Stories like this are fun. If someone asked you whether you would have paid $30,000 for a condo on Perdido Key 30 years ago, you'd say yes without hesitation. After all, we all know what gulf coast real estate prices have done in the last 30 years.
The really tough question is, where do prices go from here? In 30 years do you think people will look back at today's gulf coast beach front condos and wish they'd decided to invest that $500,000? You better believe they will.
What's really hard to imagine is that in another 30 years today's half-million dollar condo will be worth $8.3 million if gulf coast vacation property continues to appreciate at the rate it has over the past thirty years.
Famous last words: Gulf-front condos for $30,000 won't sell
A two-bedroom condominium on the Gulf of Mexico for sale for $30,000?
You wouldn't believe that price today.
Susan Norman thought it preposterous, too -- but this was more than 30 years ago, when Perdido Key had a few summer homes and no condos.
In those days, the prices seemed high, not absurdly low as they would today.
Still, within a year she sold 70 of the 72 units in the Mariner. Those same units now can fetch $500,000 each. Others still belong to their original owners.
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