Properly Ponte Vedra Real Estate News From Jacquelyn Bates Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty
Fall 2016
How’s the Market? The eternal question! And for Ponte Vedra Beach, pretty much more of the same, which is not all bad! Low inventory, rising prices, and still a seller’s market. Our statistics mirror those of the state, which in August saw active inventory down 1.8% compared to 2015, closed sales up 8.2% over last year and the average sales price up 9.3%. Nocatee is booming and there’s little vacant land along 210 headed south. The traffic on A1A validates all this activity. And the new restaurants and businesses in Sawgrass Village are crowded and we hope thriving. All seems well and good.
What Else is Going On?
The Atlantic Magazine reports that the hot new millennial housing trend is communal living, a repeat of the Middle Ages and a return to how humans have been making their homes for thousands of years. With housing sizes shrinking, co-housing is increasing. And the new part is that people with whom they are sharing homes and lives are not just spouses or romantic partners. People are going a step further, making homes with friends and even strangers.
Conversely, Property Shark reports that homes built in the last six years are 74 percent larger than those built in the 1910’s. The average new home in America, be it condo or house, now spreads over 2430 square feet. I suspect that many of our new Ponte Vedra Beach homes are helping to inflate that average.
In September, consumer confidence rose to the highest level in nine years, a sign according the The Wall Street Journal that American households are emerging from the recession’s long shadow and could continue to support US economic growth.
Mortgage rates are forecast to stay low. In September, rates dipped to near yearly lows. 30-year fixed rates averaged 3.42 percent and 15-year fixed rates averaged 2.72 percent.
Nationwide, new home sales dipped in August, dropping 7.6 percent after surging in July to the highest level in nearly nine years. The decrease had been expected.
Sawgrass Village is bustling!
Best Buy What you've been waiting for! A jewel in Sawgrass Country Club, this handsome home on sought-after Sea Island Drive offers superior concrete block construction, a spacious open floor plan and a peaceful lake view. 3 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, library, chef’s kitchen, and upstairs bonus room. Over 4200 sq. ft. of gracious living.
$1,150,000
On A Personal Note Hurricane Matthew huffed and puffed but didn’t blow the house down here in Ponte Vedra Beach. We were grazed and graced by the recent storm that moved up our coast. For most of us in this part of the beaches, it meant wind and rain and more branches and leaves than real damage. Grace indeed. And earlier, oh what a summer! Hot, hot, hot! But lots of fun here at the beach with a month-long July visit with the three grandchildren and their mom from France. Daughter Jackie escorted the group to Atlantis in Nassau for a little glamour and glitz. Son Edward was busy with his real estate wheelings-and-dealings in Paris but came for a brief hello to escort the family home. And then for me a quick theatre trip to New York for Hamilton, Beautiful, and two Tony award-winning plays, The Humans and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. Jackie is enthusiastically pursuing her Master in Counseling degree at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. She is also busy with a teaching assistant position in career counseling at George Mason University. Husband Ty is busy keeping up with her and continuing his medical practice in addiction medicine at Kaiser Permanente. Please let me know if I can be busy with any of your real estate needs. I treasure your referrals.