What coming to Niceville? – Let’s look at the Future.  Recently in the Facebook group “Niceville Word of Mouth”, I posed the question, “If you could change one thing about Niceville, what would it be?”  Over 300 people responded.  Many asked for a downtown, more sit-down restaurants, more places for people to gather, more affordable housing, a sports complex, a Home Depot, a Target and many other similar responses. This morning, I had the opportunity to sit in on a discussion with David Deitch, City Manager of Niceville.  He and his team have big plans and dreams for our sweet little town that I think will results in quite a few of these wishes.

What’s already in the works:

If you haven’t heard already, the city recently purchased and tore down an old building on Edge Ave. (click here for more details).  This land along with the surrounding land that is owned by the city is slated for development.  The plan is to provide more community gathering places.  Hopes are for a walking area with shops and restaurants.  Niceville is certainly lacking a true downtown.

Another project currently under development is a pier.  Across the street from “The Blue-collar Cafe and what used to be the Front Porch, there is a small landing owned by the city.  There are plans being developed to build a large pier with boat slips.  Imagine being able to boat over and walk to the new downtown.  Niceville has so many beautiful waterways and I think it would be great to show them off and make it easier for more residents to enjoy them.

The city is also working on making enhancements to our parks.  The Children’s Park and the Rocky Runway Park are just 2 that are slated for updates.  Some updates include making the facilities to cater to children with special needs.  The Children’s Park is now open 7 days a week in case you didn’t know.

Reclaimed water to be used by the residents of Deer Moss Creek is coming close to fruition.

The city is also currently negotiating a 30-year lease for the Mullet Festival area.  There are looking into redesigning the area to have dedicated sports fields for soccer, baseball, Lacross and Football.

Items a little farther in the future:

The city is also negotiating with Eglin Air Force Base to obtain several parcels of land.  The hopes for this land will be for affordable housing for our local workforce.  Currently a lot of our local workforce cannot afford to live in Niceville.  This is an issue for teachers, firefighters, military, police officers, nurses, and many more.   They are also hoping to develop a 55+ housing area on some of the land.  Both of these items are sorely needed in Niceville!

Bringing more childcare facilities and more medical providers to Niceville is worked on.

Discussions are also being had about widening Rocky Bayou Dr, College Blvd and 285.

Another item that may be more of a dream is conversion to underground utilities.

How can you find out more and keep up on new developments?

If you want to know more about what’s coming to Niceville, there are several ways to do this.  Midbay News is a great source of information.  You can go to their website or sign up for their weekly email newsletter.  You can visit the city’s website.  For those of you who prefer Facebook – you can also follow the city and Midbay News on there.  Of course, if you would like to hear it from the horse’s mouth, you can attend the city council or city planning meetings.  You can also join the city manager and the mayor at their monthly “Coffee and Conversations”.

If you or someone you know is looking for a realtor that knows and loves Niceville, I am that person!  Call Me!

2023 has come to an end, so let’s look at housing predictions for 2024.  While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have my nerdy girl habit of reading articles on the economy and regularly pulling local market statistics.  However, next week I will have the opportunity of attending a talk by someone who has been the recipient of three Crystal Ball Awards for the accuracy of his real estate market forecasts. Mr. Barry Habib will be right here in little old Niceville.  I’ll let you know if he agrees with what I’m about to say here.

You can’t predict 2024 without looking at what happened in 2023.  There are a lot of factors driving the real estate market.  Inventory, the economy, home prices and interest rates are the key ones at the moment.

Let’s talk inventory:

6 months of inventory is considered a neutral market.  Anything less is considered a seller’s market.  2023 started off with 3.5 months of inventory.  Inventory levels never went above 3 months and ended with 2.5 months in December.  Less homes to choose from put sellers in the driver’s seat.  Many homeowners chose not to put their home up for sale because they are struggling to give up the sub-5% rate of their current mortgage. Lower rates in 2024 will hopefully help homeowners feel more comfortable listing their homes.  I would still predict inventory to lean to the seller’s advantage.

The economy: 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you are independently wealthy, the economy was tough for the average joe.  The robust GDP growth in Q3 2023 and continued resilience by consumers indicate the economy probably won’t start outright shrinking. Making it through 2024 without a recession will make life easier for most households.  Going into 2024, continued pressure from relatively high rates and a generally cooling economy should help bring inflation back down to more manageable levels.

Housing Prices: 

The median sales price for a single-family home in Niceville in December 2023 was $499,900; 9.63% higher than $456,000 from December 2022.  The average sales price in December 2023 was $575,940; 19.01% higher than $483,939 from December 2022.  The average sales price per square foot is a more normalized indicator for the direction of property value. The sales price per square foot in December 2023 was $251, equal to the previous month and 7.73% higher than $233 from December 2022.

A lot of people believe that we will have a market crash.  I do not believe Niceville will see this.  If you follow homes for sale, what you may have noticed is a lot of price reductions.  The sales price to list price ratio in Dec was 96.7% for Niceville.  This was the lowest in 3 years.  This tells me that while homeowners did not give their asking price, they still saw an increase from 2022.  I would expect home prices to remain steady in Niceville.  Historically, Niceville is a very stable market.

Interest Rates: 

Rates should level off, and likely, eventually fall. Even if the Fed doesn’t start cutting its benchmark rate until later this year, rates on products not directly tied to the Fed’s actions, like mortgages, could fall. If this happens, housing should get more affordable, even if home prices increase slightly in some areas.

In summary, the housing predictions for 2024 are positive.  I expect interest rates to come down slowly.   Don’t expect rates lower than the 5’s.   Inventory will remain tight.  Home prices will stay steady or slightly increase.  It remains to be seen if Barry Habib agrees with me.  However, Warren Buffett’s move to invest significantly in the housing market is a signal confidence in the industry and he agrees with a positive real estate outlook. We can’t forget that it’s an election year!

If you’re looking for someone to guide you buying or selling real estate, give me a call.  Residential or Commercial.

Free boat with home purchase!  It’s not often that you hear that.  However, it is a real possibility.  I am representing a homeowner who would like to sell their waterfront home and their boat.  The house is located at 1716 19th Street in Niceville.  The boat is a 30 ft 2006 Sea Ray 300 Sundancer.  The boat is currently docked at the home on the 16K covered boat lift. Already have a boat, no worries.  There are 2 additional boat slips.  Interested in just the boat, it can be purchased separately and the current asking price is $49,750.

Interested in the house but not the boat, then the seller is ready to make other concessions.  Perhaps you would like him to pay for your closing costs or buydown your interest rate or just accept a lower purchase price.  Just give me a call (850-974-0869) and we can discuss what it would take to make you the new owner.

The house has been beautifully updated and is move in ready.   The house is located on deep protected water in Sarah Ann Bayou.  This bayou has direct access to the bay.  I would love the opportunity to show you this lovely home.  Just give me a call (850-974-0869) to schedule a private showing or stop by during my next open house.

You can find more information on this home by clicking here.  If you would like more information on the boat, shoot me an email and I can send you details.  Email me at:  Cindy.Zimmermann@cbrealty.com

Free Boat with Home Purchase.  This would make a Christmas present to remember!