January Sales Report for Key West

There were 12 Single Family Home Sales in Key West for the month of January 2008 with a sales volume of $11,838,000. I searched from Mile Marker One through Shark Key. The least expensive property was a 2 bed, 1 bath house listed at $249,000 that sold for $220,000 in 21 days. There were two very expensive homes that sold. One on that I mentioned here several times that was listed $2,995,000 and sold for $2,350,000. (This was not a forced sale.) The other was a Sunset Key home listed at $3,100,000 that sold for $2,850,000. The average home was a 3 bed, 2 bath with 1673 sq ft listed at $1,130,000 that sold for $986,500.

There were 2 bank foreclosures included in the January sales totals, and they were priced right and sold near the asking price. So folks who are looking to steal the property from a desperate bank may be in for a surprise. Properties that are priced correctly usually sell at or near their asking price.

There were 18 single family sales in 2007 totaling $15,471,500. There were 11 such sales in 2006 with sales volume totaling $12,033,000. But in 2005 there were 36 sales totaling a whopping $41,881,156. The least expensive that year was listed at $649,000 and sold at $655,000 in one day. That is not a typo. The most expensive was a house that sold for $3,775,000. In 2005 the average house sold at $1,163,365. So the number of sales and the sales volume for January 2008 is down as compared to each of the 3 prior years.

Condo Sales were disappointing as well. There were only 8 sales in January 2008 totaling $3,718,500. The most expensive sale was a unit that I wrote about CLICK HERE. It sold for $802.000. This was a giveaway in my opinion. This is an "I told you so!" of gigantic proportions. It was not a forced sale. The same owner has more property on the market, and I have written about those properties as well. The average condo was a 2 bed, 2 bath that sold for $464,813.

In the year 2007 there were also 8 sales in January totaling $3,434,000. But the highest priced unit only sold for $550,000. In 2006 we had 6 condo sales totaling $4,717,000. And in 2005 there were 26 condo sales with a sales volume of $19,365,800. The most expensive unit that year sold for $2,300,000. It was located at Harbor Place (the same location as the unit that sold this month for $802,000--but not the same unit).

There are 34 single family homes listed as contingent or pending. Three of those or multi-million dollar homes. (The highest is listed at $5.1 million.) Three others are houses I wrote about in this blog as being good buys. There are 19 condos listed at contingent or pending as well. They range in asking price between $265,000 and $2,825,000.

I have been talking with other Realtors, and everyone says they are busy showing. Our office is. We are writing offers, but not all offers are accepted. I think there is a resistance on the part of some buyers to act now because they believe the market has not "bottomed". So they prefer to wait until the end--whenever that may be. Others may believe that they can take advantage of the sluggish economy and snag a good property at a fraction of its current price--which is not the same as its value.

I'll just repeat what I said last week: Don't Miss the Boat! If you are looking to buy, there are sellers who want to sell and some who must sell. Now is the time to act. CLICK HERE to checkout all current Key West mls listings and then please call me, Gary Thomas, at 305-766-2642 or e-mail me at kw1101v@aol.com so that I can help you take advantage of the buying opportunities that now exist in Key West.