Golf Community Reviews

        As a real estate agent who benefits indirectly from more and more baby boomers searching for golf homes in the southern U.S., I could certainly be accused of self-interest in asserting repeatedly that the baby boomer migration is in full bloom and that prices in southern U.S. golf communities will rise faster than those in the North. Okay, “Guilty as charged.”

        Numbers don’t lie, and although sales figures from one or two particular golf communities are not scientific proof of the theory, the latest U.S. migration patterns are certainly conclusive. In short, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article based on a new Census report, “Americans have resumed moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South…” and “Forty of the 50 fastest–growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. last year were in the South or West.”

 

All about supply and demand

        Determining price movements in the real estate business is relatively easy to do if you have a sense of supply and demand. Low supply and high demand almost always result in escalating prices. Lots of supply and low demand results in dramatically lower prices. If people are relocating from

one area of the country to another, and that trend continues over time, it stands to reason that prices in the region of embarkation (Northeast and Midwest) will not rise anywhere near as fast as they will in the South and West. You might argue that builders in the South, for example, may suddenly go crazy and produce an overabundance of new inventory, but that would create construction and related jobs which, presumably, would create additional buyers for those new homes.

        Specific evidence of this mass re-migration is growing. In the last few days, we received a report from Daniel Island’s real estate company that includes some dramatically positive numbers. The diverse and attractive mixed-use golf community within 20 minutes of Charleston, SC, and even closer to the vibrant suburban town of Mt. Pleasant, has its own shopping district and Rees Jones and Tom Fazio golf courses.

 

Two good months for Daniel Island

        According to Daniel Island Real Estate, sales during the typically slow months of January and February have been near explosive, with a year-over-year increase of 11 to 17 in the number of transactions, an average sales price of $570,000 compared with $360,000 during the same period in 2012, and a total sales volume that grew from $3.9 to $10.3 million. Sellers are receiving 95% of their asking prices this year compared with 85% last year, and the average number of days a home is spending on the market is just 94, compared with 250 days during the same period last year. The drop in the number of homes listed for sale from 109 to 82 is further evidence that the tide in the Low Country has turned from a buyer’s to a seller’s market. Further increases in the value of properties on Daniel Island may not be far behind.

Some of the larger homes on Daniel Island are along the perimeter of the Tom Fazio golf course.  Golf club membership includes another 18, by Rees Jones.  Real estate sales in the enclave are up signficantly in the first two months this year.

 

        Daniel Island is not an isolated case, as we are on the receiving end of similar information from other top golf communities in the southeast. If you have been considering a search for a southern golf home, we would be pleased to help you identify the golf communities that best match your requirements. A good start is to fill out our online Golf Home Survey. Submit your responses and we will respond in a couple of days with some suggestions of golf communities that suit your criteria. We treat all information in the strictest confidence and will never share it without your permission.

        Late last year we worked with a couple that toured a piece of property they liked at a price that wasn’t going to last long, and they bought it, within six weeks of contacting us. According to the Realtor who worked with them, the market value of their property increased shortly after they purchased it.

        The last major financial decision many of us will ever make is the purchase of the home in which we will retire and spend most of our “golden years.” We want to avoid all hazards of the search and, metaphorically speaking, not wind up in an 18-foot sinkhole like the golfer in St. Louis the other day.  (Click here for sinkhole coverage on NBC's TODAY Show.)

        This month in our free Home On The Course newsletter, we share a few lessons learned from almost a decade of assisting folks in finding

their ideal golf home. In the March edition, which will be emailed in the next 24 hours, we offer advice about when to sell your primary home, what role state taxes should play in your search, whether there is a “perfect” climate waiting for you and, on that note, how scared you should be of a hurricane threat to your golf home on the coast.

        Also, for those smart enough to keep up with the Joneses without quite paying what the Joneses pay, we play a little high-low with current homes for sale in some of the most popular golf communities in the southern U.S. We were surprised at how many golf communities offer golf homes for sale that may be a block or two apart, but also a million dollars apart in terms of their asking prices. That makes those lower priced homes look like true bargains.

        It is never too late to sign up for Home On The Course. Subscribe now to be sure to receive the March edition automatically. But even if you are late to the party, sign up any time, and we will personally send you a copy of this latest issue. All other editions are available at the top of this page by clicking on the “Past Newsletters” button.

        We are not big fans of best places to live rankings, especially those that are the results of fan voting. Call us a bit orthodox, but we think Major League Baseball ruined its All-Star game by giving fans the vote. When talent is involved, the voting should not be a popularity contest.

        So it is at the popular web site, TopRetirements.com, which has

published its list of the top 100 retirement places (towns) for 2013. The list ranks towns by the number of visits to their respective pages on the web site. We think the site confuses the term “best” with what should be “most popular,” and we can envision cynically that the employees of the city of Asheville, NC, for example, are spending their downtime visiting TopRetirements’ Asheville page.

