What can I say about real estate here in the Island City?
Quite a lot, as it turns out! But I am limited in space, so I’ll just share the highlights.
The same basic trends that I outlined in my main article in this issue also are in force in Wilton Manors. Sales are up, supply is down, months of inventory are at historic lows, and prices are at historic highs.
When considering Wilton Manors real estate, I believe it is most beneficial to evaluate the three parts of the city: West (meaning west of Andrews), Center (Andrews to the train tracks), and East (east of the train tracks). Recently I’ve broken East Wilton down into non-waterfront and waterfront homes, for reasons that I’ll explain in a moment.
The main table here shows summary statistics for the Island City. Year over year, the median home price increased 23% in West Wilton, 16% in Center Wilton, 26% among non-waterfront homes in East Wilton, and 27% for waterfront East Wilton homes. Inventory has dropped below three months, except for waterfront properties in East Wilton, where there is a bit more available. In short, it’s a sellers’ market on steroids.
Chart 1.
Consider the gap in prices between waterfront and non-waterfront properties in East Wilton. Clearly, people are willing to pay handsomely to have waterfront in East Wilton — roughly $300,000 more than for a comparable non-waterfront property. Hence my decision to break the two classes out separately.
Now, take a look at the second chart. We are now seeing an increasing number of sales in Wilton at more than one million dollars. Generally, these are waterfront homes in East Wilton (there are some exceptions). Between January 2016 and December 2019 there were only 10 sales at one million dollars or higher, total. Already this year, through September, there were 22 sales at more than a million.
Chart 2.
Those are prices previously thought to exist for neighborhoods like Coral Ridge, Coral Ridge Country Club Estates, and The Landings. But no — people are increasingly willing to spend more than a million dollars to live in Wilton.
Bear in mind I’m only talking about single-family home sales here — condos and townhomes are excluded. (Their prices are also going up substantially.) Yet the fact remains that with the run-up in prices in the last several years (and this year in particular), many people can no longer afford to live in Wilton Manors. No, no one has a divinely (or Divine-ly, take your pick) ordained right to live in the Island City. However, the reality is that many people work in Wilton, and increasingly we have workers who are housing stressed or insecure providing goods and services to well-heeled vacationers and a local moneyed elite. True, this is also the case with San Francisco, Palm Springs, Rehoboth, Provincetown and many other places. We are just part of that mainstream, now.
James Oaksun, Florida's Real Estate Geek (SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Fort Lauderdale. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).
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