Happy belated New Year everyone! I normally have the newsletter out earlier in the month, but the office has been busier than usual for this time of year. SBH Real Estate has a new employee, her name is Tamara Bell, and we are very excited to have her on board. She will be handling our in house marketing and administrative duties. Many of you have gotten to know my current
assistant, Kaycee McCoy. After four years with us she is moving on to other endeavors with her company, Happy Kaycee Productions. We wish her all the best, and know that Sandbridge will continue to hold a special place in her heart.
I have complied the year-end sales data for Sandbridge Beach for detached (single family) homes and condominiums. See insert for the comparison of previous years
Our observations going through the categories are as follows. For dollar volume and units sold, 2014 was a good year overall, but sales started later than usual due to our severe winter. There were several snow events last winter that shut everything down for a number of days, which postponed trips to the beach to look at property. The first six months of sales in 2013 was 33% higher than the same period in 2014. The average and median sales prices for oceanfront homes remained relatively the same. Most of the sales were older homes purchased for land which caused a slight decrease in average price. There are currently five new oceanfront homes under construction.
Non-oceanfront homes sales, which represent the bulk of the 46 homes sold, saw a 15% increase in average sale price. I believe this a reflection of the lower number of houses for sale and increased demand as we went into the second half of 2014. The condominium segment of the market has stabilized, and I believe they will improve this year with better lending conditions and lack of a distressed inventory.
In closing I believe the overall market is in very healthy condition with a good balance of inventory to sales ratio. As always, if you have any questions about this report please let me know via e-mail or call.
I wish you all a great start to 2015 and hope to see many of you at the beach as we look forward to spring. I am already done with winter for this year.
Aloha,
Pat