I am hosting another Open House today at 1400 White Street, Key West. Please stop by between 12:00 to 2:00 PM to see this really beautiful three bedroom two bath home located in the Casa Marina Area.
Be the First to Live in this Freshly Renovated, 1353 Square Feet, Two Story, Three Bedroom Casa Marina Area Condo. Grand New Designer Kitchen with Eat-In Dining Area, Custom Shaker Cabinets, Carrra Marble Counters, Stainless Steel Appliances. Two New Baths. Laundry. New Impact Windows and Doors in many areas. Brazilian Cherry Hardwood Floors. Large 22' 14' Private Deck. New A/C added November 2016. Offered Furnished as Shown. Offered at $675,000.
There are only three units in the building and this unit is the largest.
Just about everything inside is new. The back deck is totally private
and has room for a hot tub if a new owner would want to add one. The
monthly condo fees are just $544 and include all insurances. That means
you this unit can qualify for a mortgage. The building is located just a
few blocks from Higg's Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Fausto's Food
Palace on White Street is located a couple of blocks to the north.
There are numerous gyms and yoga studios within easy walking distance.
You can walk to the nearby Dairy Queen for a brain freeze or go many of
the nearby small eateries. If you work for the City, the new city hall
is located one block away. (Your boss will know when you play hookie,
however.)
Rita Hayworth and Dick Haymes at the Casa Marina Resort in Key West - 1954
Last week I had a lengthy conversation with a customer who bought and sold a couple of properties from me. We discussed the current state of the real estate market in Key West. I told her I think our market is both under priced and over-heated. I know that sounds inconsistent. I have studied this market since 1984 when I first visited the island of Key West when the Curry Mansion was listed for an astonishing one million dollars. Town folk thought the seller must be insane. I have been a realtor here since 1996. In late December I will be celebrating 11 years in writing this blog about Key West real estate. We had our downturn along with the rest of the United States right after 2008 Recession. We experienced a second jolt in 2010 after the media incorrectly reported that the Florida Keys were impacted by the BP Oil Spill. I can affirmatively report the Key West real estate market has otherwise risen year after year and that I have learned not to underestimate it.
Let's look at the sales of houses and condos & town homes for the first ten months of 2015 and 2016. Some readers may have seen a recent sales report generated by the Key West Association of Realtors. That report includes home sales for homes in our sales area which extends beyond Shark Key. My search is limited to areas between Key West and Shark Key.
2015 Total Single Family Homes SOLD 312
Lowest Price: $222,500 Median Price: $791,987 Highest Price: $5,000,000
2016 Total Single Family Homes SOLD 250
Lowest Price: $168,000 Median Price: $699,000 Highest Price: $6,225,000
2015 Total Condos and Town Homes 225
Lowest Price: $160,650 Median Price: $380,000 Highest Price: $2,300,000
2016 Total Condos and Town Homes 210
Lowest Price: $140,000 Median Price: $450,000 Highest Price: $2,100,000
There is an upward shifting price buyers are willing to pay for better homes in our market. For readers outside of Key West is may seem incredulous but it is true that a starter home or a fixer-upper will likely cost about $500,000. And there are very few houses priced that low.
I did a second search to determine how many single family homes sold in 2015 and 2016 (from January 1 to November 3) with price spreads in the one to two million range, two million to three million, and over three million. The results are amazing.
2015 Single Family Homes SOLD by Price
$1,000,000 to $2,000,000: 65
$2,000,000 to $3,000,000: 8
$3,000,000 and beyond: 3
Total: 76
2016 Single Family Homes SOLD by Price
$1,000,000 to $2,000,000: 47
$2,000,000 to $3,000,000: 13
$3,000,000 and beyond: 9
Total: 69
I read these statistics to show we are in a price downturn. I think our market is over-priced and that has caused the decline in the total number of sales. We may also be sharing in the national decline intotal home sales reported on September 22, 2016 by the National Association of Realtors®. Our market is different than most of America because we have a limited land mass and severe governmental restriction of building new housing. A good portion of the Key West market involves the resale of historic old homes. Buyers in all price ranges are impacted by the governmental rules and regulations which in my opinion have a depressing effect on the price buyers are willing to pay for a home. We are now in the home stretch. Maybe the last two months of sales will exhibit a tremendous surge in home sales and upward price spikes.
