A BUYER’S MARKET?
‘Overdue correction’ leaves market ‘dead’ in some areas
By KARI C. BARLOW karib@nwfdailynews.com
It’s finally sinking in. That’s what local Realtors are saying about homeowners looking to sell high and fast these days. Sure, your cousin’s wife’s sister made a killing back in the spring of ’05. Yes, phones started ringing as soon as signs were in the ground. Sure, the neighbor across the street unloaded his four-bedroom-on-the-water in, like, five days. Those days are long gone. “I would say we are now moving into a buyer’s market,” said Realtor Gloria Frazier, president of ERA American Realty in Shalimar. “You have more inventory than buyers for it.” Frazier, like most Realtors, is cautious about making predictions. “We are cautioning people about pricing too high … because we are not entirely sure the market has gone as low as it’s going to go,” she said. Across the Emerald Coast — the areas of Navarre, South Walton, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, North Walton and Crestview — there are more than 10,000 active listings. Contributing to the slowdown are the area’s bloated home prices. Fort Walton Beach prices are considered 38.8 percent overvalued and Panama City prices are inflated by 49.8 percent, according to a survey by Global Insight/National City Corp. In a survey of 317 metro areas, both cities were ranked among 71 metro areas considered “extremely overvalued.” Seventeen of the 20 most overvalued markets are in Florida and California.
Single-family homes are staying on the market an average of five months or longer. “There are still a lot of sales,” Frazier said. Realtors simply must work harder to close them. “Everything becomes more critical — the price, the condition of the property, the marketing effort,” said Jim Gilliland, a broker with RE/MAX Southern Realty in Fort Walton Beach. “In today’s market, it requires more skill on the Realtor’s part.” Realtors are spending more time communicating with clients and more money into promoting their listings. Gilliland upped his marketing budget by 25 percent this year and he believes it’s paid off. Since January he and his team have closed on more than 100 properties. Market forces are also at work, said Kerry Veach, CEO at RE/MAX Southern Realty. “Crestview is so busy,” he said. “It’s affordable housing. The single-family home is hot. Out in my Blue Mountain Beach office — where everything is half a million — it’s dead.” Yet in general, houses are sitting far longer than they have in the past two years. In Okaloosa County, singlefamily homes sales in June were down 30 percent from June 2005. In Santa Rosa and Walton counties, the drop was 29 percent and 51 percent, respectively, according to Metro Market Trends Inc., a firm that analyzes real estate sales. To counter the slowdown, many sellers are finding themselves making concessions they didn’t have to consider back in 2004 and 2005. “We’re back to sellers agreeing to pay closing costs,” Frazier said. “Sellers are taking their time to get their homes move-in ready.” Many are providing new flooring or new appliances. Others are offering temporary or permanent buy-downs of the interest rate to get buyers a lower monthly payment. When Leigh Anderson and her husband put their fourbedroom house in the Lake Charleston subdivision up for sale, she was braced for a long wait. She replaced the aluminum siding on the house and let the prospective buyer choose the color — light blue. The house sold in 21 days for 98 percent of its $234,900 asking price. “I’m pretty pleased,” said Anderson, who now lives in Alaska. “We thought we would have to wait because everything is so slow now.” She says closing the sale wasn’t magic, it just took a lot of research. “We didn’t want to go too high,” Anderson said. “We looked at other houses on the higher end that were still sitting there.” The Andersons decided to ask for $5,000 more than they expected to net and they got it. “What’s important is to set realistic goals,” Gilliland said. “Sellers can influence the number of days on the market by being sensitive to the price and condition of the property.” Frazier isn’t alarmed at the area’s slower house sales. “It’s a market correction,” she said. “It was overdue.” In some cases when clients have grown impatient for their houses to sell, Frazier has suggested that they rent out their properties. “The indicators around here are just fine for becoming a landlord,” said Frazier, who added that demand for affordable housing is high across the region. The bottom line? Homeowners can’t expect to see the inflated prices of 2004 and 2005. “The best way to prove that point is to show it in black and white,” said Frazier, who goes into each sale armed with the latest local statistics. “Buying and selling is a very emotional experience,” she said. “When you have to tell people what they consider is bad news, it’s not easy.” Daily News Business Editor Kari C. Barlow can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 439.
DEVON RAVINE | Daily News RE/MAX Southern Realty listing coordinator Diana Aho and broker Jim Gilliland place a “sold” sign in front of a townhouse that sold in four days. “You can’t just stick a sign in the yard and expect it to sell,” said Gilliland. “It’s got to be priced realistically, in good condition and aggressively marketed.”
NICK TOMECEK | Daily News Two for sale signs stand at the corner of Carmel Drive and Hart Road in Wright. Single-family home sales in Okaloosa County were down 30 percent in June compared to June 2005. Sales were down 51 percent in Walton County and 29 percent in Santa Rosa County for the same period.
