Palm Beach Real Estate and Loans

Let's start off the 1st Quarter Palm Beach Gardens Real Estate Market Reports with a look at how things went in BallenIsles. 

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The following information comes from our local MLS provider and ONLY consists of closed sales - properties termed 'Pending' or 'Contingent' are not included.

These are the BallenIsles properties that sold in January, February and March of 2007:

 10 homes sold at an average price of $1,216,475 and the average days on market was just under 216.

Here's how things went in 2008:

That's 11 sales at an average of $896,900 and 232 days on market.

As you can see that's pretty consistant from 2007 to 2008, actually a bit of an increase in units sold!  The avarage sale price did drop, but when you're only talking about 10 or 11 transactions, it doesn't take much to affect the average.

All in all, pretty good results when you consider that we're all bombarded daily with over-hyped stories about how real estate is 'dead and/or dying' in Florida.

Tomorrow we'll see the real estate sales results for PGA National, BallenIsles neighbor to the west.

The first quarter of 2008 has just ended - and over the next few days I'm going to go over the sales activity in several of the main communities in Palm Beach Gardens.

Starting tomorrow we're going to take a look at:

• BallenIsles
• PGA National
• Mirasol
• Old Palm
• Ibis

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In addition, I'll also be reporting on Singer Island, Jupiter and Juno Beach.

It'll be good to take a look at the facts and compare and contrast (mostly contrast) them with the reports in the media.

When you're looking at real estate it is extremely important to look at things at the LOCAL level - wide-area averages are simply misleading. 

PGA National, one of Palm Beach Gardens top Golf Club Communities, is once again the Host of the Honda Classic.

This Tournament started off back in 1972 - back then it was known as the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic.  Since 1985 it's been the Honda.

In 2007 the Tournament came to PGA National (it had been at Mirasol) and was contested on the Champion course - which has been the site for many Major Events such as the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship.

This year the Tournament will run from 2/25 through 3/2 and will once again be supporting the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation.

In addition to this major event, PGA National has been has been going through some BIG changes lately - if you haven't had the chance to check out the Resort in a while I definitely recommend taking a trip!  The Resort and the Member's Club are undergoing about $35 million in upgrades, the golf courses are being improved even further and the Neighborhood is finally becoming a gated community.

I admit I'm a little biased towards the neighborhood - after all, I do live there - but if your looking to buy real estate in Palm Beach Gardens and you don't want to deal with ridiculous Club Membership requirements, PGA National is the place to be!

People who regularly read my posts will know that I, along with many, many other Agents, am no fan of mass media - mainly due to the fact that they push negativity to an extreme.  Face it - negativity sells!  Newspapers - not real estate.

So, when a newspaper prints something POSITIVE about Real Estate, I feel that I should give credit where credit is due.

This weekend The Palm Beach Post featured BallenIsles as it's 'Neighborhood of the Week' and gave readers a look into one of the best Golf / Country Clubs available.

I've written several posts about BallenIsles  -and I've got to say that it is already an extremely desirable community, but as the Post's article points out, the $48.7 million dollar renovation to the Club's Facilities and the East Golf Course will go a long way to keep the community attractive to both current Owners and future Residents.

The work is scheduled to begin in April.

Sales were very consistent over the last 2 years with the local MLS reporting 53 sales in 2006 and 54 in 2007.

(The article shows 64 sales in 2006 and 44 through September of 2007.  Why the skewed #'s in 2006 and the lack of information for 4th quarter of 2007?  I have no idea.)

As of today, there are 88 properties listed for sale ranging from $350,000 to $3,750,000 - with a price range like that, there certainly is something available for just about everyone.

The Palm Beach Gardens community of IBIS showed a nice improvement in real estate sales in 2007 vs 2006.

It's true, more positive real estate news....

In 2006, 74 units sold ranging in price from $200,000 to $3 million.

Last year (2007) the number of closed sales went up to 115 - they started at $200,000 and topped off at $2,650,000.

Currently there are 188 properties listed for sale in Ibis.  There's something for virtually everyone - and they range from $244,900 to $3,995,000.

In addition to the wide price range on the condos and homes, Ibis also boasts one of the most reasonably priced Club Memberships in all of Palm Beach Gardens.

OK - enough with the boring #'s for now!

Drop back tomorrow for something a little bit more LIVELY.

Check on the other 2007 Market Reports HERE  >>

All information from Regional MLS.