        Topping the TopRetirements list is, indeed, Asheville, that western North Carolina town that some compare to San Francisco (the two share hills and a progressive vibe). We like Asheville and its range of golf communities that spans the semi-private Reems Creek and its British-style designed hilly layout to Mountain Air, a unique upscale golf community with a mountaintop Scott Poole golf course that is bisected by an airstrip. Attention golfer pilots: You won’t do better.

        Frankly, though, we prefer Greenville, SC to Asheville for the former’s less pretentious sophistication and an even wider variety of golf communities. TopRetirements visitors apparently don’t think much of Greenville, since it did not make the top 100 list, but a couple of the golf community courses in the area are contenders for top 10 in the golf happy state of South Carolina. Prime among them is The Chanticleer golf course, one half of Greenville Country Club’s layout, which is impeccably conditioned, carefully sculpted and landscaped and the toughest challenge in town. Just outside Greenville, the Cliffs Communities layouts at Glassy, Cliffs Valley and, later this year, Mountain Park may not be quite as tough as Chanticleer but they are every bit as impeccably groomed. Cliffs members are especially anxious for the Gary Player designed Mountain Park to open, finally.

There are few better conditioned, better laid out or more challenging golf courses in the state of South Carolina than The Chanticleer 18 at Greenville Country Club. A chanticleer is a rooster, and this one has much to crow about.

 

        Number 2 on the TopRetirements list is Sarasota (we consider Bradenton part of the Sarasota metro area), which was a pleasant surprise to us during an August visit last year. (Yes, it was hot in August, but the outdoor cafes in St. Armand’s, a charming Gulf beach town, helped cool us down.) We knew the art scene in Sarasota is topnotch, including the famed Ringling Museum, but downtown Sarasota at night was a revelation, with young and older vibrant crowds spilling out onto the sidewalks from the city’s restaurants and bars. If it’s this way in August, it must be quite the scene during peak season. From the courses in Lakewood Ranch, a sprawling community big enough to have its own postal address and with a wide range of home styles and prices, to the high rises on Longboat Key, with soothing views of the Gulf, Sarasota presents much more than nightlife to retiree and vacationer alike.

        We were pleased, and perhaps a bit surprised, that Beaufort, SC, weighed in at #6 on the list. The area has a few excellent golf communities that we assumed were less than discovered, but Beaufort’s Low Country charm should not be easy to hide. The ultra-high-end Spring Island community, with the recently renovated Old Tabby Links, one of the best courses in the state, shares an entrance and guard gate with Callawassie Island and its 27 holes of Tom Fazio golf. Spring Island will appeal especially to those looking for understated luxury and privacy; the well-established Callawassie feels more like a neighborhood, with single-family home prices that begin just under $200,000 and rise to just under $1 million.

        Other southeastern metro-markets in TopRetirements’ top 20 include Naples and Ft. Myers, FL, #7 & 8 respectively; Paris, TN (12); Fairhope, AL (13); Charlottesville, VA (16); Clearwater, FL (17); Charleston, SC (18); and Orlando, FL (20). Myrtle Beach, SC finished in 21^st place and Chapel Hill, NC, one of our favorite college towns, at #25.

        For the full Top 100 list, check out Top Retirements' Best Places to Live for 2013.

Tom Fazio's layout at Callawassie Island takes full advantage of the surrounding marshland and hundreds year old live oaks.

The lure of golf and golfing communities. Statistically, my round of 51 is just a matter of time. It's my potential (if not my destiny).

 

by Toby Tobin

 

        Golf is a game of perpetually unrealized potential. It has been said the game was invented by a sadist to be enjoyed by masochists. As a golfer, how many times have you heard, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while." or "It only takes one good shot to bring a golfer back for another round." The concepts behind these two thoughts explain golf's addictive quality.

        I was once a single-digit handicap golfer. My most recent home venue was the Jack Nicklaus signature course at Grand Haven in Palm Coast, FL. During a period spanning ten years, I managed to birdie each of the 18 holes at least once. And I managed to eagle three, including a hole-in-one.

        So I KNOW that I have the potential of shooting a 51 on the par 72 Nicklaus course. And any time I walk to the tee on a par three, I KNOW I'm capable of a hole-in-one. I've already done it, although not on the same day or even in the same year, by combining my best score on each hole. Statistically, my round of 51 is just a matter of time. It's my potential (if not my destiny). Just like the theory that an infinite number of monkeys given an infinite number of typewriters will eventually reproduce the world's greatest books.

        I remember thinking, after I finished each round back then, of the few bad shots I'd hit that day. Older now and playing less, I get to recall a few bad shots after nearly every hole. The birdies are now few. It's hard to remember my last eagle.

