Spring is a notoriously good time to list a home for sale. Temperatures are warming, the crocuses are starting to push up through the damp ground, and folks who might buy your house are thinking ahead to September, the best time for their kids to enter a new school. According to the real estate web site Trulia.com, though, some markets are going to be hotter than others next month.

        The web site’s analysts looked at sales patterns state by state since 2007 and determined the best times of the year to their homes for sale. They came up with a number of states where March could go out like a lion if you list and price your home right. By April, you could be looking for your dream house on a golf course in the South, flush with more than enough cash for the transaction and on your way to a more active but less expensive lifestyle.

The cost of living in Leland, NC, home to Brunswick Forest and its fine Cape Fear National Golf Club, is as much as 50% lower than in some northern cities.

 

        Along the eastern seaboard, more buyers in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia will be looking for homes in March than in any other month of the year, according to Trulia. In the upper Midwest, the same will be true for homes in Michigan and Ohio. And in New England, Trulia indicates just one state, Massachusetts, will be hotter in terms of sales in March than its neighbors.

        More buyers looking for homes in March could push up the price for your home, especially if local inventories are thin. Some markets are reporting bidding wars, a relic of the early 2000s, and sale prices higher than the list prices. But buyer demand is not the only good reason for couples considering a move to warmer climates to consider listing

their primary homes in the coming weeks. Prices for golf community homes in prime southern U.S. locations are rising too, some at rates faster than those up north. The reason is that many of our neighbors are beginning to make the move South, pushing up demand down there. They are finding, also, that not only is comparable real estate cheaper in the South, at least for now, but overall cost of living is less -– sometimes a lot less (see below).

        To demonstrate potential buying power for those considering a move north to south, we compared recent selling prices of homes in some of the states Trulia says will be hot commodities in March with the current prices for comparably sized homes in popular golf communities in the southeast. (Where we could find recent sale prices, we used those; otherwise, we used listing prices.) To further illuminate the financial aspects of a move from north to south, we added a figure for the change in cost of living. (Cost-of-living data from BestPlaces.net)

        If you would like us to work up the numbers for your dream move to a golf community, just fill out our Customer Questionnaire or contact us directly.  We will respond promptly and will always keep your personal information strictly confidential.

 

From Massachusetts to near Wilmington, NC…

Sold:     41 Oakhurst Cir, Needham, MA

             3 BR/2.5 BA, 1,946 sq. ft.

             Price: $700,000/ $360 per sq. ft.

Recent Sale: Brunswick Forest, Leland, NC

             3 BR/3 BA, 2,000 sq. ft.

             $329,500/$165 per sq. ft.

COL change: 51% decrease

 

From Ohio to the coast of North Carolina…

Sold:     9963 Morris Drive, Dublin,OH

             4 BR/3 BA, 2,451 sq. ft.

             Price: $560,000/$228 per sq. ft.

For Sale: Ocean Ridge Plantation, Sunset Beach, NC

             3 BR/3 BA, 2,300 sq. ft.

             $387,500/$168 per sq. ft.

COL change: 8% decrease

 

From Michigan to the mountains of North Carolina…

Sold:     3875 Lakeland Lane, Bloomfield Hills, MI

             3 BR/3.5 BA, 3,000 sq. ft.

             $850,000/$283 per sq. ft.

For Sale: Champion Hills, Hendersonville, NC

             4 BR/3.5 BA, 3,275 sq. ft.

             $695,000/$212 per sq. ft.

COL change: 38% decrease

 

From Mclean, VA to near Savannah, GA…

Sold:     819 Ridge Drive, Mclean, VA

             4 BR/2.5 BA, 3,056 sq. ft.

             $903,530/$296 per sq. ft.

Recent Sale: The Landings, Savannah, GA

             3 BR/2.5 BA, 3,166 sq. ft.

             $353,000/$112 per sq. ft.

COL change: 30% decrease

 

        We list a selection of current golf homes for sale in these and other golf communities at our companion web site, GolfHomesListed.  Check it out by clicking here.

        Golf, the game that many left for dead during the recession, made a gigantic comeback last year helped, in part, by extremely agreeable weather in the North, some weeding out of golf clubs that were too small to succeed and, of course, a rebounding economy that bred consumer confidence and discretionary spending.

        According to the National Golf Foundation, every U.S. state saw a gain in the number of rounds played in 2012. The biggest gains were in a large swath of territory from the Dakotas to the edge of New England and across the top half the nation, where 44% of the country’s golf courses are located, according to the NGF. Rounds in that section of the country grew 9.5% compared with 3.8% in the rest of the U.S. The number of “playable days,” the NGF indicates, increased dramatically from 2011 to 2012 in that northern section of the country, by 13.6% compared with 5.5% elsewhere. Those of us who live in New England, for example, will recall getting a three-to-four week head start on the golf season last year.

The breathtakingly visual Creek Club at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, GA, is and should remain fully private, even while the other five golf courses at Reynolds permit some play by guests of the on-site Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

 

        Any continuing growth in the game will not come from new golf courses, at least not in the near term; only 13.5 were added in 2012, according to NGF, whereas 154.5 golf courses closed (both measurements in 18-hole equivalents); and the NGF predicts a net loss of about 130 to 160 golf courses annually for the foreseeable future.

        Of the new golf courses added last year, just 3.5 were private and, yet, 7 were tied to real estate developments, leading to the conclusion that real estate developers may still think golf is important to their developments, but exclusive use of the golf course by residents may not be the selling point it once was. Of the 14,671.5 golf courses in the U.S., the NGF reports that 27%, or 3,975, are private and that 23% of all golf courses, or 3,529.5, are located in golf communities.

        The growth of golf may not necessarily signal growth in the number of private clubs in golf communities. On the contrary, more and more of the customers we work with are signaling an ambivalence toward exclusivity in their golf memberships and are checking the box “semi-private” on our Customer Questionnaire. Over the course of the recession, some private golf club memberships, in an effort to generate survival income, made it a little easier for outsiders to play their golf courses, forging reciprocal relationships with other golf clubs in similar situations, encouraging “stay and play” privileges in some of their residents’ townhomes, or flat out deciding to open their tee sheets to outside play.

        For those looking to retire to a fully private golf community, we can help you assess the future prospects of exclusivity. And for those who want a terrific golf course to play without payment of green fees, and don’t mind sharing it with non-members, we can help identify those golf communities with the best options. The choices are many, and a good start is to fill out and submit our no-obligation Customer Questionnaire. After we receive it, we will get back to you within a few days with a list of southern golf communities that could warm up your life, and your golf game.

At Pebble Creek Golf Club in Greenville, SC, you get two golf clubs for the price of one -- a private one and a public one.  Public players interested in making the transition to a members-only course can arrange a "trial" round on the private Linkside Course.  Here, the dogleg left 13th on the Linkside.