General discussion & info about South Walton, Florida.

All About SoWal

Advertise or find a business, discuss business.

Business & Services

Jobs

Festivals, classes, gatherings, activities.

Events & Music

Food & Dining

Marketplace

property, realtors, builders, development, infrastructure ...

Real Estate

For Sale

Wanted

Other

Commercial

Long Term Rentals

Vacation Rentals

SoWal Lounge

Paula

Beach Fanatic

I was fully enjoying the cottages I bought in SoWal in 2003 and 2004, very happy that I've had almost 10 years of great memories with family and friends and hoping to enjoy them for many more decades.  Both of my kids have spent more than half their childhood building happy memories of enjoying the beach/pool/porch with the people they love, which is what I had hoped for when I bought the cottages.  They will grow into fine young adults with families of their own enjoying those cottages and the beach and SoWal.  And soon I get to enjoy the cottages more often with my sweetie.  Life is good in Sowal...

I was fully enjoying the cottages I bought in SoWal in 2003 and 2004, very happy that I&#039;ve had almost 10 years of great memories with family and friends and hoping to enjoy them for many more decades.  Both of my kids have spent more than half their childhood building happy memories of enjoying the beach/pool/porch with the people they love, which is what I had hoped for when I bought the cottages.  They will grow into fine young adults with families of their own enjoying those cottages and the beach and SoWal.  And soon I get to enjoy the cottages more often with my sweetie.  Life is good in Sowal...

homeboy

Beach Lover

[quote="kurt, post: 754145"]Where were you when the housing market rebounded in... [URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"]Read more[/URL]
[URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"]
[/URL]
 
 
[URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"][IMG]http://www.sowal.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Full_width_landscape_500/secondary-images/blog/monthly-quantity-of-sales.png[/IMG]
[/URL][/QUOTE]
 
Agents and owners have totally different points of view in this market as to the definition of a rebound.
AGENTS like Murray will say the market "rebounded" when SALES start moving upward as it directly effects their pockebooks. However, OWNERS will say the market rebounded when PRICES begin to rise as that is when it positively impacts their pocketbooks. 
 
A sustained increase is prices is a long, long way off.  Still too many short sales, foreclosures, concerns about the worldwide economey, etc out there.

<blockquote class="xfBb-quote" data-name="kurt">Where were you when the housing market rebounded in... <a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">Read more</a> 
<a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener"> 
</a> 
 
 
<a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener"><img src="http://www.sowal.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Full_width_landscape_500/secondary-images/blog/monthly-quantity-of-sales.png" alt="" /> 
</a></blockquote> 
Agents and owners have totally different points of view in this market as to the definition of a rebound. 
AGENTS like Murray will say the market &quot;rebounded&quot; when SALES start moving upward as it directly effects their pockebooks. However, OWNERS will say the market rebounded when PRICES begin to rise as that is when it positively impacts their pocketbooks. 
 
A sustained increase is prices is a long, long way off. Still too many short sales, foreclosures, concerns about the worldwide economey, etc out there.

Beach Runner

beats on hood

I remember champagne toasts in 2007 with some people we know who had just paid 1.15M cash for a lot. The one next to it sold for about 4K a couple of years after that. We all assumed that the boom would continue. We couldn't imagine that the economy would dive at it has since then. OOPS! :(

I remember champagne toasts in 2007 with some people we know who had just paid 1.15M cash for a lot. The one next to it sold for about 4K a couple of years after that. We all assumed that the boom would continue. We couldn&#039;t imagine that the economy would dive at it has since then. OOPS! :(

homeboy, did you actually read my article? Or, did you just make an assumption from the title that I believe the market HAS rebounded?

chanster

Banned

[b]economy tank? we haven't had a negative gdp quarter in 2 1/2 yrs.retails in boom[/b]

yes housing still sucks and unemployment still high but amny indicators doing well. and stocks prices up 100% since bottom

economy tank? we haven&#039;t had a negative gdp quarter in 2 1/2 yrs.retails in boom 
 
yes housing still sucks and unemployment still high but amny indicators doing well. and stocks prices up 100% since bottom

Bobby J

[quote="homeboy, post: 754962"]Agents and owners have totally different points of view in this market as to the definition of a rebound.
AGENTS like Murray will say the market "rebounded" when SALES start moving upward as it directly effects their pockebooks. However, OWNERS will say the market rebounded when PRICES begin to rise as that is when it positively impacts their pocketbooks. 
 
