Golden Isles Market Trends | Quarter 1 | 2023

MARKET

TRENDS

GOLDEN ISLES

QUARTER 1 - 2023

A WORD FROM US

This market report is a snapshot or look back at the first quarter of 2023. It is the beginning of April and here in the Golden Isles we had a mild winter, however spring seems very reluctant to show up for any meaningful period of time so I think we are all anxious for those beautiful, warm, sunny spring days ahead. It seems the real estate market is mimicking the weather as at times it seems the market is not sure what it wants to do either. For certain segments it seems the market is beginning to normalize and in other segments multiple offers and back up offers are still the way it is.

The first quarter real estate market in the Golden Isles decreased by 1.4% compared to the last quarter of 2022 in the number of sales, while Glynn county showed a 3.3% increase. However, the higher interest rates have definitely taken its toll. The number of sales in Glynn county for quarter number one of 2023 fell by 30% compared to that same quarter of 2022.

Glynn County saw a slight (1.9%) decrease in the median sale price which was $358,000. We also saw a very nominal increase in average days on market as well as a small decrease in the average sales price versus list price. So there are certain factors that are starting to trend downward but at the same time there is also so much positivity and statistics to be optimistic about in our market as well.

The highest priced sale for this quarter was $11,900,000 for a gorgeous oceanfront home on Sea Island.

While sales remain strong, the inventory level is low and trending downwards so as I have been saying for years we just need more properties on the market to return to a more “normal/stable“ real estate market.

I remain hopeful that interest rates will stay where they are or decrease because it does seem that many people have finally begun to get used to the “new normal“ of interest rates and we are also still seeing a large number of cash buyers coming into our market. We are very fortunate to call the Golden Isles home and for those same reasons there will always be people wanting to move here as full-time resident or a for their second home.

Through this report you will get an in-depth review of many of the beautiful neighborhoods that make up Glynn county. I hope you find this useful and informative.

John Hallman

President Engel & Völkers Golden Isles

ST. SIMONS ISLAND

Neighborhoods of St. Simons Island, Ga

St. Simons Island, or simply St. Simons, is a barrier island and census-designated place located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. The names of the community and the island are interchangeable, known simply as "St. Simons Island" or "SSI", or locally as "The Island". St. Simons is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and according to the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 12,743.

Located on the southeast Georgia coast, midway between Savannah and Jacksonville, St. Simons Island is both a seaside resort and residential community. It is the largest of Georgia's renowned Golden Isles along with Sea Island, Jekyll Island, and privately owned Little St. Simons Island. Visitors are drawn to the Island for its warm climate, beaches, variety of outdoor activities, shops and restaurants, historical sites, and its natural environment.

In addition to its base of permanent residents, the island enjoys an influx of both visitors and part-time residents throughout the year. The 2010 Census notes that 26.8% of total housing units are for "seasonal, recreational, or occasional use". The vast majority of commercial and residential development is located on the southern half of the island. Much of the northern half remains marsh or woodland. A large tract of land in the northeast has been converted to a nature preserve containing trails, historical ruins, and undisturbed maritime forest. The tract, Cannon's Point Preserve, is open to the public on specified days and hours. Located on the northeast end of the island.

Originally inhabited by tribes of the Creek Nation, the area of South Georgia that includes St. Simons Island was contested by the Spaniards, English and French. After securing the Georgia colony, the English cultivated the land for rice and cotton plantations worked by large numbers of African slaves, who created the unique Gullah culture that survives to this day.

The primary mode of travel to the island is by automobile via F.J. Torras Causeway. Malcolm McKinnon Airport serves general aviation on the island.

JEKYLL ISLAND

Neighborhoods of Jekyll Island, Ga

Jekyll Island is located off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, in Glynn County. It is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia barrier islands. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, self-governing body.

Long used seasonally by indigenous peoples of the region, beginning in the colonial era, some of its lands became privately owned. A few structures still stand made of tabby, a coastal building material of crushed oyster shells. The island was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was evacuated during World War II by order of the US government. In 1947 the state of Georgia acquired all the property, for security and preservation.

