I am approaching my 200th golf community visit, but the most recent ones, just last weekend, were eye openers. From the golf course at Wexford Plantation on Hilton Head Island, I saw a collection of the largest homes I have ever seen in any golf community; in fact, they are probably the largest homes I have seen in any one neighborhood. (Most of the homes were unoccupied, waiting for their owners to arrive for the winter season in a few weeks.) Across the river from the marina, which is adjacent to the clubhouse area at Wexford, one home appeared to span at least 20,000 square feet. One of my playing partners dubbed it "a nice Marriott."
        The median value of homes in Wexford, whose golf course was redesigned a couple of years ago by Brandon Johnson of the Arnold Palmer design team and is one of the best I've played in the last five years, is well into seven figures. The most expensive home currently on the market in the Hilton Head Island MLS (multiple listing service) is listed for $5.5 million and includes 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms and nearly 10,000 square feet. It looks much bigger from the  golf course.

One of he biggest homes in Wexford Plantation has commanding views of canal and golf course.

        The least expensive home in Wexford Plantation is listed for $409,900 and includes three bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms and 2 half baths. It encompasses just over 2,000 square feet but is on a lot of 0 square feet, which implies it might be a free-standing condo, although the listing does not indicate that. On a per-square-foot basis, its $205 compares with the huge home's $550 per square foot.

        I played the golf course at Ford Plantation the day before Wexford. Although not as well established as the Hilton Head community, the Richmond Hill, GA, Ford Plantation is every bit as upscale. Like Wexford, its golf course was totally redone in the last couple of years by its original designer, Pete Dye, for a budget busting $7 million, for which all but 15 of Ford's members apparently kicked in serious dollars in added assessments. The precipitant for the redesign was a severe drainage problem that made play all but impossible the day after a heavy rain -- and it does rain heavy in the Savannah area. Although all but the most astute designers probably can't tell the difference between, say, a $4 million and a $7 million rehab, the layout and condition at Ford were superb, and the fact that the course was without damp spots after a few days of on and off rain offered positive testimony to the investment.

 Ford Plantation owners are enjoying their totally redesigned golf course, a gem by Pete Dye that cost a hefty $7 million.

        While the homes surrounding the golf course were not as relentlessly large as those at Wexford, many communicated lofty price tags. Compared to the most expensive house for sale in Wexford, Ford's premier home, listed for "just" $3.2 million, seemed a relative bargain, but at $615 per square foot from its 5,191 square feet, its fit and finish may be beyond even the expensvie Wexford home. (The carriage house guest suite, the Lake Clara views, the Tennessee fieldstone and art studio give hint at the grandeur of the home.)
        The least expensive home at Ford Plantation seems like an extreme bargain given that it sits on a 2.9 acre lot that looks out onto the Dye golf course and is priced at just $475,000. But a closer reading yields a description of a 1 bedroom, 2 bath carriage house of just over 1,100 square feet, certainly habitable for a couple that likes cozy. Alas, the broker with the listing sees it only as temporary housing. "Live on site," the description reads, "as you build your main home." Your friends or family will be perfectly content in the carriage house, and you will save $50,000 if you contract to purchase the property by the end of the year. That is because The Ford Plantation Club will raise mandatory dues by $50k, to $100,000, at the end of December.
        For those with the resources and desire to call either of these great golf courses their own, contact me and I will be happy to make introductions to Ford or Wexford...or both.

        I'll publish in this space a few notes and photographs in coming days about my rounds at Ford Plantation and Wexford.

        Whenever I arrive in Pawleys Island, SC, as I do a few times a year, I grab from the rack at the local supermarket one of those brochures that include listings of current homes for sale. When you do that enough times over the years -- and this has been a habit of mine for the last 15 years -- you get a strong sense of what is happening with prices locally.
        I landed in Pawleys Island yesterday, made a grocery store run and grabbed the latest free copy of the Pawleys Island Rag, a 20-page list of current condos, townhomes and single-family homes for sale in one of the most well known and popular towns on the Carolinas coast. My wife and I have owned a condo in Pawleys Plantation for 15 years beside the 15th tee of the Jack Nicklaus course which opened in 1989. We also purchased a lot on the 16th hole just before the recession -- yuck -- on which we intended to build a single-family home. That idea is in limbo for now.
        The long and short of my latest reading of the Pawleys Island Rag is that prices, finally, in Pawleys Plantation and surrounding golf communities like Heritage Plantation, The Reserve at Litchfield and the others, have risen and firmed up. The obvious bargains, including vacation condos at Pawleys Plantation that generate about 20 weeks of rental revenue for their owners each year, have vanished from the brochure's pages. Some of those units had been selling as recently as last winter for $125,000, or less than $100 per square foot. I noticed another condo currently listed for $300,000; its type had previously been listed $50,000 lower last winter.
        At the other end of the spectrum, one of our favorite homes in Pawleys Plantation, with a floating and fixed dock and a view out over a wide expanse of marsh toward the island and ocean beyond, is on the market for $1.1 million, only the third or fourth such home in the community to ever top the $1 million asking-price mark.
        The lack of available properties at the lower end signals that those searching for a vacation home have descended on Pawleys Island for its laid-back

lifestyle and easy access to some of the best beaches and golf along the coast. But homes for more permanent living appear to have gained some price momentum as well, although we need to remind ourselves these are listing prices, not selling prices. But as much as listed prices seem to have risen, selling prices, according to the real estate site Trulia.com, have exploded in recent months. The median selling price in Pawleys Island between July and October, according to Trulia, rose $40,000, to $225,000. Yes, that very well could be a timing issue, but a $40,000 jump for any reason is a strong vote of confidence in the market.
        As prices rise, bargains may be fewer and farther between. We note that the house a few doors from our empty lot on the 16th hole recently sold for $524,500. At 4,700 square feet, that works out to about $112 per square foot, a grand bargain for any nice golf home, which it is. And that is without consideration of the inherent value of the lot itself which, given its view down the 16th hole and out across the marsh to the island a half mile away, is probably worth $250,000 itself.
        Pawleys Island and the entire Myrtle Beach area have lagged most other leisure residential, golf-oriented markets. There are two equally logical reasons why this area's real estate prices seem to be catching up now. One could be that buyers have finally figured out that Pawleys Island and its surrounding areas are undervalued compared with other golf rich areas. Or, second, this spate of buying and firming of prices in Pawleys Island may be reflective of the overall leisure real estate market up and down the east coast. For those who have been waiting to buy or build their dream homes in a warmer climate, the time for a cost-effective decision may be nigh. Contact me if you would like to get the process started.