Condo Sales On Upward Trend On Alabama Coast
By Kathy Jumper, Mobile Press Register, May 1, 2012
ORANGE BEACH, Alabama — What a difference a year makes in condominium sales.
A three-bedroom, gulf-front condo unit in Orange Beach’s Phoenix 10 sold for $384,000, a jump from $330,000, according to Tina Maynard of REMAX of Orange Beach.
“That’s really good news for the sellers,” she added. “I keep telling my buyers that the bottom has gone.”
Last spring there were 1,355 units for sales, while this year there are 1,069 units on the market on Alabama’s coast. Last year prices had dropped as much as 44 percent, while this spring sees unit prices edging up, especially for waterfront units. Of the 120 Alabama condo units sold in March, 60 of those were gulf-front units selling in the $300s to $400s.
Mississippi does not track condo sales separately from single-family figures.
Folks who have always wanted a condo, but couldn’t afford it, are now hitting the marketing, according to David Swiger of Swiger & Company Realtors in Gulf Shores. “They think we’re reached the bottom of the market. They can remember that condo they were looking at was $600,000 and now it’s $299,000.”
“We have 15 units under contract to close this month in Turquoise Place,” said Amy Stehmeyer of Spectrum Realty in Gulf Shores, who just sold a four-bedroom unit for more than $1 million there. The units that were selling for $925,000 are now at $955,000, but BP is paying the developer $200,000 on those units as incentive to get units sold, so consumers are actually paying $755,000.
“We were experiencing more trade-up buyers a year ago, but most of the ones today are new buyers,” Stehmeyer said. “They realize that once the new units are gone it will be awhile before any new units get built. And it’s still the traditional market — Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and the Alabama buyers.”
On the Mississippi coast, condos remain a tougher sell, unless they are short sales or foreclosures, according to Kim Williams of REMAX Real Estate Partners in Ocean Springs.
“We’ve not seen a big improvement in condo sales, but we have seen a turn-around in the single-family home sales,” she said. “We’ve seen zero price increases in any sales. About 80 percent of the overall sales are short sales and foreclosures. We’re still in that world.”
Sales are back to the levels of six or seven years ago, according to Chuck Norwood of REMAX of Gulf Shores. “We’ve seen an uptick in prices. We’re still not seeing a lot of appreciation, but I feel like we’ve hit bottom. The units are selling for more than the last one sold for. And half the deals we’re doing are running into appraisal issues,” due to the price increases.
There is upward price pressure but not anything like that seen in 2005, according to Claud Clark of Clark-Davis Real Estate Appraisers in Magnolia Springs. “We will have a unit that sells for $325,000 and the next one sells for $345,000. All things being equal, it’s not appraising for the purchase price.”
“People selling now are holding out a bit and we’re getting some seller resistance for the first time in a long time,” Norwood said. “Buyers may have to make two to three offers before the can get a unit. And the majority of the buyers are end users. They may rent it, but they are also going to enjoy their unit and use it.”
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