Blog Northwest Florida

What to do on a lazy sunny Easter afternoon on the Gulf Coast? (It's 70 degrees, by the way.) This girl hit the road! The Gulf Breeze Arts and Crafts Festival was a great start!

 A glass artist in his booth.                                         This artist makes airplanes from Coke cans (Pepsi too!)

There's always something going on in Florida's Panhandle

I met this couple at the Gulf Islands National Seashore (view toward Pensacola Beach). They were on vacation, escaping the snow, and planning a drive up the coast to Mobile, AL. I was able to give them info. on the landmarks along the way. They'll enjoy fine dining in Fairhope, AL this evening!

Lots to do! Now it's almost time for a spectacular Gulf Coast sunset . . . better hunt up a glass of wine!

What a FABULOUS weekend in Pensacola - Northwest Florida. The sun was out, the tourists were out, I was out! It doesn't get much better than this. According to our Chamber of Commerce we should be in for a record tourism season.

Chaser was abandoned at the dog park. The ladies at the Garden Gate in Gulf Breeze took him in and now he lives  in a paradise of petunas and puppy pats.                                                                                                                                                               

                                            The view out across the Bay

The Perdido Key Kid's Park was a busy place.

Emerald Dolphin Balcony View - Pensacola Beach

What an AMAZING day. Much too pretty to stay inside . . . I took my camera out with me. Thought some of you might enjoy these photos!

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 Palafox Street - Downtown Pensacola                                        Downtown Marina

In a near record slow market for our area, 22 months of inventory, I recently put a $239,900 home under contract at full price within two days. How? The home was meticulously maintained and the seller, while upside down like many today, was well educated about the local market and absolutely realistic.

Gulf Breeze, FL Home - Priced Right, Sold Quickly 

We have to do our best, for our clients and ourselves, to explain the real market picture . . . ugly as it might be for a seller. I'd hazard a guess that I'm not the only one who has chased the market down with more than one listing over the past year or so. Everyone suffers in this scenario.

I remember the advice that the best time to buy is when you need to . . . same goes for selling and it isn't always when the market is hot.

Just like Oprah, women in the Greater Pensacola Bay Area (Florida) have found a way to GIVE BIG. How do you turn $1,000 into $563,000 in just four years? Read on . . .

In 2004, a group of concerned women came together with the goal of each contributing $1,000 and recruiting a total of 100 women willing to donate $1,000 a year in order to make a difference. Pensacola's IMPACT 100 was born, one of several IMPACT organizations around the country. Pensacola's group exceeded their first year goal, recruiting 233 women and putting $233,000 into the hands of local non-profit organizations.

Fast forward to 2008, and you will find this dynamic group of ladies going strong. Their ranks have grown to an incredible 563, meaning local non-profits will receive an infusion of $563,000 in funds this year!

IMPACT is a women-only, all volunteer group focusing its efforts on five community service sectors: arts and culture, education, environment, recreation and preservation, family, and health and wellness. Contributions this year will fund five grants of $112,600 each. In addition to giving women who care about their community an avenue to make a difference, the organization provides IMPACT members a broad education on local non-profits and their needs which has led to greater philanthropy overall.

One of the first projects funded by IMPACT 100 was remodeling and furnishing a clinic building and stocking medical supplies and medications for the Good Samaritan Clinic. The Clinic provides free quality health care and free medications to working, medically uninsured residents.  As a result of the 2004 grant, doctors and nurses donated over 1900 hours in 2005, lay volunteers provided over 4200 hours, more than 1500 patients were treated (over 70% women) and 75 patients were referred to and accepted by local health professionals for care that was not available at the clinic.

To bring help of this type to a community provides benefits that are hard for those of us with insurance and access to good health care to imagine, and there can be no price placed on witnessing the good works first hand and knowing you played a part. One young man who came to the clinic with problems with his eyesight was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor for which he was referred for surgery. Without access to the clinic he may not have sought help until it was too late to save his vision.

Bravo to the women of Pensacola's IMPACT 100. Just one example of the many reasons we love to call Pensacola home!

Alright, alright, I'm tired of hearing that Florida has a big X across it as far as investors are concerned. Even though our second home buyers have become more scarce and our home prices have slipped from their '05/'06 highs, Northwest Florida has some pretty exciting things going on. Small and high-tech businesses take note!

Pensacola is sandwiched between Mobile, AL, to our west and Eglin, AFB, to our east (Fort Walton Beach, FL, Crestview, FL). In between are miles of pristine white sand beaches, comparatively affordable housing and LOTS of opportunity for growing businesses. Let me explain.

