Key West Real Estate in Review for the 2010s Decade

I started the Key West Properties real estate blog on December 18, 2008 on the Blogger platform. Later I republished the same content on the Activerain platform. I end not engage the page counter function immediately but since I did there have been 1,763,741 page views on Blogger and 855,604 views on Activerain. I have written several thousand blog posts and had 2,230,029 page and album views on Flickr.  I have made a lot of friends and learned there are a few people who do not like me. I thought it would be interesting to look back through the blog over the past ten years to see how we got to 2020.
2010
The first ten years of the 21st Century were marked by strong buyer demand for second homes and investment properties in Key West. The early part of the decade saw fairly attractive interest rates coupled with 80/20 mortgages - some buyers essentially had no cash in the investment properties.  The high demand for real estate led to price escalations and later to the construction of several high priced town home developments. Then during the 2008 presidential campaign the US economy took a nosedive.  Many of the Key West real estate "investors" lost their properties either through foreclosure or short sales. While buyers still wanted to buy Key West real estate,  many hesitated fearing the market would crash even further. This became a self-fulling prophecy to some extent. There were courageous buyers who took the "risk" and bought properties at a deep discount to what buyers had paid just a few years earlier.

There were more bank owned sales and short sales than traditional market sales in 2010. I wrote numerous blogs about new listings and offered insight about properties I considered buying opportunities including 731 Waddell Street in the Casa Marina Area ( photo above). The house was actually offered for $3.3 million prior to construction.  A different Realtor marketed the property after construction at $2,750,000. It eventually became a short sale offered at $1,099,000 and sold for $900,000 in October 2010. That buyer re-sold the same property in December 2011 for $1,200,000. Today it would list and sell well over $2 million.

The BP Oil Spill occurred in April 2010 causing the largest marine oil spill disaster in the petroleum industry.  It was erroneously reported that tar balls from the disaster reached the Florida Keys. False "facts" became a tourism and real estate disaster for the Keys and especially Key West. One Realtor told me about a buyer who walked away from a $50,000 escrow deposit fearing he would lose even more as disaster widened. Key West real estate sales negatively impacted Key West real estate sales for the next two years. Almost all tourist related businesses had to discount their product to induce tourists to come here.
2011

The house at 630 Elizabeth Street could be the poster child of Key West real estate at the start of the decade. The historic building located at the top of Solaris Hill in Old Town has a commending view looking down Windsor Lane toward the cemetery. The building was a store on the first floor and living quarters on the second. Later the building became two apartments. It fell in disrepair. A Realtor bought it and tried to sell it for way too much to some yahoo. That failed. The building became bank owned. I represented the buyer who successfully purchased the property via online auction for $230,9000. Instead of renovating it, he put it back on the market at a higher price which annoyed the hell out of locals who missed the opportunity to buy it at the lower price. Some potential buyers argued that renovation costs would be too high and the lot size as too small to justify the asking price. My buyer re-sold that property a year later for a total of $400,000. That buyer was the victim of Hurricane- Sandy and resold the shell to the current owner who restored the building. It is a beautiful property. During the past decade many similar buildings were renovated to a lesser or greater degree. The supply of non-restored buildings is decreasing each year.
2012

The Key West Golf Club Community saw a mass exodus after the real estate crash. Many of the homes were purchased with little or no money down. I represented one buyer who purchased nine short sale or bank owned properties.  He paid about one half of what the properties previously sold for. Today the golf course homes have returned near their per-recession price point. Single family homes at The Sanctuary at the golf course remain the best bargain in Key West - many priced in the $700,000 and up range. All have covered off street parking and most have a pool. I have sold several of those homes over the years. 

In March 2012 I started a continuing series of blogs about the Projects of Key West. That has turned into a fun chore for me. I take photos of properties that are being restored and in some instances track new construction. The renovation photos should be lessons to would-be restorers as they show how difficult and costly renovations have become especially in Old Town where our Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC) has the final say on what an owner may do with his property. HARC has created lengthy and costly process to get to approval which often restricts the creative genius some buyers want to bring to their homes. I view some of HARC rules as Arbitrary and Capricious and look forward to the day we have a state law that limits the control citizen panels like HARC. 
2013

The Mid-Town Area house at 1104 - 1106 Thompson Street, adjacent to the Horace O'Bryant School, was a buying opportunity for someone who wanted project house. It sat on a 9,397 sq ft corner lot with many beautiful palms. It eventually sold in 2014 for $405,000. The was updated and resold in one day for $540,000. Most of the houses in the Mid-Town and New-Town Areas are concrete block construction situated on a 5,000 sq ft lots. Property prices have about doubled on these homes since 2013. Most of these homes are being retrofitted with wind impact windows and doors to reduce windstorm insurance. The rising cost of wind and floor insurance have been the bane of buyers and Realtors for the past decade.
2014

715 Frances Street appeared in my blog several times over the past ten years including in 2014 where the listing agent described as "Quintessential historic Key West eyebrow house located on prestigious Frances Street". It was all of that and more. Successive owners have poured more money into this beautiful home which is why I mention it here. Most buyers who purchase very well appointed homes tend to spend additional money to make an already perfect houses more perfect. Buyers who search homes on the internet may suspect there is something wrong with houses that sell every few years. That is not the case. Key West has a small number of single family homes which get sold over and over again. Working with a seasoned Realtor will help buyers the right property.

