I am glad to see a calm attitude from most of the people on this Board who are concerned about property values, increasing carrying costs, etc. Real estate has always been and will always be a cyclical economic situation. And this is especially the case with resort/vacation properties. For those who intend to hold on, the largest increase in property values in South Walton is yet to come. It will occur with the opening of the new international airport. Now the question of whether this is good or not for the quality of life in the area is another topic.
We have had similar thoughts over the past year about our house at Grayton, whether we should sell it or keep it, what conditions the storms might bring, whether costs will continue to rise for insurance and maintenance. In my experience and considerable research of second home and investment properties throughout the U.S., the South Walton area is virtually unmatched for real estate value and the area's allure for dependable vacationers who are willing to pay very high prices for rental properties. We especially like the fact that we can rent our home during the hotter, more crowded months that are the demand period (not our fav time) and then it is available to us for at least 8 months out of the year. Just wish we could get away more often. Having fewer renters also translates into less wear and tear and lower utilities the rest of the year. You will not find a comparable situation anywhere else, including Hawaii, the CA coastal areas, and ski resorts.
There are definitely minuses to having a FL house, with the uncertainty of storms perhaps topping the list after the 2005 record-setting year. Also, we have to travel two full days to get there and back from CA and there are currently no direct flights. Driving would be out of the question. Many properties are pretty well topped out in terms of giant annual appreciation. I mean, where else besides HA or Manhattan do you see 2 bdrm/2 bath condos without water frontage selling in the $1M+ price range? But I believe healthy appreciation will continue at a more realistic and consistent pace after this lull. If appreciation is your primary objective in South Walton, the best is yet to come. If it's quality of life and vacation experience, you're there now and it may not get any better than this.
What we need is a more typical hurricane season and less speculation, combined with some hard core attention to preserving the quality of life in the area. The latter would include natural protection of the beaches, dunes, and biological habitat areas; control of commercial areas so that theme park and chain stores and formula food establishments do not proliferate; reasonable provision of supporting infrastructure with developer participation; some form of affordable housing requirement from developers and with the County effectively directing the use of some housing mitigation fees into built affordable/workforce housing. In fact, I would love to see an airport fee on all flights in and out of the new airport, with those fees going toward the provision of workforce housing. If cities can do this to build sports arenas, why not an essential such as workforce housing? Pensacola Airport now changes a $12 surcharge on every flight out of that airport.
Although these prices seem to have reached an apex in the minds of many, I can assure you that growing up in DeFuniak Springs, I never thought I would see homes there selling for a million dollars. That time is here, however. :rofl:
sberry123