By Frank Giles
The Florida real estate market is on fire. That was the take-home message of the Lay of the Land Conference held in Lakeland, Florida, in April. The conference, now in its 17th year, is hosted by SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler Real Estate.
Attendees got a deep dive into how the U.S. and Florida economies are faring and received the real estate firm’s Lay of the Land Report, which details verified land sales during the previous year.
Inflation and growing worries that recession might be brewing have not cooled the real estate market in Florida. Dean Saunders, founder and managing director of SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler, said that every sector of real estate was hot in 2021 and was unlike anything he’s witnessed before.
Tight closing times, multiple offers, and cash deals were common last year he said. For people with money in hand, Saunders added Florida real estate is great and relatively safe place to invest it.
“We had a 37% increase in the number of real estate transactions year-over-year (YOY) from 2020 to 2021,” Saunders said. “That was around 900,000 transactions in 2021 and this data leaves three Florida counties out (which have not reported yet). The value increase was 268% higher YOY. We did almost $1 trillion worth of real estate transactions last year. That is astonishing. It was a four-fold increase of what happened in 2020.”
Here’s a snapshot of some of the 2021 agricultural land sales in key regions:
Central Florida: There were 24 farm and nursery transactions. The tracts represented 9,631 acres and accounted for $80,455,700.
Treasure Coast: Landowners took advantage of the strong market to sell 14 properties zoned for agricultural use. Those properties have the potential for future residential development. Those lands sold in a range of $8,000 per acre up to $27,500 per acre. There were two large agricultural sales of 911 acres for $4.7 million and another sale of 10,171 acres of citrus grove and former grove land.
Homestead: Ag lands in the region continue to fetch high prices ranging from $36,227 to $75,000 per acre. This is driven by desirable attributes for farming and proximity to development.