        How close did I ever get to my potential round of 21 under par at Grand Haven? I had a handful of 74s; two over par. Even on my best days, I could not get within 23 shots of my potential.

        Seriously, no matter what your level of play, some shots are either great or pretty good compared to your average. As I plan each shot, whether it's from the center of the fairway, on the green, from a bunker or buried in the woods, I can remember at least once in the past when I hit that identical shot with spectacular results. It's a golfer's weakness to not only remember those shots but also to expect the same results again, not just some time in the future, but RIGHT NOW; on THIS shot.

        Statistically, I have the same odds of hitting my worst shot as I do of hitting my best. The other 99.999% of the time, I'll be somewhere in between. The fact that I couldn't replicate that magnificent shot this time is frustrating because I know I can do it. But knowing that I can is what brings me back again and again, perpetually frustrated and forever a golfer.

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        Donald "Toby" Tobin blogs about real estate from his home in Palm Coast, FL.  Toby's web site is GoToby.com.

        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.

        We endured nearly three feet of snow a couple of weeks ago in our Connecticut town. In other parts of the state and outside Boston, it was even worse. After a week of mostly above-freezing daytime temperatures, a consistent cold blast has returned and the melt has stopped, except for those areas exposed to long periods of sunshine. One more decent size snowfall and an April 1 start to the golf season in New England will be in jeopardy.

        This is a depressing time of year for golfers in the northeast. I am luckier than most as I am scheduled to play a few excellent golf courses with the SC Golf Rating Panel in the Beaufort, SC, area late in March. (Look for reports in this space next month.) I can’t wait. (No, I mean that, I really can’t wait because, after a two-month layoff, I need a practice round before playing serious golf, and if the Gulfstream brings enough 40-degree days to the Connecticut coast, then I might get in some play in early March.)

This?

        I have something to look forward to, but those northerners who don’t visit and produce golf course reviews for a living can only dream about warm weather golf. So here’s a modest proposition, especially for those considering buying either a vacation home or a retirement home on a golf course in the warm South. Fill out my free Questionnaire about your preferences for a golf home, and I will respond within a couple of days with a list of golf communities that best match your criteria. And if any of those golf communities strike your fancy, I’ll contact them to see if we can arrange a discounted “discovery package” that, of course, includes golf.

        This is the time of year up North when Florida looks especially appealing. We checked this coming weekend’s weather in Naples and Sarasota, for example, and found expected temperatures in the low 80s with little chance of rain. (We checked airfares from major northern airports to Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach for this coming weekend and found many fares under $300 round trip.)  Across the Carolinas, it will be wet this weekend, but still warm enough for inveterate golfers to give it a go.  But the long-range outlook for Charleston, Savannah, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington is warm, with a chance of 36-holes a day.

Or this?  (Audubon Country Club, Naples, FL)

        My wife and I spent Valentines Day afternoon at the New Britain Museum of Art, a small gem of culture about 10 minutes from Hartford, CT. We were there to take in the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, which was fascinating, although I could have done with more large colorful posters and fewer small black and white sketches. At the end of the visit, I followed Mrs. on the obligatory brief visit to the museum’s gift shop where, of all places, I was reminded that golf, no matter the rumors of its imminent demise, remains a popular symbol of a content retirement.

        Buyers for museum gift shops are suckers for any products that have an art theme. And they are smart, from a merchandising standpoint, to always throw a few cheap products in amidst the overpriced art catalogs and reproduction objets d’art. (Better to have the customers walk away with something, even if it adds only a few pennies to the museum coffers.) A package of breath mints, part of a series of tins produced by a group called The Unemployed Philosophers Guild, caught my eye –- as satirical representations of famous works of art tend to do. (Mona Lisa winking is one of my favorites.) This tiny tin of “RetireMints” (clever) showed Grant Wood’s famous painting American Gothic –- you know, the stoic looking farmer couple facing ahead, a pitchfork in his hand. Except in the Philosophers Guild’s three-inch square version, Mr. Farmer is holding a metal golf driver.

        A golf club was really the only harmonious choice for the revisionists at the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. Consider other aspects of an active retirement -- boating, walking the treadmill in a fitness center, doing laps in a pool –- and how difficult they would be to represent in such a compact painting. Sure, Mr. Farmer could have held a tennis racket upright in the painting but, really, does anyone over the age of 60 play tennis anymore?

        Golf is still the de facto symbol of an active retirement, and as long as it remains so, rumors of its death will remain a FigMint.

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        The Philosophers Guild offers a wide array of mints that take advantage of the flexibility of the suffix “-ment.” Our favorites, besides the RetireMints, are the “EmpowerMints,” “EnlightenMints,” and “Anti-EstablishMints.” For the entire list of mints, check out http://www.philosophersguild.com/mints/  And if you are looking to mint a new life in a golf community, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.  Finding the right golf home is as much art as it is science.