At Sea30a.com the Emerald Coast Real Estate market is our business. Our market update series of blog posts will detail the most relevant market statistics for the areas we serve. Today we are going to do a statistical dive into Detached Single Family Homes in Inlet Beach priced over $1,000,000. These figures have a 1 month lag so the following information is accurate through the Month of January and is comparing the month of January in 2022 to January 2023. Lets take a look at the most recent data.
Compared to the previous January inventory levels have increased and sales are down. When looking at some of the metrics in more detail over a longer period of time we see some trends emerging.
Charts
Here are some charts that show some of the key individual metrics in more detail over a long time period.
Active Inventory
Active inventory is what is left at the end of the month. It gives you a proxy for demand.
Active inventory has increased and is expected to increase over the Spring and Summer because of the seasonal nature of our Real Estate market. Inventory levels have already increased because of a decrease in buyer activity in closed sales and now we anticipate active inventory to continue increasing in the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2023.
Closed Sales
Closed sales are a lagging indicator meaning it lags behind real time data. We look at this to see what has happened in the past. The seasonality of Real Estate impacts Closed Sales. We see a decline in closed sales from September - February and an increase in March - August. An increase in closed sales coincides with the peak rental season.
Months Supply of Inventory
Months supply of inventory = number of active listings / number of closed sales over a 12 month period. This describes what the marketplace is like from a broad perspective. Around 6 months is considered a balanced market, less than 6 months is a sellers market and more than 6 months is a buyers market. We are in the range of a sellers market but it is trending towards a balanced market. However, if you look back at the months supply inventory levels in early 2020 it is still roughly half.
Average Sales Price - This metric is considered the mean. It is the dollar volume / closed sales for each month. I often use the Median Sales Price to eliminate outlier but for this area outliers and large sales are more typical than in other areas where would instead use the Median Sales Price.
Cash Sales as a percentage of closed sales - Cash is a proxy for investors and investment activity.
We are seeing an increase in new inventory, days on market and the total months supply of inventory compared to last year in Inlet Beach. Investor / cash buyers have remained an active participant in the market heading into the upcoming peak selling season. Inventory levels are trending towards a market that broadly favors buyers over sellers.
