Hello everyone and happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I certainly did as it was my birthday!! 🙂
So I woke up this morning thinking about housing. Housing prices are pretty high here on island, so many of us rent. Well the rental market is pretty tough here, especially following the storms. Being a small little island in the middle of the Caribbean, housing is tight to begin with. Factor in the hurricanes and the fact that many owners prefer to short term their homes as vacation rentals (which is fine – totally their choice), well let’s just say that it’s extremely hard to find a place to live here.
That being said, I started to peruse the MLS listings this morning in hope that I would find a unicorn – something inexpensive, but something I liked. You know, a nice place where I can raise little Dalton. I found that there are a lot of options, and that prompted me to write this story.
I know that many of you are interested in real estate here on island St. John, so here’s a quick rundown of what’s currently available and what’s been selling…
As of this morning, November 12th, there are 343 listings on the MLS. This breaks down to 114 homes (this number includes many hurricane-damaged homes), 28 condos, 197 land parcels and four commercial listings.
Of the 114 homes, the highest priced is 1 Peter Bay, which is listed for $14.25 million. Just a tad above my price range – haha. The least expensive is a one bedroom, Caribbean cottage on Coral Bay. The asking price for that house is $348,000.
Yes, a small one bedroom home is listed for $348,000. I told you housing was pricey!
Now let’s move on to the condos. Of the 28 condos listed for sale, 12 are located over at Sirenusa. They range in price from $1.25 million up to $2.3 million. The least expensive condo for sale is a one bedroom out in Coral Bay. That is listed for $300,000.
There is a ton of land for sale ranging in price from $45,000 for a quarter acre in Coral Bay to an $8 million parcel located directly across the street from Maho Bay.
And as far as commercial listings, we currently have four. Bamboula and Colombo’s are the only businesses currently listed for sale. (Click here to read about Bamboula and click here to read about Colombo’s.) There building where Aqua Bistro is located is also for sale, as is a bed and breakfast building in Coral Bay.
So now you’re probably wondering what’s selling. Well as of today (from what is posted on various real estate websites), 50 homes have sold so far in 2018 with the average selling price of just over $1 million. Four condos sold with an average selling price of $512,500. And 24 land parcels sold with an average price of just under $200,000.
And just to give you something to compare that to, 38 homes, 19 land parcels and 5 condos sold in all of 2017. I’m no real estate expert but I’d say that the market is doing well this year.
So that’s all we have for you today folks. Just some stuff for you to ponder today. 🙂 And if you are looking for more info on St. John Real Estate, please check out our real estate advertisers – 340 Real Estate, American Paradise, Holiday Homes, Islandia Real Estate and Re/Max Island Paradise Realty.
Jenn, Happy Birthday! We are on Island now. For years we have thought about how we could afford a place. It’s just not reasonable for people with even upper middle class means. Frankly, this is why the Westin and Grande Bay, work for many people. And God forbid think about building. I’m 56 and might be in a wheelchair before it was finished. Just saying!
Right with you Dave about the building and we are older than you !!! We had a philanthropic venture to house US Military veterans for free St. John vacations which failed. And we’d only build something hurricane worthy…..albeit downsized. So at this point in our lives, we are just fortunate St. John owners are willing to share their beautiful island………
Jenn, thanks for the re-cap, really appreciated it as a real estate agent actively licensed in both Michigan and Florida, and soon to be licensed here in the USVI as well. I share your sentiments, St John is where I had really wanted to live prior to the 2017 hurricanes (and still plan to), but am in the meantime living on St Thomas’s North Side until the St John market opens up more.
Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for your service.
Thank you for the updates. Hopefully I will be able to build and buy soon. GOD Bless!
Jen,
This is enlightening information. I would bet that anyone who has ever visited wondered about the cost of housing. Thanks for posting.
We’d love to hear what’s available for long term rental—-have checked in the past to no avail. We get the impression that what’s available is only through on-island word of mouth. Would welcome any comments.
Word of mouth or the board at Connections. People who have lived here for years are having trouble finding places. Housing is very hard right now.
Craigslist is where I list my St John house for rent, it goes very fast when its posted, however.
Would also love to hear about the best sites to look for a long term rental. We have used VRBO in the past with mixed results.
VRBO is mainly for short term. The problem for homeowners when it comes to renting your home long term to Continentals is a matter of employment (yours), trustworthiness, and the ability to make the rent payments. I have had tenants just get on a plane and leave when they came to the conclusion that they couldn’t make it on St. John. And there is literally nothing the landlord can do about it, so we prefer people who are already established on island. It’s a Catch-22. I stopped signing yearly leases many years ago, we go 6 months at at time.
Leases mean very little in the USVI.
Happy Birthday Jenn