Nathan Abbott Team 2019 Mid Year Market review for the Florida Panhandle including areas Between Destin and Panama City Beach. I was fortunate to attend a meeting for the “Economic and Housing Forecast for the Emerald Coast” last week with guest speaker, Edsel Charles, founder and chairman of the MarketGraphics Research Group. Edsel is the foremost expert on real estate market statistics in the USA. Download the report here: https://nathanabbottteam.agentreputation.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NAT-Mid-Year-2019-072919.pdf
He was telling us how unique the real estate market was in the Florida Panhandle in that while we are fed national statistics in the news which are not a good indicator in our local market. Based upon this presentation, the Florida Panhandle is one of the fastest growing areas in the country for residential grown and vacation rentals. Edsel stated that if new home construction stopped today, we would run out of inventory within 9 weeks.
More people are moving here and we are growing as a top vacation destination.
With so many visitors to our area, it’s easy to consider that other aspects of our local economies have seen increases as well, such as home sales and prices. In fact, throughout Northwest Florida the demand for housing has been strong.
For example, in the greater Panama City area homes sales for the first six months of 2019 were up 15.5% year over year. That represents sales of more than 2,000 homes from January through June. And, not only has there been an increase in overall sales numbers, but the average median sales price for a home in the area is up 1.1% over the same period last year. Of course, much of this demand is a result of Hurricane Michael with both current residents seeking out homes because theirs’ was heavily damaged, or investors purchasing distressed properties to rehab and turn a profit.
