Florida Vacation-Homes Being Snatched Up
Florida has several markets within its real estate market.
There are regular sales which include local first-time buyers, buyers upsizing or downsizing and buyers moving from another area.
There are retirement sales – buyers who are buying a retirement property, which includes local buyers and those from other areas.
Investor sales is another part of the market – investors looking to purchase properties to hold long-term and rent out or to fix up and flip.
Finally there are vacation-home (and condo) sales. This includes buyers who purchase a property that they will use off and on during the year and also includes ‘snowbirds’ who live here during the winter months and then go back to their homes up north during the warmer months.
Starting a year to a year and a half ago the investor market began to pick up quite a bit which is often an indicator of the beginning of a recovery and not long after that was an increase in vacation-home and condo sales.
In nearby Orlando, they have also seen a significant increase in vacation-home sales.
Vacation-home buyers pounce on deals on short sales, foreclosures
By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel 7:03 p.m. EST, July 6, 2012
This article describes what is going on in the Orlando real estate market in relation to vacation-home sales and has some good information about that area. Even though it is a different market than here, we are experiencing many of the same things such as reduced inventory.
“Six months ago through the Easter rush, buyers wanted something for under $150,000, and you could find 40 to 60 listings,” said Joe Rogers, property manager for Florida Scandinavian Vacation Homes. “Now it’s more like five to 10 listings. The market is evaporating, and the inventory is being sucked up in a vacuum.” READ MORE…
There are still some short sales and foreclosures coming on the market in the way of vacation homes and condos but the ones that are the best deals are going much faster. In fact I recently saw a Gulffront condo on Sand Key in Clearwater Beach have 2 offers submitted within 3 days of it being listed and going under contract with one of them the day after that (and this one wasn’t even a short sale or foreclosure).
Looking ahead, the second-home market is likely to heat up further, said Lawrence Yuri, chief economist for the national Realtors group.
In the association’s latest survey, eight of every 10 people who responded indicated that they considered this to be a particularly good time to buy a vacation home — and one-third of the second-home owners said they were likely to consider purchasing yet another vacation home within two years. READ MORE...
Make sure that you’re timing isn’t off and that you don’t miss out on the potential good deals while they are still available.