellers have priced their condos more realistically.
Once again, the South end of the Island saw the most activity with 18 closings on condos during this reporting period. The average list price was around $460,000, average sale price around $440,000 – which means sellers got about 91% of their asking price. DOM in this area did quite well at an average of 190 days, down from 215 a year ago for a drop of 11.6%.
Brunswick/Mainland Glynn
Sales in Brunswick has been a bit more stable. However, there are a great deal of foreclosures still being worked through here. All in all, the area is up 18.3% in the number of closed transactions with 110 closings so far this year. The average list price is $161,000, down only about 1.3% from last year. This is down about 24% from where it was at the height of our market when average list prices rose over $200 at around $214,000. Average sale prices are down only 1.8% at around $149,000…also down almost 29% to the peak market.
The word that I’ve been hearing from outside of this area as well as agents within my own market is that buyers with things to sell in other areas are getting their properties under contract. This bodes well for us here as we rely heavily on people relocating from other parts of the state and country and as long as they were unable to sell in their own market, they were unable to buy in ours.
