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Daily Real Estate News | June 8, 2007 |
Storm Fears Slow Gulf Coast Market
Fear of more storms has knocked the pins out of the resort market from Pensacola, Fla., to Gulf Shores, Ala.
It’s a buyer’s market, real estate professionals say, with an abundance of new and old properties at marked-down prices.
Tommy Brigham, CEO of Birmingham, Ala.-based RealtySouth, estimates prices along the Gulf Coast have dropped about 35 percent, even in the upper range. Condominiums that were priced at $1 million or more are selling for $650,000 to $750,000, he says.
Home prices along the coast were shaky to begin with, he says. "Prices in that area a couple of years ago reached a point where they were not within reach of a broader market," he says. "Now there seems to be some bottom-fishing going on."
Rising insurance costs is also another factor. Semoon Chang, an economist at the University of South Alabama, estimates that insurance premiums have tripled for many waterfront property owners. A hurricane deductible of 2 percent, or a minimum of $1,000, is also being applied to every policy, according to the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association.
Source: Newhouse News Service (06/08/07)
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