High End Condo Fuels Price Surge

DAYTONA BEACH --

As a Realtor who specializes in luxury properties, Rachel McGrath is used to dealing with clients looking for million-dollar homes, but she was surprised to get a request seeking a million-dollar condo. "I was excited and nervous at the same time," said McGrath, a Port Orange real estate agent, about the referral she received last month to assist an Ohio couple. "Clients looking for million-dollar condos are few and far between and there are not that many (units) around here, maybe a dozen, said McGrath, who is an agent with the Orlando office of Stirling Sotheby's International Realty. "You never know who is coming and what direction they want to go in." McGrath, with assistance from fellow Stirling agent Debbie Keilin, ended up helping the couple buy one of the two top-floor units at the 19-story Island Crowne oceanfront condominium complex at 1900 N. Atlantic Ave. for $1.46 million. The transaction closed last week. It's the highest price paid for a Daytona area condo north of Ponce Inlet in five years. Two years ago, a luxury condo unit in New Smyrna Beach sold for $1.5 million. With just a handful of available condos in the million-dollar-plus range locally, it took McGrath just one weekend of hunting to find the four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 5,136-square-foot unit at the Island Crowne. While The Island Crowne unit sale is an extreme example, sales of higher-end condos have picked up the past couple of months. The median sale price -- where half sell for more and half for less -- of an existing condo in August in Volusia and Flagler counties was $162,200, according to the Florida Realtors association. That's 38 percent higher than the $117,200 median sale price in April and the highest median sale price since September 2009 when the price was $176,900. By contrast, the median sale price of an existing single-family home during the same period rose just 2.3 percent to $112,800 in August from $110,200 in April. The rise in median condo sale prices has been accompanied by a 31 percent drop in the number of units sold per month from 203 in April to 140 in August. "We're seeing a shift in bank-owned properties. The inventory of distressed condos is smaller so we are seeing a rise in prices," said Aswin Suri, broker/owner of Exit Realty of Daytona. Exit represents The Opus condo complex in Daytona Beach Shores, which began selling units in January. "We are seeing an equilibrium at this time and what's being targeted now are the newer buildings with higher-valued units," Suri said. New buildings are popular because they are stronger and tend to have fewer problems, said Chris Connors of Holly Hill-based Tyler Property Management, who was the listing agent in the sale of Island Crowne unit to the couple McGrath and Keilin represented. While condo values appear to be stabilizing faster than the housing market, there is still an "ebb and flow" to prices and sales that would not justify a rise now in condo asking prices, despite the $1.46 million sale, said Sheriff Guindi, broker/owner of Prudential Transact Realty in Ormond Beach. "The Island Crowne is a special large unit. It's not going to justify rising prices elsewhere," Guindi said. McGrath initially took the Ohio couple to Ormond Beach and then Ponce Inlet before showing them the Island Crowne unit that has views of the ocean, south along the peninsula and across the Halifax River. The buyers, whose names McGrath declined to reveal, are a retired executive and his wife who were "looking for the best of the best," McGrath said. It will not be the couple's primary residence, but one of several homes they own, she said. "My job was to sell the area and it was kinda easy as they've been coming here for years and they really like it. It's not the rat race of South Florida and elsewhere," McGrath said. "They wanted something over 4,000 square feet so they can have family and friends visit." There are four large luxury units atop the Island Crowne, which opened in 2006. The unit the Ohio couple purchased is one of two that were owned by the Island Crowne's developer, Eli Sleiman of Jacksonville. Sleiman sold the other unit in June 2009 for $1.25 million, Conners said. The Ohio couple could have paid cash, but decided to finance the deal because of a loan interest rate below 4 percent, McGrath said. Connors said luxury condos are being snapped up locally because "There're amazing prices for three-bedrooms for $400,000 and $500,000 that were selling for a million or more in the heyday." McGrath agrees. "What we were selling for $700,000 and $800,000 are now selling for the sixes and that might still be too high," she said. "It's hard to determine price points now. Something is worth what ever someone is willing to pay for it."