Just Listed, but not by me, 809 Washington Street #103, Key West, Florida. This unit is one of nine town homes located in the Casa Marina Estates which was built in 2007. According to the listing Realtor, this home has 2240 sq ft of living space divided between three floors. Additionally, there is an assigned off street parking space which conveys with the home.
These town homes were introduced to the Key West real estate market just before the national real estate market collapsed in 2008. The units were built to sell and did initially sell in the $1.6 million price range. After the market collapse, many owners sold their properties via short sales and some were sold as bank foreclosures. The owner paid $1.6 million for this property and is offering it for sale today at $975,000. It is neither a short sale nor lender owned. This is a real market transaction, and I view this property as a real bargain given the size, quality of construction, and location of the property. Since this unit is tenant occupied, I borrowed photos from another unit I sold a couple of years ago located in the building next door which is identical in location and size. The kitchen cabinets were painted and the bathrooms upgraded.
When you enter this home you get a sense that it is a real home and not a unit in a building. If you have been in some of the condos or town homes in Truman Annex or buildings on the eastern edge of the island, you know what I am referring to. This is a substantial home with extra high ceilings, real wood floors, beautiful cabinets, stainless steel Viking appliances, crown molding, high baseboards, and custom wood trim. These amenities coupled with the size and location were among the reasons the original purchasers paid the prices they paid.
The above photos show the pool and rear yard configuration for these units. The top and bottom photos are of 811 Washington and the middle is of 809 Washington. The top photo shows the side yard which explains the difference in lot size of this unit versus the interior unit which does not have the extra space. And the middle unit does not have the side windows which permit extra light to enter the unit.
809 Washington MASTER BATH
811 Washington MASTER BATH
This home has three bedrooms plus three and one-half baths. The main floor has a half bath tucked away under the staircase to the upper floors. The master bedroom sits at the rear of the home and has a vaulted ceiling which adds size and dimension to this space. Notice also the two sets of French doors which open out to the rear covered deck. The front and rear of the house has first and second floor covered decks. The master bedroom deck provides a great spot for napping in a hammock or watching the kids or grand kids in the pool below. I included a photo of the bathroom in 813 Washington which changed out the original claw foot tub for a more modern walk-in shower. This is an easy and relatively inexpensive treat that will make the space your own.
Again the above photos show 811 Washington #103 and not the unit offered which is occupied by a long term tenant. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and to view listing photos.
The two rainbow photos were taken at Higgs Beach in the 1970s. The middle photo was taken there about one month ago. While the White Street Pier has been upgraded and re-named, the views of the water and skies though ever-changing are forevermore brilliant. I live in the Casa Marina Area and love it. You can walk or ride to the beach in a matter of minutes. You can join the Casa Marina Club to use its private beach, gym, and get a discount of food and beverages. Or you can ride your bike to one of several nearby gyms and yoga studios to take care of your body. I prefer the beach just after sunrise when locals are walking their dogs, jogging or speed walking, or walking for the exercise. The single family homes in the Casa Marina Area are getting pricier all the time. That is why I think 808 Washington Street is such a good buy compared to the cost of a single family home in this area and compared to the cost of a comparably priced single family home located elsewhere in town but that does not enjoy at the structural qualities and amenities of this property.
Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing of 809 Washington Street #103. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.
I grew up in a western suburb of Denver, Colorado in the years immediately following the end of World War II. My generation are known as baby boomers. We are now or soon will be retired - my how time flies. Like so many children of my generation, I would watch Walt Disney's Disneyland on Sunday night. Walt Disney would introduce each show to let us know a bit about what we were about to see. Walt was like a kindly old uncle who shared programs featuring animals, kids, cartoons, and folk heroes. A few years ago I wrote a blog after Fess Parker's death was announced. He played Davy Crockett who was introduced to my generation on Disneyland. Wikipedia informs me that there were just five one-hour episodes which played between 1954 - 1955. Those five episodes showed the world the power of television. Every boy in my class had a coonskin cap to mimic the one worn by Davy Crockett. The coonskin caps weren't just at my school; they were everywhere. I am confident the guys on Madison Avenue who are responsible for selling cereal and toys appreciated the instant significance of television's power of persuasion.
