National Real Estate Trends and How They will Affect Our Local Markets

2012 seems to be bringing a much more stable real estate market. Prices are low and will continue to be low, and demand is there. This all leads to market trends emerging and those trends seem to pointing in the direction that markets will develop for many years to come.

The financial markets have made it more difficult to obtain financing, which means more money down, making homeownership more difficult for working families, singles, and first time home buyers. The new generation of home buyers is lookig at small-scale, affordable, walkable, urban communities. This is at the same time that baby-boomers are looking to down-size and also move to smaller scale, and more walkable communities. Both groups of buyers want smaller, higher quality, lower-maintenance homes in settings in which they easily know their neighbors.

This trend is evident in the direction that many developers and architects are taking as they design new developments. The communities are higher-quality and walkable with housing that requires less maintenace and is more energy efficient.

The dialoge of smart growth and issues around food supply and organic gardening are collectivley pushing toward these unique projects that orient toward collective parkspace or a shared garden with walkablity and community as key elements.

How will these trends affect Jacksonville's local markets? Outside of the urban core, new developments will be smaller and designed to mimic properties of urban core development: walkablity, park and shared garden space, small-scale. Many of Jacksonville's intown communities were developed prior to the automobile and are already walkable with parkland woven in. Community gardens have been popping up and will continue. There is also a srong push for urban ag policies, which many cities have already adopted. Buyer demand will remain strong here as long as affordablity remains low. The interest in energy-efficiency will continue to grow and could give certain properties an edge, as long as costs remain reasonable too (building green and building smart are often the same thing and can save a lot of money).

Looking to the future, our intown neighborhoods can only grow stronger if we push our communities to develop more progressive policies toward sustainable development, supporting local food movements, and to remain affordable with mixed use. This is what the next several years of buyers want and we can provide that.