Real Estate Update
A look at Ocean City
By Gary Simmens
Broker/Associate at Keller Williams Atlantic Shore Realtors
Ocean City is a family oriented seaside resort with a famous boardwalk that is 2.5 miles long and well known throughout the east coast as a top quality beach community. Few may realize that back in year 1700, whaler John Peck began using the barrier island of OC, as a storage place for freshly caught whales. A lot has changed since then for sure! The population in Ocean City changes as the seasons do. Ocean City’s most recent population numbers show about 11,000 year-round residents but the population skyrockets in the summer season.
The real estate results have been good in favor of the sellers the last year in 2018 compared to 2017. As you can see from the graph closed sales are up 2.7% and the median sales price jumped almost 10% at 9.9% last year to an average price of $692,500. for single family homes. As well in the Townhouse -Condo segment the median sales price jumped up to $485,000. Days on the market dropped down for much faster sales in both categories too. As a result, more buyer activity last year drove the days on the market down 18.4% for faster sales with an average of 80 days to closing in 2018 for single family homes.
The most expensive sale in 2018 was a commercial store condo on the boardwalk that sold for $4,050,000 on 01/05/2018. The most expensive sales of a residential condo was for $2,800,000 on 09/14/2018. The single family market is still booming and the most expensive sale for that segment was for $3,285,000 being in the Goldcoast section of OC, a beachfront beauty built in year 2003 originally and consisting of nearly 3,000 square feet that sold in November.
The real estate market is good in Ocean City and interest rates are at attractive lows, and renting out an investment property in OC can be be a long-term money maker with its attractive stable tax base.