A sustained increase is prices is a long, long way off. Still too many short sales, foreclosures, concerns about the worldwide economey, etc out there.[/QUOTE]
 
You should probably read the article.  Murray is reporting on the market not speculation like your comments toward Murray.

<blockquote class="xfBb-quote" data-name="homeboy">Agents and owners have totally different points of view in this market as to the definition of a rebound. 
AGENTS like Murray will say the market &quot;rebounded&quot; when SALES start moving upward as it directly effects their pockebooks. However, OWNERS will say the market rebounded when PRICES begin to rise as that is when it positively impacts their pocketbooks. 
 
A sustained increase is prices is a long, long way off. Still too many short sales, foreclosures, concerns about the worldwide economey, etc out there.</blockquote> 
You should probably read the article. Murray is reporting on the market not speculation like your comments toward Murray.

[b]homeboys correct[/b]

its like me. i trade stocks for a living. i could care less wether the dows at 12k or 5k. as long as the mkt moves up and down i make money. same thing with real est. i'm willing to bet some agents are having one of there best yrs ever. Now how can that be when i look at cnbc and i see existing sales today are horrid and still never all time lows. the reason is sowal sales are brisker than most of the country is sowal prices started declining in 2007-2008 before most areas did and prices seem to have stabilized down 40% or more and people don't want to miss the upturn now although agents are making more sales than ever they have to sell 2 times as many homes as the early 2000's. due to house prices 1/2 of what they were

homeboys correct 
 
its like me. i trade stocks for a living. i could care less wether the dows at 12k or 5k. as long as the mkt moves up and down i make money. same thing with real est. i&#039;m willing to bet some agents are having one of there best yrs ever. Now how can that be when i look at cnbc and i see existing sales today are horrid and still never all time lows. the reason is sowal sales are brisker than most of the country is sowal prices started declining in 2007-2008 before most areas did and prices seem to have stabilized down 40% or more and people don&#039;t want to miss the upturn now although agents are making more sales than ever they have to sell 2 times as many homes as the early 2000&#039;s. due to house prices 1/2 of what they were

Homeboy does offer perspective, and frankly, everything is different based on one's perspective. A $300,000 home is very cheap to some and very expensive to others.  Each person will have their own idea of the market rebounding. If an owner bought in 1995 and didn't take a second note when the market shot up, chances are, they believe the market IS rebounding. They are an owner, as homeboy talked about, but they are in a different situation than an owner who bought at the market's peak. 

Please go back and read my article. You will see that I am talking about the market being in a state of rebound since the bottom of the market. It is true that median sales prices have not reached their highs of the market peaks. With "normal" annual growth of 7-8%, it will take several years for that to happen. However, median sales prices of homes has stabilized over the last four years, and in some particular local beach neighborhoods, we see an upward trend in the median sales prices.

While everyone is waiting to see when the market rebounds, many buyers are already changing the market and when the market HAS rebounded, people will be asking, "why didn't I see it coming?" You only recognize the lows and highs in hindsight. My graph shows you an upward push over several years since the bottom.

Homeboy does offer perspective, and frankly, everything is different based on one&#039;s perspective. A $300,000 home is very cheap to some and very expensive to others. Each person will have their own idea of the market rebounding. If an owner bought in 1995 and didn&#039;t take a second note when the market shot up, chances are, they believe the market IS rebounding. They are an owner, as homeboy talked about, but they are in a different situation than an owner who bought at the market&#039;s peak. 
 
