St Simons Island Real Estate Spring 2017 Courtesy of Joe Wills Realtor, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hodnett Cooper Real Estate
From 1996 until 2006, home sales prices rose at an average rate of 5% per year. Demand rose through 2004 but then fell ahead of prices until 2012 with a 40% price reversal before reaching bottom. There are 280 houses on the market ranging from S189K to $20M. Over the past year 440 houses sold at prices ranging from $94K to $2.34M. The 2017 market is very active with 133 sales YTD and 56 sales pending. Sales Volume is up 34%, Sales Prices are up 10%. Demand exceeds supply by 196%. There are 118 condos on the market ranging from $127.9K to $2.495M. Over the past year 303 condos sold at prices from $100K to $1.95M. YTD 143 condos have sold or are pending. Demand exceeds Supply by 257%.
East Beach Market
The South Island community of East Beach has highest concentration of oceanfront, ocean view and beach access properties on St. Simons. For more than twenty years it has consistently ranked in the top three Island Communities for annual residential sales. Condominiums are not permitted on East Beach. Vacation Rentals are popular. In 2016 there were nineteen sales of which two were Oceanfront. Average time on the market was 329 days (20-year average is 465 days) with 69% of the sales occurring April through September. In evaluating sales over twenty years, we see a 40% average premium for Oceanfront vs Non-Oceanfront. On the chart below you can see average annual sales prices which peaked in 2007 and fell 40% before bottoming in 2012. There are currently twenty-seven active listings, eight of which being oceanfront or ocean view. East Beach is at equilibrium with roughly a year’s worth of inventory and is at 2003 average sales prices. There have been four sales since January 1st with two sales pending.
