Home sales up locally
Home sales in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties each saw improvement in October, the first month this year that all three counties saw an increase.
Metro Market Trends released the three counties’ real estate sales figures for October late last week, and each area benefited some from President Obama’s first-time homebuyer tax credit.
“It was clear there was going to be an increase in sales as we moved through the summer months and got closer to the (original) deadline,” said Rick Harper, director of the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development at the University of West Florida.
“The big question mark will be, what will happen to real estate over the next couple of quarters?”
The First-Time Homebuyer Credit was originally set to expire Dec. 1. With closings typically taking a month to six weeks nowadays, homebuyers purchased 116 more homes and condominiums this October compared with October 2008.
Obama extended and expanded the homebuyer credit earlier this month. Homebuyers must now be locked in a contract to close on a home by April 30 of next year to qualify for the credit.
“The first-time buyer tax credit has had a hugely beneficial effect … and, coupled with favorable interest rates and attractive pricing, the market is now showing a positive momentum,” said Angela Campbell, executive director of the Navarre Area Board of Realtors.
Given the tax credit extension, she added, “the outlook for home sales and prices is one of stabilization rather than over-correcting.”
Campbell said 19 percent of active listings in Navarre are currently pending.
Seeing October’s sales results was good news for Dorothy Slye, a Realtor with ERA Navarre Beach Realty. She expects the strong sales to continue.
“We’re getting back to what is a normal market,” Slye said. “It’s not the crazy market we had in 2005 and 2006.
This is kind of what I’m used to. It’s more sane. We’re happy it’s getting back to what we consider normal.
“As long as it’s priced right, it doesn’t matter if it’s a foreclosure, a short sale or a homeowner selling it, price is going to move it and that’s what we’re seeing,” Slye added.
While Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties saw large increases in the number of houses sold comparing this October to last October, Walton County saw just a slight increase.
Harper said Walton County is different because it is much more influenced by the sales of high-priced homes.
Most of their buyers are not first-time homebuyers and were not eligible for the tax credit.
“We would expect Walton to not grow quite so much in the months leading up to the deadline,” Harper said.