The Mickey Mouse Club began to air in 1955. I was in the third grade. I lived one block from school and would get home just as the program came on TV. I loved the Spin and Marty episodes and The Hardy Boys. I was a nerdy little kid who even sang along with the Mouseketeers. I fell under the spell of whatever it was that Walt Disney was peddling. Every now and then Walt Disney would appear on the Sunday program or on the Mickey Mouse Club to spend a few minutes telling viewers about the Disneyland park being constructed in Anaheim, California. He showed photos or film clips of the progress which at that time were ho-hum to me. Disneyland was to have separate areas: Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland each of which related to various programs on the Disneyland TV series or Disney movies. After the park was completed and I saw how wondrous the place was, it became exceeding imperative that I needed to go to Disneyland for my life to be complete. Nobody in my school had been there. I had to be the first!
And so in the June 1957 my mother, my dad, and I got in our 1952 Studebaker and headed west to Disneyland. Along the way we stopped at the Petrified Forrest, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas each of which slowed us down from reaching the reason for our trip. I spent hours and hours in the back seat of that car dreaming of the magic kingdom. But upon arrival in Los Angeles instead of heading directly to Disneyland, my parents took a couple of adult detours to see a glass church on the ocean, the Farmer's Market, and Hollywood.
We eventually made it to Disneyland and like any kid (or adult), I was so happy to be there. I bought a souvenir guide like the one pictured at the top of today's blog. We set out to visit every inch of the park. While I remember a lot of what I did and saw, my purpose today is to share the one attraction that left a marked impression on my life. While Main Street was Walt Disney's homage to the way life used to be, Tomorrowland was his vision of what life might become. There was a space rocket, rocket rides, and The House of the Future. The house, most of the interiors, the furniture, and most of the furnishings were made of plastic. The objective was to show the public the flexibility and utility of plastics as a building material for all aspects of modern life.
If you have twelve minutes to spare, you can watch a YouTube video (above) which shows the house of the future as it existed sixty years ago The video is well worth twelve minutes of your time. Among the features cited are the atomically irradiated food center; the supersonic dishwasher which cleans dishes by ultrasonic waves; a refrigerator comprised of three cells for regular cold food storage, frozen food, and irradiated food. The kitchen included a microwave "range". The walls, ceiling, floors, and kitchen cabinets, counter-tops, and bath fixtures were made of various forms of plastics. The furniture was also made of plastic - even the man-made fabrics. The Climate Control Center was designed to control heat, air conditioning, ventilation, and also provide scent control by adding the scent of roses or salty sea air to the home. The new age telephone offered push button dialing (as opposed to the rotary dial so familiar at the time) as well as being able to speak without a handset. There was a wall unit device in the bathroom with a closed circuit TV screen where an owner could see who was at the front door and provide two-way communication. The bathroom also had a built-in razor for dad and an electric toothbrush for the family. The shared wall between the boy's bedroom and the girl's bedroom was a collapsible accordion-style room divider. I can't imagine any teenage boy or girl wanting a sibling to open a wall like that without warning - or even with warning.
I walked through the house of the future more than half a century ago. While many of the home's features still survive in our real world, the slick aspects of plastics everywhere did not become our modern reality just like Russia never attacked us with an atom bomb.
Today home buyers in Key West want buy older house constructed of solid wood. They want a place with character - not module that looks like every other module - the way the house of the future would have looked. Some buyers prefer little cigar maker cottages while others want to buy large Grand Conch Houses. Most of our homes were built well over a hundred years ago. The Old Town area of Key West has street after street after street with all kinds of historic old homes that were built over the decades of varying styles. Many of the old homes have been renovated while a few are still relatively untouched. Some buyers prefer to buy a house that needs renovated just so that they can incorporate their sense of design and style into their particular house of the future. It is the lack of uniformity that attracts buyers to Key West to find the perfect old home which buyers can transform into their new home. Even houses of more recent construction mimic the building styles of the past to some degree (bottom photo below).
We all create our own future. If you are a potential buyer who wants to create your future on a little island in the middle of the ocean please consider contacting me, Gary Thomas, kw1101v@aol.com or call me at 305-766-2642. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I am so happy to report that the house of the future is not what was envisioned by the makers of the plastic house at Tommorowland. In Key West, the house of the future will probably be a great old house that has been saved by someone who cared about preserving the past.
