Ask any Island real estate professional about the market and the coming year, and “cautiously optimistic” is the answer you’ll probably get.
We posed that question (along with some others) to a group of Vineyard brokers. Here is part 3 of 3.
Alan Schweikert, Ocean Park Realty: Fall 2011 has been the best in years. The market really took off with a lot of sales in all price ranges. I think that the late summer, early fall are good predictors for 2012.
Art Smadbeck, Priestley, Smadbeck & Mone: In 2011, we continued to bump along the bottom of the market, continuing to try to find the bottom. It picked up a bit toward the end of the third quarter and we’ve seen a lot of activity during the fourth quarter. We could be coming to a point where we’ll see values firm up a bit in 2012.
Neal Stiller, Cronig’s Real Estate: 2011 was great for buyers and challenging for sellers. We saw phenomenal interest rates and the lowest prices in years — a combination that makes this a terrific time to buy. Prices peaked around the end of 2005 and are now at rates comparable to the early 2000s. There has been a real and necessary correction in values. Sellers must be very realistic about pricing. There is lots of competition.
Russell Maloney, Russell Maloney Real Estate: According to statistics provided by LINK, there were fewer residential home sales through October 2011 than during the same period in 2010, 251 vs. 285, a reduction of nearly 12 percent. Interestingly, land and commercial sales were greater in 2011, up 11 percent and 44 percent respectively.
