As a luxury homes specialist who also resides in Mirabay in Apollo Beach, I’m all about the statistics on what is happening in our neighborhood. Did you know that the first home that was sold in Mirabay and recorded in the MLS occurred in 2001? From then through December of 2003 only 14 homes were sold. Since then 641 homes have been sold as tracked by My Florida Regional MLS. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the most homes sold in one year in Mirabay occurred in 2005. In that year, 138 residences sold; 28 townhomes and villas, and 110 single family homes. The average price per single family home sold that year was $713,600 – remember those days?!? Since that time we have seen our average home sale price plummet to $412,872 as of this moment in the multiple listing service for homes sold so far in 2011. That is a 57% decline in purchase price for single family homes in Mirabay since “the boom”. This comes as no surprise to those of us who purchased in 2005. However, for those who have not been keeping up on what’s going on in the neighborhood, this next statistic may come as a surprise: The average price per square foot for a single family home sold in Mirabay in 2010 was $128.35, and to date, in 2011 the average price per square foot for a single family home sold in Mirabay is $127.23. That means that more than half way through this year our average price per square foot has only fallen $1.12. Let’s compare that to those same statistics from the 2006 to 2007 – when the average price of a single family home sold dropped $97,236 from $227.72 per square foot to $201.25. But wait, that was not the biggest decline in price per square foot for a home in Mirabay, that came between 2007 and 2008 when the average price per square foot fell from $201.25 to $159 – that was a decrease in $42/sq. ft.
So, when you compare the price decrease from 2007 to 2008 at $42 per square foot to the decrease from 2010 to 2011 at $1.12 per square foot that is a direct indication that our market is somewhat leveling off, right? Right! Builders are building in Mirabay, not only are they building but they are selling, imagine that! The average listing inventory in Mirabay is now more or less around 50 active town homes, villas and single family homes. In the hay-day that average inventory hovered around 160 active listings in Mirabay. This is a direct indication that our market in our little community is on the road to recovery, inventory is low, builders are building and selling, and Mirabay is still the best waterfront community value in all of Tampa Bay. Yes, we will still see some short sales, but not the volume that we saw in 2009 and 2010. Yes, we will see more foreclosures, and frankly no one knows how many due to the unknown number of “shadow inventory” foreclosure homes that the banks are holding back. I can tell you I’ve been watching about five or six homes in Mirabay for about three or four years just waiting for them to hit the market and they still sit there vacant, just waiting for the lender to make a move and file a Judgement to take back title of the home. But statistics don’t tell the whole story of Mirabay.
It is the residents and prospective residents that are the story of why Mirabay is a great place to live and at this time, a great value and investment in real estate. Bank-owned and short sale properties that sit vacant for a long period of time are now a rarity, rather than the norm. As soon as a new listing hits the market, if it is priced at the current market value (which as stated previously is pretty much holding steady) it goes under contract within a short period of time. New homeowner’s are scooping up the good deals to live in paradise and they are making their homes and our community look and feel like the Mirabay of “the boom” days.
I am proud to work and live the Mirabay lifestyle and I take great pleasure in assisting those who buy and sell real estate in our neighborhood. If you’ve made it to the end of this entry and haven’t dosed off, you must really be interested in Mirabay! How may I help you? Call me anytime, 813-523-9222, I’m here to help.