Please go back and read my article. You will see that I am talking about the market being in a state of rebound since the bottom of the market. It is true that median sales prices have not reached their highs of the market peaks. With &quot;normal&quot; annual growth of 7-8%, it will take several years for that to happen. However, median sales prices of homes has stabilized over the last four years, and in some particular local beach neighborhoods, we see an upward trend in the median sales prices. 
 
While everyone is waiting to see when the market rebounds, many buyers are already changing the market and when the market HAS rebounded, people will be asking, &quot;why didn&#039;t I see it coming?&quot; You only recognize the lows and highs in hindsight. My graph shows you an upward push over several years since the bottom.

i agree murray. just like the stk mkt. one only sees the bottom in hind sight and thats why the ones who take a risk buying now could make big money.honestly i can;t see peak prices again for at least 10 yrs. i bought a home in jan 2009 almost 3 years ago for a steal and to this day only 1 out of 12 sales in my neighborhood has been sold cheaper than i paid. i should have flipped it and take a 150k profit and bought back now. lol

SHELLY

SoWal Insider

More area homes in are in the pipeline:

[B][SIZE="3"]Rosemary Beach makes Forbes' default list[/SIZE][/B]


Forbes ran a story on its website last week looking at America’s 100 most expensive zip codes that have the most defaulted home loans. Rosemary Beach, which is in the 69th most expensive zip code according to data from LPS Applied Analytics, ranked third in the nation with 9.9 percent of its active loans in default.



Read more: [url]http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/community-45416-rosemary-known.html#ixzz1eTChBSkz[/url]

More area homes in are in the pipeline: 
 
Rosemary Beach makes Forbes&#039; default list 
 
 
Forbes ran a story on its website last week looking at America’s 100 most expensive zip codes that have the most defaulted home loans. Rosemary Beach, which is in the 69th most expensive zip code according to data from LPS Applied Analytics, ranked third in the nation with 9.9 percent of its active loans in default. 
 
 
 
Read more: <a href="http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/community-45416-rosemary-known.html#ixzz1eTChBSkz" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/community-45416-rosemary-known.html#ixzz1eTChBSkz</a>

[quote="relax, post: 755098"]its like me. i trade stocks for a living. i could care less wether the dows at 12k or 5k. as long as the mkt moves up and down i make money. same thing with real est. i'm willing to bet some agents are having one of there best yrs ever. Now how can that be when i look at cnbc and i see existing sales today are horrid and still never all time lows. the reason is sowal sales are brisker than most of the country is sowal prices started declining in 2007-2008 before most areas did and prices seem to have stabilized down 40% or more and people don't want to miss the upturn now although agents are making more sales than ever they have to sell 2 times as many homes as the early 2000's. due to house prices 1/2 of what they were[/QUOTE]

 
The market is very local in nature.  It can change by the mile.  It operates a bit different then the stock market.  What you hear on cnbc might not hold true for the entire market of Real Estate along 30A.  For instance, Watercolor is on fire.  Last I heard over 40 homes were currently under construction!  And...  Sellers are speculating again in certain areas.  You are about to see a great deal of construction begin to occur around here.  Odd to understand if you follow the news but makes sense if you follow local sales.

<blockquote class="xfBb-quote" data-name="relax">its like me. i trade stocks for a living. i could care less wether the dows at 12k or 5k. as long as the mkt moves up and down i make money. same thing with real est. i&#039;m willing to bet some agents are having one of there best yrs ever. Now how can that be when i look at cnbc and i see existing sales today are horrid and still never all time lows. the reason is sowal sales are brisker than most of the country is sowal prices started declining in 2007-2008 before most areas did and prices seem to have stabilized down 40% or more and people don&#039;t want to miss the upturn now although agents are making more sales than ever they have to sell 2 times as many homes as the early 2000&#039;s. due to house prices 1/2 of what they were</blockquote> 
 
The market is very local in nature. It can change by the mile. It operates a bit different then the stock market. What you hear on cnbc might not hold true for the entire market of Real Estate along 30A. For instance, Watercolor is on fire. Last I heard over 40 homes were currently under construction! And... Sellers are speculating again in certain areas. You are about to see a great deal of construction begin to occur around here. Odd to understand if you follow the news but makes sense if you follow local sales.

