BJ Smiley's Blog - Sellers

Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 28–October 4, 2026 | Port Realty Group

A Frightfully Good Week on the Forgotten Coast: 20 Closings and a $3 Million Island Sale

October is the month for ghost stories, and this part of Florida comes by its share honestly. Port St. Joe grew up beside the bones of old St. Joseph, the boomtown that hosted Florida's constitutional convention in 1838 and then all but vanished within a few years, emptied out by yellow fever and finished off by a hurricane. Walk the bay shoreline at first light this time of year, when the fog sits low over the water and the marsh goes quiet, and you'll understand why folks around here still like a good haunted tale.

The market had nothing spooky about it this week. Twenty homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 28 and October 4, up from 13 the…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 21–27, 2026 | Port Realty Group

The Beach Corridor Carries the Week While the Pipeline Takes a Breath

Fall showed up on the calendar this week, and out here you could tell without looking. Mornings on Reid Avenue came in a few degrees cooler, the bay went still enough to see the redfish pushing bait along the grass flats, and the traffic heading to the Cape on a Saturday was mostly trucks with fishing rods sticking out the back.

The market kept its footing through the change of seasons. Thirteen homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 21 and 27, one fewer than last week, on $9.02 million of volume. The stretch between St. Joe Beach and Mexico Beach did the heavy lifting with 7 of the 13 closings, including a $2,425,000 sale that was the biggest of the week…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 14–20, 2026 | Port Realty Group

The Coast Snaps Back, and St. George Island Sets the Ceiling

Last week I had to report four closings and explain why that was a holiday artifact and not a market. This week the coast handed me the other half of the argument.

Fourteen homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 14 and 20, three and a half times the prior week's count, on $13.08 million of volume against $2.93 million the week before. That is the heaviest dollar week of the last month out here. And St. George Island, which had closed nothing at all seven days earlier, put 5 homes on the board including a $2,900,000 sale that is the largest residential closing in the four weeks behind this report.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?

For…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 7–13, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Vacant Land Outsold Houses on a Quiet Labor Day Week

The week opened on Labor Day, and the coast did what it always does once that last long weekend burns off. Traffic thinned on 98, and the closing calendar, which had been running hot since the first week of August, went nearly silent.

Four homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 7 and 13. Four. After three straight weeks of fifteen, seventeen, and seventeen, that reads like somebody unplugged the market. The vacant land side, though, kept right on working, and for the first time in a month it closed more deals than the houses did.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?

For the week of September 7–13, 2026, the Forgotten Coast recorded 4…

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Can You Sell a Forgotten Coast Home That Already Has Vacation Rental Bookings?

Can I sell my Forgotten Coast home if it already has vacation rental bookings on the calendar?

Yes, and on this coast it happens constantly. Florida's standard purchase contract handles it directly in Paragraph 6(b), which covers a property that will still be subject to a lease or occupancy agreement after closing. The buyer reviews the booking schedule, deposits for post-closing stays are credited to the buyer at the table, and the guests keep their vacation. For an investor buyer, a full calendar is usually an asset rather than an obstacle, because they are purchasing income that begins the day they take title.

By Billy Joe Smiley | September 10, 2026

This question comes up almost every time an owner of a rental property on Cape San…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 31–September 6, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Seventeen More Closings, and a Pipeline That Went Quiet

Labor Day weekend on this coast has a particular feel to it. One last surge of traffic on 98, coolers coming off boats at the ramp, and everybody knowing that by Tuesday the beach belongs to the people who live here again. School is well underway and the rentals are turning over more slowly. You can just feel the difference in the mornings.

The closing table did not slow down for any of it. 17 homes closed across the Forgotten Coast for a second straight week, holding the pace they set to close out August. What changed is what they cost. Not a single sale crossed $1.6 million, and that has not happened in seven weeks.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?
For…

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What Will You Owe in Capital Gains When You Sell a Forgotten Coast Vacation Home?

What will I owe in capital gains when I sell my Forgotten Coast vacation home?

Federal long-term capital gains tax on the profit, at 0, 15, or 20 percent depending on your taxable income, with no Florida state capital gains tax on top of it. The $250,000 and $500,000 primary-residence exclusion does not apply to a home you have used only as a vacation property. The number that matters is your gain, not your sale price, and gain is the sale price minus your adjusted basis minus your selling costs. Every improvement you have made and every dollar of cost to sell reduces it, which is why the owners who plan ahead here consistently keep more of their money.

By Billy Joe Smiley | September 1, 2026

I want to say up front that I am a broker,…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 24–30, 2026 | Port Realty Group

The Corridor Carried August Out the Door

Every year the last week of August gets written off before it starts. The renters are checking out, the buyers are supposedly waiting on Labor Day, and nobody expects much to happen. Vacation traffic has thinned enough that you can get a table at lunch without planning around it.

Quiet on the sand, busy on the closing table. 17 homes closed on the Forgotten Coast, the most of any week in August, and 10 of them came from a single stretch of road. This was not the top of the market doing the work. It was the middle.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?
For the week of August 24 to 30, 2026, the Forgotten Coast recorded 17 residential closings and 2 land sales across Port St.…

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What Do You Have to Disclose When Selling a Home on Florida's Forgotten Coast?

What Do You Have to Disclose When Selling a Home on Florida's Forgotten Coast?

Florida sellers must disclose known facts that materially affect a home's value and aren't obvious to a buyer, a rule from the 1985 case Johnson v. Davis. As of October 2024, you also have to complete a separate written Flood Disclosure before the contract is signed, and as of October 2025 that requirement expanded to cover any flooding you know about, even without an insurance claim. Selling as-is doesn't change any of this. The good news is that this process is straightforward once you know the two pieces, and getting it right upfront protects both you and the buyer.

By Billy Joe Smiley | August 25, 2026

I sit down with almost every seller on this coast for…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 17–23, 2026 | Port Realty Group

School Started, and the Big Money Came With It

The buses started running again last week, and you notice it on the beach before you notice it anywhere else. Weekday mornings out at the Cape go back to walkers and a couple of people working the trough with a rod. Traffic on 98 thins out before ten. This is usually the stretch of the calendar where the market gets quiet right along with everything else.

Not this time. 15 homes closed on the Forgotten Coast, four more than each of the two weeks before it, and the dollars moved further than the count did. Residential volume landed at $13.68 million against roughly $8.06 million a week earlier. One island sale carried a good piece of that. The rest came from a coast that went back to work about the…

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