Key West SOLDS in 2021 - The First 180 Days

 

There are a lot people out there living much of their lives on the internet viewing all manner of things that give them pleasure, er, aah that feed their minds. Some of those people monitor the Key West real estate market seeking a house or condo, a source of income, a long term investment. Some just want to find a home.  I did a quick search of the Key West single family homes that sold (closed sales) in the first 180 days of 2021. There were a whopping 283. Remember Key West is a little island one mile by four miles long with an historical long term population of about 25,000. The least expensive house was 433 Sq Ft "home" located steps from Truman Avenue and across the street from a fish restaurant parking lot. It sold for $365,000 or $863 per sq ft. The third least expensive abode located on Terry Lane in Bahama Village sold for $449,000 or $1,095 per sq ft. The highest priced home was located on Sunset Key. It sold for $6 million or $1,817 per sq ft. It's a mystery to me why the most expensive priced sale occurred at 506 Catherine Street. It sold for $2,381 per sq ft. I don't get that one.

Those numbers don't mean much other than the price of real estate is pretty steep on a per sq ft basis. The trend has been inching upward for several years. This year it leapt up and brought a lot of the market with it. We were trending toward $1,000 per sq ft ask for the past couple of years. We paused during the first few months of the pandemic and sprang into buying mode once the public was back into the Florida Keys. I wrote about this before. What I writing today is news. Of a sort. Sixty four of the 283 single family homes that sold in the first 180 days of 2021 sold over $1,000 per sq ft. That is 22% of the market. 

Then I looked at just the 64 homes that sold over $1,000 per sq ft to see if there was a pattern, an area, a type of home. Several of the houses were smaller in size and located in Bahama Village. One was a $900,000 genuine fixer located on one the canals. The Old Town core and Casa Marina area had the most sales. William Street was the priciest block. Prices surged upward on the south of Truman side of Old Town as did homes located on the east side of White Street. 

The photo at the top of today's blog is quite telling. This is a little side street located about eight blocks from Duval. I had just left a house to take photos for a customer. People were lined up outside with their agents to see the place. It does on constantly. It's like pee wee baseball. Who's gonna win?