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Home sales up in Okaloosa and Walton in February
March 24, 2010
Real estate markets in Okaloosa and Walton counties are off to a good start this year, and a local economist believes the worst of the housing slump is over.
Metro Market Trends recently released sales figures for Okaloosa, Walton and Santa Rosa counties for February.
Single-family home sales in Okaloosa and Walton counties increased 31 percent and 9 percent, respectively, compared to February 2009. Condominium sales increased by 75 percent in Okaloosa County and by 82.35 percent in Walton County.
David Goetsch, a local economist and Northwest Florida State College's vice president for community relations, said he believes the worst of the real estate downturn is over.
"What you're beginning to see now is a slight upturn," Goetsch said.
"This is standard. This is what always happens in a recession, it's just that it's taken way longer in this recession for this to happen. When it starts turning around like this, what happens at first is there are a lot of houses for sale. Nice houses going for comparably low prices."
"We still probably have at least another year of a buyers market," Goetsch added.
"Don't be surprised that Okaloosa is showing a slight upswing," Goetsch said.
"We're going to go up before others go up and we're going to go up faster than others go up because of the military influence. We actually already have a small number of people trickling in now to do the preliminary work for the 7th Special Forces and the F-35."
By Dusty Ricketts, Daily News
