It was 2004 that the New York Times ran a story called "A Gay Boom Town Mainstream and Less the Cliche", it was the height of the South Florida Real Estate boom and a little City called Wilton Manors was being recognized in the New York Times as one of the gayest cities in America. A 2 square mile island , with approximately 13,000 people where real estate prices followed the path of total gentrification. Where homes could once be bought for $80,000, they were easily bringing $300,000 in 2004. Now that the conversation has turned to a National Real Estate market, where is this little "Gay Mecca" today. How has some of the hottest, yet afforable real estate in South Florida fared in this "National Real Estate Crisis".
All the wonderful things discussed in the article are all still true. The City of Wilton Manors is a great palce to live. A newer grammar school, public library, and parks show the city is still everything the 2004 article spoke about. In turn, Wilton Manors Real Estateis holding up better than many areas in South Florida. The New City Hall has opened and new businesses are still opening on Wilton Drive. There have certainly been challenges, as there were numerous properties under construction that could not be sold for what they cost to be built. There were certainly investors attracted by the publicity of the area that got hurt. There were builders that ventured into small in-fill projects that had financial problems, and just like everywhere in the country if you want to talk gloom and doom you can find real estate issues that have surfaced in this "boom town".
But the facts are the facts, location is still the primary rule of real estate.
There are currently only 62 single family home for sale in the City of Wilton Manors, being there were 24 closings in the last 60 days or an average of 10 a month over the last year, 62 is not a dramatic number. The average sale price over the last 60 days has been $404,000. I have always found dollar/sq.foot to be a good measure of overall pricing in the area, being the monthly sample size is so small. Using this measurement prices in Wilton Manors have dropped about 8 % over the last 12 months. With this number in hand Wilton Manors buyers may want to try and see this market as a buying opportunity and nothing more. The best locations all over the country are seeing a leveling off of prices, and shrinking inventory I persnally can't wait till we start talking again about local real estate trends and end the conversation about the "national real estate crisis"?.
Comments(0)