The real estate market along the Emerald Coast is showing signs of resilience. Throughout the Destin and 30A submarkets, prices are flat to increasing despite lower to flat sales volume (the large increase in sales volume in 30A East is due to the closings in a completed Alys Beach condominium building.) The combination of stable to growing sales price and lower sales volume is unusual and points to two external forces and one internal force (that is starting to self correct.)
The two external forces are the return of mortgage rates to normal levels after an extended period of historically low rates and the normal behavior of buyers during presidential election years. Both of these factors have buyers sitting on the sidelines, one waiting for rates to come down and one waiting for the outc...