This month’s news is Part 1 of the 2010 Real Estate Summary, which will give an overview of the 2010 market and compare it to recent years for Gulf Shores Plantation as a whole. Part 2 will consist of a more detailed breakdown by association and floor plan and will be available in the real estate office. 2010 started out on a high note. Alabama won the National Championship, the Saints won the Super Bowl, real estate sales were on a tear compared to the same period of the previous three years and advance reservations were up…indications were that 2010 was going to be a breakout year.
Then two things happened: eleven properties at the Plantation that had been foreclosed by Taylor, Bean and Whitaker in 2007 suddenly came on the market at fire-sale prices in January-February, boosting the number sales, but hammering prices. Then the Deepwater Horizon well blew. Cancellations began in earnest in May and the summer was the worst in history, both for rentals and for sales, as renters are the primary source of sales prospects. Units that sold did so at unbelievably low prices, several as short-sales and thirty-one as cash sales. There were forty-five sales total, compared to twenty in 2009 and forty-four in 2008. It makes sense that 2010 had more in common with 2008 given the number of foreclosures put on the market and the resultant impact on prices. Price per square foot increased by about 25% from 2008 to 2009, but decreased over 40% from 2009 to 2010. There are currently only a couple of ‘distress’ sales on property at this writing and it appears that we may have hit bottom. If so, we can begin rebuilding values for all owners and hopefully that is what 2011 and 2012 will bring!