About Tallahassee's Southwood

There are millions of baby boomers around the world trying to decide where to retire, and if long-term reader "Bill" has anything to with it, they are going to choose Tallahassee.

Bill has given the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog great feedback over the years, and his recent comments center on the fact that Tallahassee needs population growth to help the housing market recovery, and courting retirees could be a very wise part of this solution.

We have folks running around trying to attract new business and get "visitors" yet there appears to be no concerted effort to market Tallahassee as a great place to retire. Retirees are clean industry with lots of disposable income -- and a good solution for turning around the housing market and home values. - Bill Z

He adds that Tallahassee is "sorta just like home" for many who come here, so getting Tallahassee into the running for "where to retire" should not be hard to do.

People Want To Know Where To Retire

According to Google, the popular search engine is asked "where to retire" 22,126 times each day in the US alone. It seems as if finding where to retire is a very popular question right now, and we need to get the word out that Tallahassee is a very suitable answer.

There are so many logical reasons that Tallahassee could become a top destination for people who are looking for "the next phase of their life." As Bill pointed out in his message, Tallahassee is

• not South Florida
• hilly
• blessed with four seasons
• seasonal, but with benign winters
• oozing "home town feel"
• not prone to storm surge
• not provincial
• relatively sophisticated due to government and the universities
• where to retire

Tallahassee: Where To Retire

Last August, we shared an article from the Democrat, written by Elizabeth M. Mack, that announced the new Choose Tallahassee initiative. This marketing campaign was designed to lure more baby boomers to the Tallahassee area.

Here we are six months later and that campaign apparently died. There is a choose Tallahassee website that shows little, if any traffic (website rating on Alexa). As a matter of fact, the article I wrote about the campaign is the #1 search result on Google for "choose Tallahassee."

This means that many of us understand the need to get the word out about Tallahassee, but there is no collective effort to make it happen.

How To Help Spread The Word About Tallahassee

This part is simple, and we all play a part in the getting the word out about Tallahassee.

Help spread the message. When you see positive articles on Tallahassee, share them!

Put them on Facebook and any other social media applications that you use. The viral effect of all of us spreading the word about the benefits of living in Tallahassee could help restore our local economy, as well as the slumping housing market.

You can be part of a great support system for Choose Tallahassee, so help spread the word! Look to the top left margin on the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog and the social sharing buttons are all there. Spread the word in your network, and ask them to do the same.

And the next time you are asked about where to retire, remember to tell them to check out Tallahassee, Florida.

With 2012 well underway, let's start the new year's housing reports with the Southwood real estate outlook.

Sporting the most active subdivision in Tallahassee, our Southwood real estate report is a natural "first of the year" look at the activity in the Tallahassee real estate market.

Currently, there are 48 homes for sale in Southwood and hundreds more in the shadow inventory, so we expect Southwood to remain at or near the top of the list of most active neighborhoods in Tallahassee.

Map Of Southwood Real Estate Sales

The following interactive map allows you to where the most recent Southwood real estate sales have occurred, and information about each sale. Just click on any red dot for detailed information about the transaction (if you subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, you will need to click-through to the website to use the interactive map).

Southwood Real Estate Prices

Southwood real estate prices are on the decline, just as we have seen everywhere else in the Tallahassee real estate market. The drop for 2012 is based on only 3 sales, so we'll need more time before we can spot the real level of the trend.

Southwood Real Estate Values

Southwood real estate values continue to decline as well. The blue line in the real estate graph below shows the consistentcy of the depreciation in Southwood, and with the new construction of the past three years, we need to keep a close eye on the imbalance between the supply and demand for real estate in Southwood.

Click Theis Link For Recent Southwood Real Estate Transactions

The Tallahassee Neighborhoods page has been one of the most trafficked pages on our website, and it got so busy it almost brought down the entire site. Apparently, it wasn't too smart creating a single page with over 5,000 links to articles and homes for sale in Tallahassee subdivisions. Oh well, live and learn.

The growing number of visitors to our real estate website has shown that there is great interest in learning more about Tallahassee subdivisions and what is happening with their individual real estate markets. In order to feed this demand, we have started a makeover of the Tallahassee Neighborhoods page which has resulted in 30 new pages which have better architecture and will reduce the strain on our server.

In order to spread-out the traffic, we have created separate pages for each of the letters of the alphabet. So now you can find all of the Tallahassee Subdivisions that start with the letter "S" by clicking on the "S" in the index below. This index will be appearing all over our site so that visitors can pretty much jump to their favorite subdivision any time they want.

