Property Values In The New World
It would seem that life has settled into a routine now in our “new world” setting here in Uvita Costa Rica. What’s it been, 2 years since the global economy went into the stink house? My how time flies. Our real estate company is cooking right along actually doing some business. The business that happened so rarely during the recession was mostly for under $100k lot sales and $300k was the upper edge of house sales. The prices in our market have dropped 40% – 50% across the board. And there are still some highly motivated sellers out there. I’ve started a list of these sellers. Originally I was going to call it the “Desperate Sellers” list, but I have re-thunk it and come up with the “Motivated Sellers” list. Right now I’ve got 5 properties on the list. The top deal there at this writing is the 57 acres farm in Uvita for $250,000. (Updated: property sold or unavailable.)
The point is that the market has definitely re-defined itself and numerous sellers are adapting. We went through a time here in The Zone when it was pure death, nothing sold and there was no one looking. Some real estate offices closed down and others (like GITZ) tightened their belts and survived. Now we are watching and learning what the new world looks like. Here’s some of what we’re finding out.
Money is tight (duh!). But, there are buyers here, and they aren’t just the $100k lot or $300k house buyer variety. There is a recent sale of a Lagunas house for $750k and an Ojochal house at $850k, so we seem to be breaking out of the old restraints. This isn’t to say that things are hopping again here in the zone, but they are a sight better than they’ve been for a couple of years. The Guys In The Zone are enjoying doing some business, but again, it’s all been for steeply reduced pricing. We had a client come down looking for a $100k ocean view property, of which we have some to show, but these clients morphed their criteria while here, and were enamored with some very fine properties at great prices. End of the story? 2 lots at just a little over $500k. If you’d like to see what the properties were, click here for one, and here for the other. (Links no longer available).
Conversations about current values abound. Methods for establishing the values