The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) (“St. Joe”) releases its 2021 letter to shareholders and Annual Report on the company’s website at [URL='https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fir.joe.com&esheet=52670642&newsitemid=20220407006053&lan=en-US&anchor=ir.joe.com&index=1&md5=83e40194fd98f29fbc029477549a7d32']ir.joe.com[/URL]. The Annual Report pdf is also attached to this post. An excerpt from St. Joe CEO Jorge Gonzalez: We have seen other real estate cycles before in this part of Florida. However, this cycle feels different in ways that may be not obvious unless one looks at it carefully. Past cycles felt somewhat hollow with very high peaks and very low valleys. A major reason why they felt hollow is that past cycles were primarily driven by speculators - essentially capital looking for a place to land trying to time the cycle for short term profits. Like a game of musical chairs, when the music stopped, the speculators and their money left with little to no residual benefit to the area. The current cycle does not feel that way. It feels more substantive because it is not being driven by speculators purchasing homesites or vacation rentals to flip. Instead, it is being driven by individuals and families moving to live here full time. The other way it feels different is where people are coming from. Historically, this area attracted visitors and residents from a few metro markets in the Southeastern U.S. like Atlanta. We are still seeing residents and visitors from those traditional metro markets, but we are now seeing residents and visitors from many other parts of the country. As an example, in 2021, we had buyers from 25 states at the Watersound Origins community, our primary resident community in Walton County. The buyers came from California, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Connecticut among others and they included a mixture of families, empty nesters, and retirees.
