Pensacola's hottest ZIP codes: Home sales in these neighborhoods are on fire
By now, it's become obvious that the Pensacola real estate market is seeing an unprecedented boom, but a breakdown of which ZIP codes have seen the highest jumps in sale amounts gives some insight into how that growth is spread out.
While seemingly every neighborhood has seen an increase in buying and selling activity, some ZIP codes have seen a disproportionate increase where the total amount of residential sales increased by close to 50% between 2020 and 2021.
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The percentages are calculated based on the total dollar value of sales in a ZIP code during each calendar year.
The 32507 ZIP code — which includes Perdido and Warrington — comes in with the biggest year-over-year increase in sales value at 54.6%, and the number of residential units sold in that area went from 846 to 1,166.
Last year, there was more than $466 million worth of property sold in that area, an almost $165 million increase from 2020.
The 32505 ZIP code (Bayou Grove, Mayfair, Bell Acres, Wedgewood) saw a 49.1% increase, the 32502 ZIP code (downtown, the Tanyard, Sanders Beach) increased by 52%, and the 32534 ZIP code (Ensley, part of Cantonment) saw a 30.1% jump.
"What we found was the last quarter of 2020 was when the prices started jumping then it was on fire all the way through 2021," said Gary Michaels, a Realtor with the Mark Lee Team at Levin Rinke Realty.
Realtors say 2020 was a huge year for residential sales as the pandemic and low interest rates spurred an influx of homebuyers, sellers and families relocating to the Panhandle for its relative affordability compared to bigger metro areas.
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The problem was, 2020's boom saw 2021's inventory slow down even further, leaving more fierce competition in the market as the same number of buyers competed for far fewer listings at higher prices.
Now, Realtor Larry Kuhn with Kuhn Realty said there's an even more frantic rush going on as buyers who have been searching are worried about predicted interest rate hikes this year that could mean they could afford less house with their budget.
"It's built even more urgency with no supply," he said. "I think it's going to be around two or three years (of low inventory) because they're just not building, there's nowhere else to build being surrounded by water."
The Pensacola Association of Realtors data shows the median home price rose by $70,000 in just a year in 2021, and inventory dropped as low as only 1,600 homes when experts in the real estate community concur that the Pensacola area needs about 2,500 homes for a healthy inventory.
An indicator of the competition level is the most recent association of Realtors' monthly report that shows in January 2022, residential and condo listings only remained active for an average 25 days before going under contract, compared to more than 40 days in January 2021.
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The lowest point was in 2021 around the summer — known as peak real estate buying season — when in July it dipped to only about 17 days for a home to stay on the market before contract, on average.
Michaels, whose team serves the entire area but specializes in Gulf Breeze, the beach and Pensacola metro areas, said inventory is still so low he's getting daily calls from clients or other Realtors desperate for listings that aren't yet publicly available.
He said it makes sense for areas like the west side, Brent and Ensley to see a big jump year-over-year as more homeowners who might have stayed put for a long time are enticed into the market, more new homebuyers have expanded their search criteria, and there's more space for new construction as opposed to Gulf Breeze or the beach.
"I think it's a little too soon to definitely say what is going on so far this year other than there are buyers out there looking and (there's) not any inventory," he said. "In the real estate community, it's just constant where I hear our Realtors say "I've got a buyer and here's what I need,' or 'Somebody help, I have a military family moving in and need to find something for them.'"
The sales price increase data shows that the most consistent ZIP code was 32503 (East Hill, Brent, Oakfield, Eastside, and part of Cordova Park) with an increase of only 2.6% year-over-year, and the lowest was a sparsely populated ZIP code around Laurel Hill that saw an almost 8% decrease in sales amount.
Emma Kennedy can be reached at ekennedy@pnj.com or 850-480-6979.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola real estate by ZIP code: Where are the hottest neighborhoods