All eight of the Meadows Town Homes appeared in my blog over the years including 1513 Pine Street. These homes were built to address the demand for high quality construction near Old Town. These homes were among the several projects started in the mid 2000s which fell victim to the 2008 Recession. All but 1513 Pine Street became short sales or bank sales. Our office listed six of the bank owned properties where I held numerous open houses over a several month period. I ultimately sold four of the homes. The biggest concern I heard from potential buyers was that they wanted a "real" old house and not a new place that looks old. I have heard the same negative comments from buyers who looked at similar projects built around the same time. The project is now twelve years old. Maybe the buyers in the 2020s will appreciate these very well built and cost saving homes more in this new decade.
2015

Read my March 2015 WHAT A BUNCH OF CLOWNS blog for a chuckle and a warning to use local professionals when selling or buying Key West real estate. Local title companies and real estate lawyers are aware of survey and boundary issues that routinely appear in certain parts of town - particularly in the Old Town area south of Truman between White and Elizabeth Street.

I wrote about and represented the buyers who ended up purchasing 1400 Virginia Street in 2015. Click the blue link to read that blog. I got a phone call in 2019 from one of the two owners who had retired and sold his primary home up north and had become a full time Key Wester. He thanked me for helping him find this perfect home. I saw them in the grocery store a few months ago and again at the Old Island Restoration Christmas House Tour this past week. You don't know how satisfying it is  to help people fulfill dreams of moving to Key West.
2016

1122 Southard Street appeared in my blog in 2016. I showed the place several times to various buyers. It was an interesting investment property with five units including a remarkable owner's unit in the rear. It was not in the best condition but it certainly was not in the worst. It eventually sold for just $850,000 which now seems like a huge bargain. Buyers who looked at this building saw only expense. The place hadn't been touched in years and was still being rented. An owner could have continued to rent the units as they existed and do repairs when necessary. While most old properties need some work or repairs, not all houses need to become shrines or to become the source of paying for some contractor's kid's college education. If the object is to buy a house or investment, concentrate on getting that accomplished. This town is full of regrets about lost loves and lost real estate properties that could have been purchased.
2017 

Hurricane IRMA was the major real estate story of 2017 and probably the defining moment of the decade. IRMA hit Key West in the early morning of September 10th. I stayed in Key West as did about half the permanent population. I wrote three blogs about the hurricane and posted many photos online. CLICK HERE to view the Flickr album. The storm toppled many of our beautiful mahogany and canopy trees.  Only one house on William Street was lost to the storm. A new home is being rebuilt on that site. However multiple homes located a few outside of Key West were severely damaged or destroyed. Key West looked like a war zone for several weeks. Locals who fled town in advance of the hurricane eventually returned. KEY WEST STRONG became the motto to the wrath of Hurricane IRMA. Key West was back open for business by Fantasy Fest in late October 2017. I took the above photograph of the 1100 block of Fleming Street a few days after Irma.  I took the photo below showing the same view on January 2, 2020. Our historic houses were built strong and endured the storm. Our locals are strong and continue to make Key West a great place to live.

 2018

The above photo is not hurricane damage removal. The new owner paid $1,175,000 cash to purchase this perfectly livable home in the Casa Marina Area only to raze it and build a new 3300 sq ft home. The house across the street sold in 2019 for $3,195,000. Author Judy Blume's former house one block south at 1100 Flagler sold in December 2019 for $4,500,000. Houses located in the Casa Marina Area priced under $2,00,000 are bargains. This is the new pricing trend.

The home at 1523 Washington Street was in perfectly livable condition as well. The new owner paid $1,034,000 only to raze that house so that a new home could be built on that 10,000 square foot lot. There is a growing trend in area just east of the Casa Marina Ares up to Tropical to buy Mid-Century homes to raze and rebuild partly because the renovation (build back) rules are both too costly and too limiting. This section of town is undergoing its separate renaissance.  
2019

The eyebrow house at 1115 Southard Street is a good way to see where Key West real estate is at the beginning of the 2020s. The historic house was renovated in the 1980s with a contemporary theme. It did not have the old house feel buyers want.  The interiors, pool, and cottage were all dated. The house was originally listed at $1,475,000. It eventually sold for $1,000,000 after numerous price reductions. The demand for historic homes is as high as ever. Most buyers expect off street parking even though there may be no place to drive where parking is available. There are few houses for sale under a million and those that are are fixers. Buying a cute house in good condition with a pool in Old Town for under a million is the challenge for 2020 and beyond.