Kurt

Admin

Where were you when the housing market rebounded in... [URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"]Read more[/URL]
[URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"]
[/URL]


[URL="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton"][IMG]http://www.sowal.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Full_width_landscape_500/secondary-images/blog/monthly-quantity-of-sales.png[/IMG]
[/URL]

Where were you when the housing market rebounded in... <a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">Read more</a> 
<a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener"> 
</a> 
 
 
<a href="http://www.sowal.com/blog/sowal-real-estate-report/where-were-you-when-the-market-rebounded-in-south-walton" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener"><img src="http://www.sowal.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Full_width_landscape_500/secondary-images/blog/monthly-quantity-of-sales.png" alt="" /> 
</a>

Column: Where Were You When the Market Rebounded in South Walton?

Grayton BeachCam

Dune Allen BeachCam

Seagrove Beach SkyCam

Inlet BeachCam

Miramar BeachCam Majestic Sun

Santa Rosa BeachCam

Blast on the Bay

Walton County Fair

Grayton Locals Market

Grayton Beach Wine Walk

2026 SoWal Sea Turtle Nesting Season Wrapup

After Hurricane Isaias: Photos of South Walton Beaches

Cars of 30A At Alys Beach: Event Highlights & Photo Gallery

Sixth annual Run Watersound At Watersound Town Center October 24, 2026

Support Our Parks: The 2026 Friends of Camp Helen Pumpkin Patch Is Open

Annual Events and Festivals in South Walton

No beachcams yet

More cams

Include enough context for a reply on the first pass: who you are, what this is about, and anything time-sensitive we should know.

Write a clear note and we will route it fast

SoWal Contact Form

What helps the SoWal team reply on the first pass

Use these links when your request already has a clear destination.

Prefer a direct route before you write?

Use this when you are not sure where your request belongs and need the SoWal team to route it.

Questions, corrections, and quick help

Share newsworthy updates, corrections, community tips, or photography that can improve SoWal coverage.

Story tips, local leads, and photos

Reach the team for business visibility, partnership planning, or other commercial opportunities.

Listings, sponsorships, and business requests

Use this path for media coordination, press follow-ups, or requests that need a communications contact.

Press outreach and interview requests

Tell us what you need and how to reach you.

Send your note here and the SoWal team will route it appropriately.

Choose the quickest route for your message

Forum account areas

Log in to view member profile, alerts, messages, watched content, bookmarks, preferences, and staff tools.

Member-only forum areas use your SoWal forum account.

Use your forum username or email to post, reply, follow threads, and manage your account.

Log in to the forum

Log in to the SoWal forum

Find people and visit their public forum profiles.

Members

Enter the six-digit code sent to {email}.

Check your email

Join the conversation

Welcome to SoWal

Sign in to SoWal

Signature preview

Ads support our local stories, BeachCams, and community guides. If you use an ad blocker, allow SoWal, then check again.

Help keep SoWal local

Your feedback helps us make SoWal better.

How was this story?

Get local stories, events, and South Walton highlights in your inbox.

Stay close to the coast

Choose whether SoWal may use optional cookies. Necessary cookies keep the site working.

Your privacy, your choice

Site navigation

Submenu

Bite-sized stories, curated itineraries, and community events delivered to your inbox on the regular.

Column: Where Were You When the Market Rebounded in South Walton?

Latest conversations

Write a reply

2026 SoWal Sea Turtle Nesting Season Wrapup

After Hurricane Isaias: Photos of South Walton Beaches

Cars of 30A At Alys Beach: Event Highlights & Photo Gallery

Sixth annual Run Watersound At Watersound Town Center October 24, 2026