A popular tourist destination, the island has beaches frequented by vacationers. Guided tours of the Landmark Historic District are available. Bike trails, walks along the beaches and sandbars, and Summer Waves, a water park, are among the active attractions. The historic district features numerous impressive and ambitious buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The island is also full of wildlife, consisting of many different mammals, reptiles, and birds living and breeding in the island's inland salt marshes. In 2018, Architectural Digest named Jekyll Island the eleventh most beautiful small town in America.

In 1886, Jekyll Island was purchased by the Jekyll Island Club, which Munsey’s Magazine called “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world. . . .” For those who represented 1/6 of the world’s wealth at the turn of the century, the Jekyll Island Club became an exclusive retreat. Families with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Baker built the elegant Clubhouse and “cottages” in Victorian architectural styles.

*Source:Wikipedia

SEA ISLAND

Neighborhoods of Sea Island, Ga

Sea Island is a privately owned, unincorporated area of Glynn County, Georgia, and is part of the Golden Isles of Georgia, which include St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Little St. Simons Island, and the mainland city of Brunswick. The well-visited seaside resort island is located along the Atlantic Coast just east of St. Simons Island. It lies about 60 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida and about 60 miles south of Savannah, Georgia, and is reachable via a causeway from St. Simons Island. The Anschutz family of Denver, Colorado owns two resorts with limited public access and maintains a gated community for around 500 single-family residences.

The resorts, Sea Island Beach Club and The Cloister, are located a short distance from one another, connected by a roundabout in the middle of Sea Island Drive, the island's main connecting road. The oceanfront Beach Club contains restaurants, a game room, a bowling alley, an ice cream shop, a bar, and three pools. Sea Island's main hotel, The Cloister, is located on its southwestern side along the Black Banks River. It includes restaurants, 200 rooms, a spa, tennis and squash courts, an exercise facility, and is home to the only Forbes Five Star restaurant in the state of Georgia, The Georgian Room. It is the only resort in the world to have received four Forbes Five-Star awards for ten consecutive years.

Georgia's Sea Island is part of a long chain of barrier islands, also known as "sea islands", located along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida between the Santee and St. Johns rivers. Source:Wikipedia

Neighborhoods of Brunswick, Ga

Brunswick is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County, Georgia, United States. As the main urban and economic center of the state's lower southeast, it is the second-largest urban area on the Georgia coast after Savannah and contains the Brunswick Old Town Historic District.

British colonists settled the peninsula in 1738 as a buffer to Spanish Florida. It came under provincial control in 1771 and was founded as "Brunswick" after the German duchy of Brunswick–Lüneburg, the ancestral home of the House of Hanover. It was incorporated as a city in 1856. Throughout its history, Brunswick has served as an important port city: in World War II, it served as a strategic military location with an operational base for escort blimps and a shipbuilding facility for the U.S. Maritime Commission.

Brunswick supports a progressive economy largely based on tourism and logistics, with a metropolitan GDP of $3.9 billion. The Port of Brunswick handles approximately 10 percent of all U.S. roll-on/roll-off trade—third in the U.S., behind the ports of Los Angeles and Newark. The headquarters of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is located 5 miles north of the central business district of the city and is adjacent to Brunswick Golden Isles Airport, which provides commercial air service to the area. In the 2010 U.S. census, the population of the city proper was 15,383; the urban area, 51,024; and the metropolitan area, 112,370.

Brunswick is located on a harbor of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 40 mi north of Florida and 80 mi south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the west by Oglethorpe Bay, the East River, and the Turtle River. It is bordered on the south by the Brunswick River and on the east by the Atlantic Intra coastal Waterway in the Mackay River, which separates it from the Golden Isles.

*Source:Wikipedia

AUTUMN’S WOODS AVONDALE

BELLE POINTE

CARRIAGE GATE PLANTATION

LAUREL GROVE PLANTATION LEXINGTON PLACE

SADDLE