Bottom of the Barrel - Key West Real Estate I think Key West real estate has hit the bottom of the barrel.
CLICK HERE to see the remaining 17 single family homes priced at or below $500,000 and that are located in the Old Town, Meadows, and
Casa Marina areas. The average house has 943 sq ft of living space and is priced at $477 per sq ft. I have written before that most of the buyers that call, email, or meet me say that they would prefer to purchase a house priced under $500,000. Kind of slim
pickin's.
There are just 11 Active Short Sale single family homes that priced under $600,000. These houses average 1,331 sq ft and are offered at $339 per sq ft average. I feel confident that only the house at 826 Eaton Street would interest some potential second home buyers, and most potential buyers would probably would not consider even that house
because of its location. There is nothing wrong with this house. But a lot of buyers will not consider Eaton Street, or White Street, or United Street, or South Street, or any street that looks upon the cemetery.
We must go outside of the Old Town are to find more houses under $500,000. There are 33 more houses
CLICK HERE in the mid town and new town areas priced $500,000 or less. (One of those had extensive fire damage and is back on the market. No mention of the fire damage in the listing. I did not see any building permits either. I wonder how that happened.)
Currently, 57 single family homes in the Old Town, Meadows, and
Casa Marina areas are shown in the
mls database as being contingent or pending. Thirty-eight (or 66%) of those properties are shown as short sales. One short sale has been shown as contingent as far back as March 2009. Five of the 57 are priced over $1,000,000. The average house on the list has 1,490 sq ft of living space and is priced at $484 per sq ft.
There is an interesting conflict going on right now in the Old Town, Meadows, and
Casa Marina areas of Key West. As you can see the lower priced homes market looks pretty bleak. There is scant inventory in the lower price range. The places that remain unsold may have locational issues or may need renovation. Renovation takes time and money so the cheaper prices will be off set by more spending later. I often drive potential buyers past most of the lower priced houses before I set up showings just because I know most people would not consider the location no matter how cheap the price.
There are 76 homes priced between $500,000 to $999,000 that are shown as Active (67) or Active Short Sale (9). The average house has 1509 sq ft of living space and is priced at $533 per sq ft. The total number of available single family homes (Active and Active Short Sale) is 217 with an average asking price of $666 per sq ft. The problem is most of these houses do not have active buyers-at the current asking prices. There are lots of buyers. The just are not shopping for houses in the mid-level price range. Everybody wants a "deal". So few sales are
occurring in this price range.
The other day I wrote about 604 Elizabeth Street. The owner is a Realtor who had listed and showed the property himself for several months. The house had been priced too high for this market. The house is absolutely beautiful. It is located on a great Old Town block. The owner finally fired himself as listing agent and gave the listing to another agent. The asking price was lowered to a price point that made sense. Bingo! Contract!
Buyers remain focused on the low end of the market. And it looks to me like that market is all but gone. The mid-range market ( $500,000 to $1,000,000) has a good amount of available houses but that section of the market isn't really selling. The high end market isn't selling either. There are individual sales of high priced homes but not as many as one would expect-especially at this point in season. There are 140 single family homes in the Old Town, Meadows and
Casa Marina areas priced at $1,00,000 or higher with the average home priced at 818 per sq ft. There are only 17 houses priced under $500,000 with the average house priced at $477 per sq ft. Something has to give.
CLICK HERE to conduct your own search of the Key West Association of Realtors mls database. If you see something you like, please contact me,
Gary Thomas,
305.766.2642. I am a full time Realtor at
Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. Our office is the exclusive Lower Florida Keys affiliate of
Christie's Great Estates.