r e a l e s t a t e
Our Shining Season–Summertime at the Beach b y E r i n O d e n
O ur summer seasons have been consistent for many, many years. Without much thought, each year we expect our sugar white beaches to be bustling, full of smiling vacationers and locals. Our special coastal communities along Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast continue to be discovered by more and more who flock to our coast simply to enjoy time at the beach in a truly unique and idyllic setting. Summer is our shining season, the most popular time of the year, and a reminder to all to leave behind the business of life, head to the beach, slow down and unwind, and enjoy the simple pleasures of being on “beach time”. The initial months of 2020 brought us the unexpected and unprecedented Covid-19 global pandemic. At the time of this writing, the first week of April, we are hopefully anticipating that strong local quarantine efforts will be successful for our summer months ahead to return to normally and give us a true and typical “summer at the beach”. The inception of the new urban community of Seaside in the early 1980s laid the path for many other new urbanism beach towns to follow along our coast. New urbanism coastal towns have shown us what a perfect coastal beach town can be. A simpler, slower speed. These pedestrian-focused beach towns encourage us to downshift our pace, slide on our flip flops and hop on a bicycle. The new urbanism planned communities along our coast have been very successful in establishing the concepts of idyllic coastal living. Our many beach communities are diverse, each having their own unique and defined traits, yet, the charm of these coastal communities lends one commonality of a simple little luxury: time at the beach. The many years of strong real estate market trends confirms the significant demand for the lifestyle concepts that strategically planned communities lend us. These architectural significant coastal towns, founded on the principles of new urbanism, have established the highest quality of coastal living to be found. Buyers of beach properties in the early months of 2020 agree! Looking at the national home market, more homes sold in January and February of 2020 than any January and February over the past decade. Our local 30-A home market is fairly consistent with impressive and record high first quarter sales. Notably, March home sales along
the 30-A corridor exceeded $166 million, nearly $42 million higher (+34%) than March 2019 home sales. Many national real estate market analysts anticipate that a short-term pause of activity will move into strong sales performance with pent-up demand flowing when normal conditions return. With so much uncertainty and much opinions, we hope these solid statistics are helpful and encouraging. We hope to see you here this summer for some much- needed beach time! Referenced 30-A home market statistics according to data gathered from FLEX MLS for combined residential properties (detached residences, attached units, and condos only; EXCLUDES vacant land). Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Prepared compliments of Erin Oden, Coastal Luxury.
Erin Oden is the principal broker and owner of Coastal Luxury, a real estate firm that maintains a strong emphasis on intimate market knowledge and expertise in the luxury and Gulf-front market. Erin can be reached at (850) 502-1220 or erin@ coastalluxury.com. Or, stop by Coastal Luxury, located directly on 30A, the first office east of Alys Beach. Search all available properties at coastalluxury.com/ SEARCH.
Erin Oden
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