As I continue to write about the different beach condo complexes, I thought I should take a look at how the sales of beach condos are doing in 2009.
There are currently over 400 beach condos on the market. For my purposes, the condos had to have at lease 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom and 500 square feet. I looked from St Pete Beach, north to Sand Key. When possible, I tried to exclude condo-hotels from my numbers. Though many of the condo complexes allow rentals for as few as 1-night as a time, do while they are not condo-hotels, there is not much difference. Of the condos currently on the active market, 58 are listed for $1,000,000 or more (with a high of $3,595,000). Another 56 are listed between $750,000 to 999,999. There are 114 listed between $500,000 to $749,999. There are 90 listings between $400,000 and $499,000. You can find 68 listings between $300,000 and $399,000. And believe it or not, there are 26 listings under $299,999 (3 below $200,000). Understanding that the lower priced units are very small and the water view is generally not gulf view. But you can get something for a lot less than you can several years ago. For the lower priced condos you are also looking at older buildings, of the 58 units over a million dollars, 49 of them have been built since 2000, where as the lower prices units are in buildings generally built in the 1960s and 1970s. Of the units built since 2000, only 3 are listed for less than $500,000 and they are around 1,100 square feet. There are several nice choices between $500,000 and $600,000, all of which allow short term rentals.
After the Active listings, there are 24 units currently listed as "Active with Contract." Today, that generally means it is a short sale, with a contract pending the bank approval. Another 27 units are under contract, pending the sale to go through. So people are still buying.
In 2009, 164 gulf front condos have sold. They have been fairly consistent throughout the year. Sales by month are: 9, 18, 16, 26, 32, 21, 20 and 22. Prices have remained consistent. This year only 6 units have sold for over $1,000,000, with a high of $1,250,000. One unit that was listed for $1,950,000 and had 5,100 square feet, sold last month for $800,000. It was a short sale, but sold for much less than the original sale price of $2.7 million. There have been 12 sales between $750,000 and $999,999, another 13 between $600,000 and $749,999. In the $500,000 to $599,999 range, 20 units sold this year, and another 28 units sold between $400,000 and $499,999. As we go down in price, the sales increase...58 units have sold between $300,000 and $399,999 and another 27 units sold for less than $300,000. On the average, sellers are getting 90% of their list price price for their sales price, after an average of 166 days on the market. In summary, beach condos are selling, but not for the high prices some sellers are looking for. If you are a buyer and have thought about a beach condo, but thought they were too expensive, now might be the time for you to start looking for the right beach condo. After four weeks of living on Indian Shores and watching the sunset from my balcony, I'd highly recommend beach living!
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