Destin Housing Market

A lot of people want to know about the current housing market in Destin. There are people that are just now getting started in the purchasing process, and there are a lot of people that have been browsing around just kind of keeping an eye on the market for the past year or two and are ready to move forward. So, lots of people curious about the current housing market. Just so they know what they're getting theirselves into before making that step forward. So, if you're getting ready to make a purchase in the Destin area or if you're curious about the Destin market, stay tuned, got some information for you.

Alright. So, the Destin housing market, we are coming towards the end of the year 2022. So, things have changed a bit over the past year and nothing has got a little crazy with the market in the area. Lots of people or sellers, they were listing pretty high, and they're still getting a lot of buyers putting in offers which ended up in multiple offer situations. Sellers are not having paid concessions and really getting their homes under contract pretty quickly. Previously, buyers had great interest rates. But lately, we have seen the change throughout the year to where it did change a bit from a year ago.

There are a lot of homes that are sitting on the market a little bit longer than what we're used to. Which gives it time for buyers to feel like they don't have to rush that it gives them time to look around other houses and really narrow down what it is that they want and what they like and find something within their budget. Of course, and don't feel like they have to overbid and put themselves in a bad position later on. So, it's a less sweat for the buyers out there. Maybe not so great for sellers, especially the ones that are in a strict timeline to sell, you know, and have to do price reductions just to keep the attention of the buyers. So, we're seeing that a lot lately, not as much competition between buyers. Again, I haven't been in a lot of situations to where my buyers were competing against other buyers so they are able to type up an offer that was comfortable for them without coming out of pocket so much more than what they were comfortable with.

I have noticed too that during open houses, there's not as much foot traffic to these open houses. There are times where no one shows up. Even if it's a beautiful day out and, you know, there's no football game or ball game going on, people just aren't showing up. They're kind of stepping up as, you know, a lot of buyers are taking a step back, especially because the interest rates are so high. And the inventory isn't as great as it was a year ago from now. And there are buyers that are just not willing to settle, which is absolutely fine because, you know, but this big purchase don't want to settle if you're not a hundred percent happy with the house or not a hundred percent but eighty five, ninety percent happy with the house to put an off her and move forward.

And I noticed too with the investors. I do have some investors that are not willing to overbid for investment properties or they're not going to settle for something just because, you know, they have it looks great that their rental history doesn't look as great. Kind of make some nervous too. And interest rates are high for them as well for those investors that are still financing.

However, the cash buyers are are still out there winning. That hasn't changed much. But just to kind of go into the numbers going back three months, so really August through November of 2022 in the same time frame as last year in 2021. Let's start with single family homes. The median original list price or single family homes, we're talking about 4-bedroom, 3-bath, is $935,000. And the median sales price currently is $830,000. So that's a lot less. That's over a hundred thousand dollars less than the original list price. And a year ago, the median list price is $848,000 and the median sales price is $840,000. So, it was still a little bit lower, but just not as huge of a gap as it is right now. And currently, the average days on market for a single family home is 17 days. A year ago, it was like 9-10 days. So, we're seeing homes sit, again, they sit longer a week or more longer than what we're seeing last year in 2021.

For townhomes, it's still a hot commodity. Townhomes and condos in the Destin area. Of course, a lot of people are still looking for great investment properties or even second homes. And there's still a lot of people that are wanting to relocate to the area and start with something a little smaller, less maintenance such as townhomes and in condos. So it's still a great commodity out here in the area. But currently, the median list price for a townhome is $340,000. And this is for a 3-bedroom, 3-bath townhome. And the median sales prices, it's just $340,000. And the days on market is 16 days. So, it's still taking a little bit longer. However, at least it's not taking a month or so, like, some of the housing in other areas. But, yeah, it's just a couple weeks, a little over a couple weeks is the average data market. Now, a year ago, the median list price for townhome was $367,000. So, it was much higher a year ago from now. And the median sales price was $357,000. So, that's about 10k lower than the original list price. And the median number of days on market a year ago was 12 days. So, a little bit less, less time to to sell than it was a year from now. Again, things have changed. Things have slowed down a bit. We're in the middle of a market shift. So, great thing for buyers, maybe not so great for sellers.

Now for condos. You know, looking at a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo. The original list price currently is, the median list price, I'm sorry, is $599,000 with the median sales price being $581,000. So, again, there's a price drop there. Each difference between the time it's listed to what it actually sells for. A year ago, the median list price for a condo, 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo is $525,000. And then, this median sales price was $512,000. So again, it was lower than the original list price. I did look back in the history of those sales for condos. The ones, you know, most of the ones that did sell for less than what it was listed for. There were a lot of cash buyers. So, of course, cash buyers, they can offer less than the asking price while competing with other buyers' needs that are offering the asking price. But cash buyers will still win even though their offer is a little bit lower because it's just a lot less to do with when it comes to cash deals. A lot less involved in the transaction, so it's more ideal for sellers. And, it gives them a chance to close pretty quickly too. So, it's either cash buyers or the ones that were financing. Some of these didn't appraise up to the list price. So, they did have to come down on the price in order to close. And for condos, currently, the average days on market is 19. A year ago, in 2021, it was about 17 days. So, it's still close enough. Close to, you know, the time of spending on the market.  Again, there are a lot of investors that are still out there. However, they're not fighting as much if the numbers just don't make sense to them, especially with the interest rates still being a bit a bit up there, I should say.

So, to recap, yes, the Destin Housing Market just as many other places in the surrounding areas or even other states, it is shifting. It'd be, you know, not as competitive. However, the interest rate is still a concern for the buyers. But, hopefully will see a big change in that too. There are a lot of sellers that are having to do price reductions in order to sell, unfortunately. Again, that's, you know, good for buyers, not so great for sellers, but it's just the shift that we're seeing right now coming towards the end of 2022. So, it's just, again, not as much sweat for the buyers as they were having a hard time before up to a year ago toward you know, having to come out of pocket so much more money and, you know, competing or having to hurry up and feel like they have to rush to make a decision to put in an offer before someone else gets the deal. It's calm down. It's calm down quite a bit currently in 2022. So, that's pretty good again for those that are out there looking to purchase.

Well, if you have any questions or want to know more about the Destin housing market, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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