Dear Neighbor,
Our local Royal Palm real estate market is healthy and leading indicators suggest another strong first and second quarter.
Although the total number of sales for the last quarter were lower than that of the same period last year (November being the laggard with a sharp year over year decrease), closed sales in December and January show a rally.
Looking at inventory, as of this writing we have a total of 74 active listings on market with Interior homes having the highest share with 32 properties, followed by Water front (23) and Golf (19).
Interior lot homes show a sharp dip in volume and average selling price both quarter to quarter and year over year. This can be attributed to the decrease in available new construction homes on the interior in Royal Palm over the last year. That lack of inventory has recently been remedied with three new construction interior lot homes completing just in time for this season. It will be interesting to see how the market responds to the across-the-board increase in builder/developer asking prices for new construction interior homes. Last year's sold properties averaged just under $5M for a new interior lot home and the median sold price was $4.4M. Today, the average asking price for such a home is over $6M.
On the other end of the spectrum, interior lot resale homes are piling up and we are seeing price reductions for such homes indicating a lack of interest on the part of buyers. There are 13 interior lot resale homes on the market today listed at $3M or less; six of them under $2M. All six of the properties listed at under $2M have had a recent price reduction or are back on the market after having been listed within the past year. Of the seven homes listed between $2M and $3m, five have had a price reduction.
As of this writing, there are three record-breaking interior lot land sales under contract and set to close in the coming weeks. This will be the second land sale for a standard (or near standard) interior lot at over $1.6M in the past year and the first at over $1.7M reflecting a builder/developer constituency bullish on interior new construction. This presents an interesting dichotomy. One would be unable to purchase land in Royal Palm today and build a house (even a simple one) for anywhere near what one can be had for as a resale. The value play for those wishing to make Royal Palm home are these interior lot homes.
