Palm Beach County Housing Shortage; Island at Abacoa Case Study

Buyers have fewer options with 6th straight monthly declines

Housing inventory in the north county area continues to shrink; the patient is not yet critical but no doubt effecting the market. Significantly. As of August 1st, the number of properties actively for sale has dropped once again for the sixth straight month. March, April, May, June, July and now August. Housing inventory is now down to a 9 month low. The 30 day drop wasn't huge, just over 1%. And we still have over 13% more homes on the market locally than we did a year ago. But buyers looking in neighborhoods like the Island at Abacoa are desperate.



Real estate is very local in nature and what is true in your neighborhood isn't the case with your best friend who lives a mile away. Some communities have plenty of available homes but they tend to either be priced too high, in poor condition, location issues or a combination of factors. Let's look at one case study in the Island of Abacoa neighborhood. Now that the community, after a 15 year run, is almost entirely sold out, we are seeing signs of what the future may bring.

In the Island at Abacoa there are both town homes and single family homes. As of this minute, there are absolutely no town homes on the market in The Island. None, zippo, zilch, nada. Over the past 12 months we have had three town homes sell in the neighborhood and the longest it took to sell any of them was 11 days. The next longest sat there for only 2 days. When we tell you the best deals go fast we aren't kidding. When we tell you, as a buyer, you need to be properly positioned to act quck like a bunny we aren't kidding.

Things are a bit better in the single family home market in the Island at Abacoa but not by much. Over the past year we have had 7 sales with one more home already under contract. That home was under contract within days. Lucky buyers have one home to choose from as of this morning. It is listed $84,000 above the highest priced sale in the Island at Abacoa over the past year. That may be enough to scare off some buyers but it shouldn't as this house will sell as it is a very special home. The original list price was $50,000 above today's number which was a mistake, but as we said much of the current inventory tends to be overpriced. We showed this home to a client and it was in their top three choices but they opted to purchase a different property. They LOVED this home, as do I. The market in the Island at Abacoa is a very good real life example of what buyers go through in many neighborhoods. Not much to choose from and if they are going to find a great home they are going to be paying more money. There are reasons why sales are down and prices are up. And wait until the season rolls around.

We badly need quality listings to meet current demand and Paradise Sharks is offering clients some amazing values when it comes to listing commissions to help bring product to market. If you have a great home, that shows well and want to sell it then give the Shark a call at 561.308.0175 as we can offer you rates that are a true bargain. And as always the very best marketing is included, designed to sell your property for the most amount of money. You can always pay more and receive less but then that just would not make any sense. Always interesting, always fun.



Fins up........




Tom Priester
Principal Broker 

Paradise Sharks Real Estate
561.308.0175
tom@paradisesharks.com

www.paradisesharks.com