Emerald Coast Real Estate

I get a lot of people asking about “the numbers” and how they work for condominiums.  Specifically, people want to know about taxes, insurance, association fees, and other monetary costs associated with a condominium.  I had such a request today and will share with you the work up that I done.  The unit that I used for the analysis was Emerald Towers Unit 306 in Destin.  This particular unit has 3 bedrooms, is located on the sixth floor, and feautes over 1700 square feet of living space.  View the complete details here:  Emerald Towers 606

The complete expense analysis is quite complicated and will depend on many different factors.  Depending on your personal financial situation, there can be significant tax advantages including; depreciation, property tax, property expense, and interest reductions.  These factors can greatly reduce the after tax cost of ownership.  Combine these benefits with the long term appreciation enjoyed with real estate and you can see why so many people have to have a place on the beach.

When will the Real Esate Market Turn Around?  That’s a question that I get almost daily.  To borrow from Wall Street…..”You can always spot the bottom when there is blood in the Streets”.  That is in reference to stockbrokers and speculators that jumped out of high rise buildings during the great depression. 

When things look the worst and people have no hope, they sell because of fear or necessity.  This point in time is when the most savvy of investors begin to accumulate.  When you think about it, you start to see the logic.  Whether people are selling as a result of fear or necessity, it doesn’t matter.  The affect is the same, tons of inventory available with motivated sellers.  With Real Estate, forced sells are easy to monitor.  Specifically, the majority are individuals that can no longer pay for their homes, condos, or lots. 

The number of Okaloosa and Walton County Foreclosures has been increasing month over month for the past 3 years.  At some point, we will see these decrease and the truly motivated sellers will be gone.

Only a few people will ever time the market perfectly and buy at the bottom.  For the vast majority it will be too late.  The truly savvy are buying now.  They aren’t looking to buy something to flip in six months but are accumulating undervalued assets for the long term appreciation.

Should I buy or Should I sell?  Kind of sounds like some song I heard once.  More and more it seems like buyer’s are afraid to buy and seller’s are unwilling to sell.  The million dollar question is…who will when the battle?  2006 is almost over and it has been quite a ride.  Gone are the days when people would call and buy properties site unseen, pay asking price, and pay for closing costs.  Nothing mattered except they wanted to own a piece of this beautiful coast. 

How times have changed, people call now and want to look at dozens of homes and still can’t find what they want or are just waiting to see if prices will go down more.  The fact is, some very astute buyer’s have purchased trophy properties this year.  What’s a trophy?  It’s a lot of things….a culdesac home in a prestigious neighborhood, a corner unit a condominium, the rare bayfront lot with elevation and deep water, or the immaculate 4 bedroom near your favorite school. 

 Whatever, your definition, there have been many sell.  As seller’s became nervous, they didn’t take time or care to understand why their property might be special.  They just said sell!  Just as the buyer’s before them.  Both groups acted irrationally at different times.  A lot of folks expected that we would transition from a seller’s market to a normal market.  That didn’t happen and never does when an asset class experiences tremendous appreciation like real estate has over the past few years.  You go straight from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.  Once the irrationality from both parties is gone, you have a “normal” market.  As the days pass, it seems that we are getting closer and closer to that.