Mobile, AL, a short 50 minute drive from Pensacola, has just been announced as home to the joint venture between Northop Grumman and European Air Defense to build 179 air tankers at an estimated cost of $30 to $40 billion over the next 10 to 15 years. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 jobs will be created. This announcement came on the heels of German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp decision to build a plant in the area which will employ approximately 2,700.

Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Air Force Base are just to the east of Pensacola. A 2005 study by the University of West Florida's Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development estimated that the military spending for the previous year from the two bases amounted to $2.2 billion for a total economic impact to the region of $6.6 billion.

In part because of military spending, the area has seen the development of a growing cluster of high tech businesses (App River, Epoch Software Systems, AeroVironmental, SimWright, Separation Systems and more). The Pensacola Chamber of Commerce is spearheading an economic development effort, dubbed  iTen Wired, to promote synergy between the burgeoning high tech industry that is growing on Interstate 10 between Mobile, AL, and Crestview, FL. 

In addition to iTen Wired, here are a few of the initiatives being undertaken in Pensacola: 

iTen Wired just held a well attended networking summit for high tech businesses in Mobile.

The City of Pensacola will be building a small business incubator in downtown Pensacola.

The University of West Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition plans an expanded campus including offices, classrooms, labs and even a residential component in downtown Pensacola. The Institute, along with the recently opened Andrews Orthopedic Institute, have found a niche focusing on improving human performance and technology transfer.  

A Maritime Park, including a multi-use stadium, a museum, laboratory (Univ. of West FL), retail space and open park space is scheduled to break ground this summer on the Pensacola waterfront. An estimated 1500 jobs will result from this major downtown project.

Want to know more? I'll be happy to share!

I received an inquiry tonight from a student, Sallie, studying real estate in Texas. She had an assignment to talk with a Florida Realtor and ask for a comparision between our market two years ago and our market today, as well as what we thought the future would hold. I thought I would post my answer to Sallie here.

Sallie - Thank you for your inquiry. The answers to your questions are complicated. Here is my best shot:

Although I am licensed in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi and sell in all three states, my primary market is the Pensacola Bay area (or the Panhandle) of Florida. There are differences in all three markets and you said you needed an answer from a Florida Realtor so I will answer your question for the Pensacola Bay area.

In September 2004, hurricane Ivan hit the Panhandle of Florida. At that time we had a very active buyer's market with two years of rapid appreciation (double digits for our beach and waterfront properties). Hurricane Ivan was a devastating hurricane which affected most of my primary market area, but beach and waterfront properties were especially hard hit. For example, it is estimated that approximately 70% of the single family homes on Pensacola Beach were uninhabitable following the hurricane. This had a dramatic impact on our market as most Realtors with listings saw them go at or above asking price within six weeks of the hurricane. People who had lost homes and were in the position to buy homes did so as there was little rental inventory and they knew rebuilding would be a slow and tedious process.

2005 year's end saw an average of 5.5 months of inventory on the market. The average list price was $207,879 and the average sales price was $202,295. Contractors were few and far between and recovery was slow. Many people had difficulty collecting from their insurance companies as Florida was hit by five major hurricanes in 2004. To make matters worse, Hurricane Dennis slammed the Pensacola Bay area in July of 2005, damaging many of the homes that were being repaired from Hurricane Ivan.

In 2006 we saw more inventory come on the market. By year's end the inventory had risen to 11.83 months with an average list price of $212,478 and an average sales price of $204,161. There were many factors leading to this inventory jump. Insurance rates increased dramatically, especially for those with waterfront and coastal flood plain properties. At the same time property taxes increased reflecting the escalating sales prices which began in late 2002, and the additional costs borne by Florida counties related to hurricane clean up.

By January of 2007 we were firmly in a buyer's market in Northwest Florida. Condominiums on Pensacola Beach are down as much as 35% from their highs of late summer 2004. We currently have 14.29 months of inventory. Of interest is that our average list price is holding steady at $212,200, and the average sales price of $204,507 is just slightly above the 2006 year end figure. In addition to the hurricane woes, people are nervous about the overall economy, the war and the stock market fluctuations.

While I wish I had a crystal ball, in truth I don't. My best guess is that the Florida legislature will be forced to get serious about both insurance reform and property tax reduction. These things move slowly, so I don't look for an immediate recovery in our area. However, Florida has long been a retirement Mecca and if Northwest Florida dodges additional hurricanes, we should see continued growth based on demographic trends which show the baby boomer retirement peak coming in approximately 2012. In a recent article in the Pensacola News Journal, Rick Harper, PHD, Director of the Haas Business Center at the University of West Florida, said that these demographic trends would "trump" the negatives in the marketplace in the near future. We are starting to see the "smart money" - early investors - cherry picking the beach and waterfront properties that are now undervalued. What that tells me is that there has never been a better time to buy in Northwest Florida!

Best of luck with your class!