Despite St. Croix’s recent ecomomic woes, the Big Island’s real estate market made gains in 1999.
According to the Central Listing Service’s annual report, the number of real estate transactions in 1999 increased some 6.5 percent over the year before. Their dollar volume was up 15.5 percent, or $80 million. Leading the recovery was the sale of condominimus, with the best year in almost a decade.
The information used in the CLS report is complied from actual property transfers recorded at the Office of the Recorder of Deeds, said Greg Hamilton, the author of the report.
The report said condo sales jumped some 42 percent in 1999, the highest level in the last nine years. The average price increased 24 percent to $101,053.
"The condo market made a remarkable recovery in 1999, but what this tells us about the market is not clear," the report states. "These numbers would normally be a sign that the market has finally come back, but upon closer analysis it was the high-end complexes that accounted for the increase in average price."
Southgate Plantation, Villa Madeleine, and Candle Reef were condo developments that did well last year, with sales and average price increasing. Complexes such as Mill Harbor and St. C saw drops in their average prices.
For the third year in a row, the house market saw an increase in sales, 10 percent, and a 23.5 percent increase in dollar volume. Most of the sales, 61.5 percent, occurred before July 1999. The average price increased almost 13 percent to $212,399.
"These increases were helped by the sale of two large properties, one located in Estate Shoys for $2.55 million and the other in Catherine's Hope for $2 million," the report said. "Due to these two sales to local buyers, the average price paid by on-island buyers increased from $137,397 in 1998 to $184,195 in 1999."
"Usually the increases which occurred in 1999 would signal continued appreciation for the house market, but with the inventory of homes at the beginning of 2000 being much higher than 1999, price increases in the general market will cause the steady climb in the overall market to slow down and maybe even decline."
The median home price jumped 7 percent to $150,000, according to the report, which coincided with the fact that the high end of the housing market had another strong showing.
Over the last five years, the average price for a house on St. Croix has steadily increased, from $157,772 in 1995 to $212,399. But as the CLS report stated, last year’s large increase can be attributed to the sale of two expensive properties.
From 1995 to 1998, however, the average price increases were more stable. Following is the average price for a home and the number of homes sold.
*1995: $157,772, 111
*1996: $159,614, 187
*1997: $175,649, 149
*1998: $188,172, 158
*1999: $212,399, 174
The CLS report noted that while the commercial and acreage markets showed no notable increases in total dollar volume, "the good news was that the number of transactions doubled from last year."
The main factor for the increase was the sale of the Carambola Beach Hotel, which went for $13 million, increasing total sales by 60 percent.
"With the activity in the commercial and acreage market doubling from 1998's level, the signal is that anticipation of an improving market is clearly on the minds of some of the business buyers," the report said.
Hamilton said there were four notable sales in 1999 in the commercial or acreage markets. Those were the sale of Harborview Apartments, Golden Rock Pueblo Retail Complex, Jack's and Isaac's Bays, and what was known as the Amerimar parcels at Carambola.
"With the exception of the Amerimar parcels, the purchasers of these large properties were from off-island," the report said. "The Amerimar parcel at Carambola is undoubtedly being held for future development."
The "weak link" in last year’s market was land sales, the report states. While sales of high-end residential lots improved somewhat, the continued weakness in the local economy has kept local sales down.
"The loss of the potential economic boost that many were anticipating with Beal Aerospace's project and the continued delays with (HOVENSA’s) coker project have kept the island on that never-ending verge of true economic boom," Hamilton said in the report. "Coupled with the V.I. government's continued lack of funding to advertise and market the tourism products that St. Croix has to offer may mean another mediocre year in 2000."
