Condo prices in the Palm Beach area have been on a steady rise for some time now. The average sale price of a condo or townhome in Palm Beach County was up 54% year over year in December.  According to the same market study produced by the Florida Association of Realtors, nearly 80% of all condo and townhome transactions in December 2012 were cash transactions.

To view this full report for December year-over year from the Florida Realtors click here.

To see the full 2012 report click here.

Demand for condos and townhomes continues to increase. With no new significant supply coming to the market any time soon prices have only one direction to move. Don’t wait until prices get too high!

Condos for sale at The Edge in Downtown West Palm Beach have been selling fairly quickly.  Take a look at today’s inventory for condos for sale at The Edge by clicking here.

It’s looking more and more likely that Downtown West Palm Beach will be the one and only stop in Palm Beach County for the privately funded high-speed commuter train scheduled to connect Orlando to Miami by 2015.  The Sewell Hardware warehouse located along the tracks at Quadrille and Evernia was purchased by Florida East Coast Industries for $2.5 million according to the Palm Beach Post.

One can only speculate the positive impact this will have on surrounding condominium projects like City Palms, South Tower at CityPlace, The Edge and The Whitney.  Prices of condos in these buildings have been rising steadily for the past few quarters.  This is just another catalyst pushing the sustained growth of Downtown West Palm Beach.  Don’t wait until prices get too high – contact us today!

Click here for additional information reported on this story by the Palm Beach Post.

Lets keep our fingers crossed.  There are still hurdles to jump, but it seems as though two new projects are at least moving in a forward direction.  The proposed Convention Hotel will be built on the parcel of land just west of City Place South Tower, while the old City Hall site on Banyan and Olive will be home to one of three remaining proposals awaiting a final decision.  One obstacle for the old City Hall site is whether or not to abide by the 5 story height restrictions or to give an exemption for the site.  Click on the following links to Palm Beach Post articles to read updated information on each project.                                                                         Convention Hotel Project  |  Old City Hall Site

According to Realtor.com search statistics, West Palm Beach comes in ahead of both Ft. Lauderdale and Miami as the most heavily searched metropolitan area in South Florida.  In fact, West Palm Beach was ranked 16^th in the entire nation!  The Monthly Housing Summary posted on Realtor.com shows listing inventory decreasing more than 15% year over year and median list prices increasing over 7.25%!  Take advantage of today’s great marketplace.  Check out some of the current Downtown West Palm Beach listings at Two City Plaza, The Edge West Palm or live directly on the water at The Slade.  Email us if you have any questions.

Today was a day that many of us who live in the Downtown West Palm Beach area have waited for since April – the West Palm Beach Green Market at the Waterfront opened its doors for the season.  Held right outside of the entrance to 101 Lofts and just footsteps away from the Esplanade Grande and Two City Plaza, local growers, bakers and natural product innovators bring their products to the waterfront each Saturday for downtown residents to browse and buy.  For a full list of all vendors, hours of operation and other great information click here to visit the Green Market website.

The Palm Beach Post is reporting that a new economic study is projecting the Outlet Mall will create up to $82 million in annual wages with a $319 million impact on the local area. The Post was citing a fiscal impact study quoted by West Palm Beach City Planning Manager, Rick Green, boasting this new improvement to the Downtown West Palm Beach area will support 1,576 full-time employees, 2,426 permanent jobs and 249 temporary construction jobs that will last for two years and will pay workers $23.5 million.

Click here for a link to the article from The Post.

The number of listings coming on the market from individual owners has increased 14.5%, showing signs of increased market confidence from property owners.  Buyers are agreeing with their Seller counterparts as shown with Pending Sales rising 54.9%.  Both Average and Median Sales Prices are up in that same period, 12.7% and 8.6% respectively.

Here’s the reality, Buyers are buying and Sellers are selling.  The days of lowball offers are over.  Most Sellers won’t even counter a lowball offer.    Inventory of homes for sale has gone down 40.4%, and it’s taking less than half the amount of time it would have taken to sell last year at this time.  More and more Sellers are contracting at or near their list price due to a lack of inventory in certain markets.  Looking at these statistics, we’re seeing clear signs of the market improving in favor of the Seller for the first time in nearly 5 years!

Buyers shouldn’t feel that they’re left out in the cold.  According to the Housing Affordability Index, which looks at the level of affordability when comparing median home pricing to average interest rates and median household incomes, this is the most affordable time to purchase a home since the index was created in 1970.

Real estate is a slow moving asset class.  Unlike the stock market which can jump up and down in value and volume in a matter of minutes, the real estate market takes months to see signs of consistent movements in volume and value.  If you’ve been thinking about making a move in the South Florida real estate market, but haven’t done so yet, NOW is the time to act.

Times have changed.  The common thought among buyers over the past few years has been to make lowball offers on short sales, REO’s, foreclosures and even regular resales to see what kind of a “deal” they can get.  Today, that strategy doesn’t work.  Not only does the strategy no longer work, it can even hurt you.  With less and less inventory on the market, buyers are flocking to the same properties.  Some properties are seeing multiple offers, even bidding wars, reminiscent of the market heights of 2006.

We’ve seen inventory levels in the Palm Beach market place recently return to a “normal” level of approximately 6 months of available inventory.  With fewer homes, townhomes and condominiums to choose from, buyers are flocking to the same high quality/best value properties.  Buyers wanting to get a deal with the lowball mentality have found themselves in the bidding pool of other buyers, usually surrounded by higher priced offers.  Given this, most sellers won’t even bother making a counter offer to the lower offers received, regardless of cash or financing.

What’s the moral of the story here?  Real Estate is a location specific business and the market is bouncing back from the bottom in this location.  There are more buyers out there today than in years past.  Bank owned and short sale inventory has mostly been cleaned up.

Our advice: find a property you want to buy (preferably with Palm Beach Condo Company representing you) and make a strong offer.  Chances are very high that you’ll be happy with your purchase 5 years from now.

Photo Courtesy of Forrest Johnson

The 27^th Annual Palm Beach International Boat Show kicks off today at the waterfront in downtown West Palm Beach.  Over the next four days visitors to the show will be browsing up and down the packed rows of yachts and power boats, gazing at an inventory estimated at over $350 million.  With this being the last major boating sales event in South Florida for the season, one would expect that boat owners are going to be negotiating hard to complete transactions.  According to Thom Dammrich, President of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, buyers have been looking to expand their boating experiences with larger boats, citing an increase in sales in the 30-foot to 60-foot range.  Overall sales for the industry are up 5% so far this year.

For all of the browsers dreaming about owning their own mega yachts, Andrew Doole, senior VP with Show Management, says that this year’s show will have more mega yachts than in years past with 40 in-water boat slips at the Palm Harbor Marina at the north end of the show’s dock space.

For more information on the Palm Beach International Boat Show please click here.

http://www.showmanagement.com/palm_beach/event/