Rosemary Newsletter 2012

Happy 2012!? To kick off the New Year, I would like to offer an overview of Rosemary Beach home sales from 1999 to the present.

1999

The unique Rosemary Beach community is off to a wonderful start with seven properties sold. Sales prices ranged from $268-$657 per sq. ft.

2000

Slowly the vision begins to take shape.

Three properties were sold ranging from $342-$829 per sq. ft.

Click on image below to see the full size graph

2001

Similar to 2000, five properties were sold at $354-$738 per sq. ft.

2002

Word is getting out about the beauty and charm of Rosemary Beach. 10 homes sold from $284-$815 per sq. ft.

2003

Rosemary is expanding with more home sales at higher prices. This year, 25 homes were sold, ranging from $282-$1,042 per sq. ft.

2004

Prices rose, yet Rosemary Beach had a very strong sales year, with 60 homes sold. Prices ranged between $271 and $1,365 per square foot.

2005

Prices were generally moving higher as you can see by the per sq. ft. pricing. Even though there were fewer sells than the prior year. Twenty-six properties are sold at from $413-$1,131 per sq. ft.

2006

The year saw the number of buyers interested in buying at these price points fall significantly. Nevertheless, Rosemary Beach prices showed substantial gains. This was reflected in sales of seven properties at prices between $521 and $1,549 per square foot.

2007

As home prices declined sales came right back up, and 23 homes sold. Pricing per square foot ranged from $385 to $1,300. It is important to note that one gulf front house did sell for $1,751 per sq. ft. but it was taken out of the statistics because it was an exceptional property and didn't accurately reflect what was going on with other properties in the market. The two other gulf front properties sold at $1,112 and $1,300 per sq. ft.

2008

Only a small number of Rosemary Beach sellers were willing to price their properties low enough to attract buyers into the market. Still, 11 homes sold at prices that ranged from $355 to $909 per square foot. Prices were little changed from the prior year, but the high-end price is misleading because no gulf front houses were sold during 2008.

2009

More sellers began to offer their homes at prices that were attractive to buyers. There were 17 sales, with prices per square foot of $382 to $1,300. Although it appears that 2009 was the third consecutive year in which pricing stayed roughly the same, in 2009, more homes sold that were on the low end of the price scale than had sold in the prior two years.

2010

Prices continued to fall, but this was once again met with very strong sales. There were 38 homes sold at prices that ranged between $240 and $963 per square foot. Most sales occurred before the news of the oil spill broke. Despite a strong start, the oil spill made sales virtually vanish over the summer. Once people saw that the spill did not have an effect on Rosemary Beach, buyers began to return to the market near the end of the year. As was the case in 2008, the high-end price is a little misleading as only one gulf front house sold in 2010, making the upper end price appear low.

2011

The Rosemary Beach housing market continued to stabilize, with 35 properties selling between $249 and $1,604 per square foot. With a high number of sales for the second consecutive year, we rate it as a good year overall for Rosemary Beach. In 2011, people realized that the oil spill did not impact Rosemary. Prices actually rebounded a bit, and the year saw strong sales in all home types, including four gulf front homes.

2012

The pricing of the distinctive, diverse and exclusive homes at Rosemary Beach is less predictable than at other communities. Architecture and design is uncharacteristically unique, making it impossible to offer an "average" home price. A better feel for the market is found by examining price ranges on different types of properties. These ranges and the graphs included allow us to offer breakdown pricing for houses north of 30a and south of 30a, as well as gulf view and gulf front homes.

There are no "average" homes at Rosemary Beach because the community itself is not ordinary. Nonetheless, our area is not immune to market conditions and corrections. Pricing at Rosemary Beach is more of an art than a science.