TIME OUT! Somebody has to call it. It might as well be me. The Key West real estate market is officially gone bonkers. People who bought homes a year ago and putting them back on the market and selling them at even higher prices. Not a few people. A lot of people. A lot of Realtors are complicit in this. Greed has taken over. What is going right now is insidious.
I am not saying all houses are over-priced or that all Realtors are greedy. Many. Not all. I am referring to Realtors on the second point. I have thought for a long time many of our houses and some condos were under-priced. Many were certainly under-valued. Some languished in the MLS for months while other properties located in a better or more popular area sold more quickly or at a higher price.Now almost every listing sells within days of being listed.
I have seen volatile markets here before and have written about them in this blog over the years. I did a quick search of my blog and found one called Lessons Learned. Boy did I learn that lesson.
For years I would show homes to folks who had a dream of buying a second place in Key West in hope they could retire here later in life. Many scrambled together the money a down payment and figured out a budget they could meet. Some even let strangers sleep in their beds (for a fee) when they were at their full time homes up north. I am fearful that the people who had the dream of buying here someday will absolutely get squeezed out by the people with money who want in on the land grab. And even worse some of these later-comers are going to get burned. Real bad.
What is going on now is different. Some people are using their houses as money machines. They are like Bit Coins you can actually see and use - then cash them in and move on. Insidious.