Each of the Tallahassee subdivisions has a link to recent articles and market reports, as well as a link to the homes for sale in that specific neighborhood in the Tallahassee MLS. This is a great way to track what is happening in your favorite neighborhood(s) without having to navigate all over the internet to stay up to date.

The primary link to the Tallahassee subdivisions page can be seen in the header on every blog page and says "Neighborhoods". To use the alphabetical index, simply click any letter-link below to see more Tallahassee subdivisions. Please let us know what you think and as always, give us your ideas on how we can continue to improve the Tallahassee real estate website.

We hope our "Tallahassee Subdivisions index assists both resident and non-resident guests to our site. You can also use our Map Based Property Search Tool if you are unfamiliar with the Tallahassee area.

I recently wrote an article about where to buy a $300,000 home in Tallahassee, and I received a request to provide a similar report in the next higher price range, what we will refer to as "Executive Homes" In Tallahassee. Due to the lack of liquidity in the Tallahassee housing market for homes priced above $300,000, our price range tracking expands greatly. Today, we will look at neighborhoods in Tallahassee where homes have sold in 2011 for $300,000 to $500,000.

Note: "MP" asked for homes for sale in Tallahassee priced from $300,000 to $350,000, so we created a page just for her, just click the link :)

First of all, you could start by searching the Tallahassee MLS to see how many executive homes in Tallahassee are listed for sale. Currently, there are 235 homes for sale in Tallahassee between $300K and $500K, which represents about 1 year’s supply of inventory. This means that if nobody puts another executive home on the market for the next year, and nobody lowers their asking price to the executive home price range in the next year, then we already have enough inventory to satisfy the current rate of demand for another year. Simply put, that is way too much inventory of executive homes in Tallahassee and thus homebuyers have a great opportunity to find a super deal.

Where Have Executive Homes In Tallahassee Been Purchased

One thing to remember when we look at homes that have sold from $300,000 to $500,000 is that all of these homes had dropped over $100,000 in value since the height of the Tallahassee housing market. That is not a small number for anybody in Tallahassee.

The real estate graph above shows that Southwood and Golden Eagle Plantation have recorded the most sales of executive homes in Tallahassee thus far in 2011, though 22 Tallahassee neighborhoods recorded 2 or more of these types of home sales.

Executive Home Sizes In Tallahassee

So, just how big are these executive homes in Tallahassee? The real estate graph below show that they run from 2,300 to 3,500 square feet.

If we look at the price per square foot of executive homes in Tallahassee, two neighborhoods stands out as the best bang for the buck. Waverly Hills and Kimberton deliver the largest house for the dollar, though the age of the homes are older than the other neighborhoods.

How To Buy An Executive Home In Tallahassee

Regardless of the price range that you need to purchase, buying a home in Tallahassee should be a fun, exciting and rewarding process. Behind the scenes, we will ensure that you are kept safe in your real estate investment by ensuring that you have the full information about the real estate market for your price range. If you are thinking about buying a home, just drop me a note and we will schedule an initial interview to get you started on your way to owning a home in Tallahassee!

List of Executive Home Sales In 2011

It's time for another look at Southwood home sales (the busiest neighborhood in Tallahassee). Currently, there are 46 homes for sale in Southwood in the Tallahassee MLS, and we are going to review the current status of this popular subdivision.

First of all, you can get detailed information on each sale from either the map below or the table at the end of this post (people who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email will need to click through to use the Map). Just click on the red dots on the map to quickly see sale prices, home sizes, and values.

Map Of Recent Home Sales In Southwood

Southwood Home Sales Prices

The real estate graph below makes it appear as if home prices are on the rise in Southwood. While it is a fact that the average home sales price in Southwood is higher this year, it does not mean that values are rising (more on this below). The average sales price of a home sold in Southwood this year has been just under $283K, up 9% from $259K in 2010.

Southwood Home Sales Values

Home values appear to be on the rise in Southwood, if we look at the real estate graph below that plots the overall averages. The average price per square foot of a home sold in Southwood this year has been $130, which is 5% higher than the $124 recorded in 2010. But with closer scrutiny, as we will see in the third and final graph, we will see what is happening with Southwood home sales.

Southwood Home Sales - New Versus Resales

When we break Southwood home sales down to new versus existing home sales, the truth is easy to see. The average cost to build a new home in Southwood has risen greatly this year, making the overall "average" appear higher. But looking at the real estate graph below, we see existing home sales values (blue line) are still on the decline. There are still hundreds of homes in Southwood that need to be sold, both in the Tallahassee MLS as well as the Shadow Inventory of Homes. Pricing pressures will not be going away in 2012, and we will see our sixth straight year of falling home values.

Recent Home Sales In Southwood