A couple of Saturdays ago I knocked on the door of a recently Expired listing and handed the man of the house some targetted pricing materials and my Premium Marketing Plan. He was working too, we bid adieus and he said come back again. A few days later I knocked and met the lady of the house. She greeted me kindly, appreciating my entrepreneurialship, and we spoke briefly about her intentions and her Key West life. Chaming. She agreed to accept follow-on information but cautioned me, “this neighborhood carries extra pricing power” so make sure you calculate that in.
Which Old Town Key West neighborhood is the priciest?
An economist or businessman might explain the perception of Mrs. Seller as that of "goodwill". Mercedes automobiles, tall, leggy models and the Key West zip code, 33040, all carry some measure of added worth merely by their presence. Fair or not, over time and based on performance, the consumer has established a value above and beyond the actual value of the asset, aka Goodwill.
OK then, what about the value of this ladies fine neighborhood and how does it compare to the other neighborhoods that comprise the mostly Old Town area of Key West?
The priciest neighborhoods in Key West are The Meadows, Old Town, Casa Marina and Truman Annex. The Meadows is the smallest of these. In the late 1800's and early 1900's The Meadows was grassland and contained the Key West dairy. Old Town contains the first homes of Key West which generally are wood frame structures from the mid 1800's to 1930's. Casa Marina is a section of New Town. It lays south of Old Town and was an area established by Old Town's well-to-do who wanted some elbow room - Key West's first suburb. Truman Annex sits on former US Navy property. It lay fallow for years until developed in the late 1980's. Homes here replicate Old Town in construction and style.
You can see these neighborhoods in a map here.
All neighborhood sales are for single family homes except Truman Annex which adds condos and townhomes.
I searched each of these neighborhoods for sales beginning Jan 1, 2012 to Sep 27, 2012. No price restrictions. I then averaged the data, resulting in average sales price and price per square foot ($/SqFt). The graphic also shows the number of sales per neighborhood. The sale price range for Casa Marina and Old Town was similar, $200,000 to $2M. Casa Marina has the highest average sales price but Truman Annex has the highest cost per square foot. This is due entirely to Truman Annex building only upper end properies and therefore having little diversity in the type of properties - no homes in my search have sold there for under $600,000.
I further broke down the sales by total sales and price ranges of $750,000 to $1M and $1M+. Over half of the Casa Marina sales, 14 of 22, are over $750,000, whereas less than half of Old Town sales, 17 of 37, made the $750,000 threshold. Truman Annex has had only 12 sales but 7 topped $750,000.
In 2006, the average residential sales price was over $950,000 so even though present sales numbers look good, they remain well off their highs. For some historical perspective, here's a rundown of single family home sales and prices for these areas before and after the bubble dating from Jan 1, 2000 to Jun 30, 2012.
So, where does this leave us?
Simply stated, no one neighborhood dominates another. A Realtor must know the Big picture, the Neighborhood picture and the picture your home displays to Buyers. True, there has been a steady drop off in total Key West inventory, but they are mostly lesser priced homes.
There remains an abundance of single family homes priced from $750,000 and higher. The range of $1M to $1.5M is thick with desireable homes. It is incumbent upon Seller and Realtor to price homes to sell and for the Realtor to display property for sale throughout the Marketing arena; internet, social media, print and personal actions that will attract the stay-at-home and Mobile Buyer.
Good luck.
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