By Darrell Hofheinz
Daily News Real Estate Writer
Updated: 7:13 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2012
Posted: 4:38 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2012
Even though more single-family houses changed hands in Palm Beach last year
than in 2010, a new sales analysis shows that price-conscious buyers
continued to drive sales, with the bottom end of the market far more active
than any other price segment.
In 2011, for example, 66 island houses changed hands at prices of below $2.5
million, compared to 54 the previous year, according to the latest Evans
Report prepared by Palm Beach real estate attorney and property owner Les
Evans. The vast majority of those sales last year were recorded on the North
End.
Meanwhile, 31 homes sold last year for between $2.5 million and $5 million,
versus 29 the year before.
Townwide, 130 Palm Beach single-family homes sold in 2011 compared to 121 in
2010, the report showed.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen the below-$2.5 million (price category)
represent over 50 percent of sales,” said Evans, who has prepared versions
of the quarterly sales report for more than a decade. “I think (buyers) are
looking more for starter homes that they can upgrade when they feel more
confident” about spending more money.
The increased activity in the lower price ranges also likely reflects the fact
that home sellers last year were becoming more realistic in their price
expectations in the wake of the Great Recession. Buyers, in turn, responded
favorably to prices that seemed more in line with the island’s evolving
economic picture.
And some of the houses sold in the lower price ranges are likely destined at
some point for demolition, either to make way for new custom homes or new
“spec” houses to be built without a specific buyer in mind. In the past two
years, spec houses on the North End have become rare indeed, because the
market’s economic turbulence discouraged developers from embarking on new
projects.
The report’s year-to-year comparisons were a focus of the analysis, which also
reported fourth-quarter sales for 2011.
Top of the market
Moving up the price scale, sales dropped off significantly in the once-hot
market for single-family homes selling for between $5 million and $10
million, the report showed. In 2010, 25 homes in that segment changed hands,
compared to 19 last year.
The very top of the single-family market, however, saw a year-over-year
increase in sales. There were five sales of homes above $20 million last
year, including the year’s highest-dollar deal: May’s $29.15 million sale of
the C. Graham Berwind estate at 40 Blossom Road. In 2010, there were just
two sales above $20 million.
Sales of homes priced between $10 million and $20 million, however, remained
close to 2010 levels.
The median price of all single-family houses sold was $2.48 million last year,
a drop from the $2.85 million recorded in 2010. The median is the price at
which half of the houses sold for more and half for less.
Of all the houses sold during the year, the majority changed hands during the
first half of the year. And although real estate brokers typically report
that more transactions close in the spring than at any other time of the
year, 2011’s second quarter was remarkably busy, with 55 sales recorded in
the second quarter, compared to 35 the previous year.
Overall, there were 12 fewer sales of single-family houses between July and
December of 2011 than during the same period of 2010. And in the fourth
quarter of 2011 alone, the number of sales dropped to 21 from 30 the year
before.
Condo prices rise
On the condominium and cooperative scene, 2011 saw fewer apartment sales: 236
transactions last year compared to 267 in 2010. But those units that sold
changed hands at higher prices.
In contrast to the single-family sales picture, the bottom end of the condo
market saw a marked decrease in the number of sales from the previous year,
from 95 in 2010 to 53 last year. Long gone were the so-called fire sales of
distressed properties that had kept real estate agents busy for much of
2010, Evans said.
Instead, transactions for apartments sold at prices between $500,000 and $1
million rose from 52 in 2010 to 72 last year, the report showed.
The differences in the number of condo sales above $1 million, however, were
not nearly as dramatic. In 2010, for instance, 30 sales of units were
recorded at prices between $1 million and $2 million; in 2011, there were 33
such sales.