BJ Smiley's Blog - Sellers

Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 10–16, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Eleven Sales Again, and a Very Different Eleven

The count did not move. Eleven homes closed on the Forgotten Coast last week, the same number as the week before. Everything underneath it moved.

Mid-August has its own rhythm out here. The weekday beach thins down to walkers and a few surf casters, and the afternoon pop-up storms have gotten regular enough that you learn to run your errands before two. Weekends still fill up. Tuesdays belong to the locals again.

Under that quiet, the money shifted hard. Residential volume came in around $8.06 million on those 11 sales, up from roughly $7.5 million a week earlier on the identical count. The average sale climbed to $732,565 from $682,382. The reason sits out on the Cape, and it is a story about…

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How Does a 1031 Exchange Work When You Sell Investment Property on the Forgotten Coast?

How Does a 1031 Exchange Work When You Sell Investment Property on the Forgotten Coast?

A 1031 exchange lets you sell a qualifying investment or rental property and roll the proceeds into your next one without paying federal capital gains tax right now. You defer the gain instead of losing a chunk of it, as long as you use a qualified intermediary, identify a replacement property within 45 days, and close within 180. Florida has no state capital gains tax to worry about, but documentary stamp tax still applies on both sides of the exchange. Get the timeline and the paperwork right, and this is one of the most valuable tools an investor on this coast has for building real wealth over time.

By Billy Joe Smiley | August 13, 2026

If you own…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 3–9, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Twelve Miles of Highway 98 Did Most of the Coast's Business Last Week

Eleven closings. That is the whole Forgotten Coast for the first full week of August, down from 22 seven days earlier. Cut clean in half.

August runs on its own clock out here. The shrimp boats work the flats in the early light while everybody else sleeps in, and by four in the afternoon the storms have stacked up over the mainland and the beach empties in about ten minutes. A slow week in August surprises nobody.

What should get your attention is what inventory did while sales were cooling. Active residential listings fell to 571, down from 582 a week ago and well off the June peak of 620. Supply has now shrunk two weeks running, in the quietest stretch of the season.

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | July 27 – August 2, 2026 | Port Realty Group

St. George Island Finally Shows Up, and the Coast Closes Out July at Full Speed

August arrived the way it always does out here. Heavy, bright, and loud with cicadas by nine in the morning. Turtle nest markers still stake out the dunes past Cape Palms. The bay lies flat and glassy until the storms stack up over the mainland around four, and by supper the whole coast smells like rain on hot asphalt. It's officially the dog days of summer.

Underneath all that, the market turned in its cleanest week of the summer. 22 homes closed across the coast, and active inventory fell by 33 listings in seven days. Sales up and inventory down in the same week is not something that happens often out here so it's worth attention.

What is the Forgotten…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | July 20–26, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Nine Closings in the Mexico Beach Corridor, and a $5.3 Million Sale on the Cape

Late July settles into a rhythm out here. Storms build over the water most afternoons, roll through around four, and leave everything rinsed and steaming by six. The rentals are full. Parking at Beacon Hill is gone by ten. And underneath all that summer noise, the market put together its second solid week in a row.

Nineteen homes closed across the coast, two more than last week and the strongest weekly count we have logged in at least five weeks. What changed was where they closed. The Cape carried the headlines a week ago; this time the run of highway between St. Joe Beach and Mexico Beach did the heavy lifting.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | July 13–19, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Cape San Blas Catches Fire as Closings Nearly Triple on the Forgotten Coast

Something shifted this week. After a stretch of slow, patient trading, the coast came alive, and Cape San Blas led the charge. The state park was booming, boats lined the boat ramps at first light, and buyers who had been circling for months finally wrote offers. It felt less like the dog days of July and more like the market waking up early for fall.

Seventeen homes closed across the coast this week, more than double last week's count, and inventory got a real dent put in it for the first time in a while.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?
For the week of July 13–19, 2026, the Forgotten Coast recorded 17 residential closings and 8 land…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | July 6–12, 2026 | Port Realty Group

A $3.4 Million Sale Steals the Spotlight While Summer Inventory Piles Up on the Forgotten Coast

July on the Forgotten Coast has that thick, salty heat to it, the kind that has boat ramps full by eight in the morning and porch fans running until well after dark. The beaches are packed with vacation-week families, the ice cream line at Shoobie's stretches around the block most evenings, and the real estate market is doing what it usually does this time of year: moving, but at its own unhurried pace.

Seven homes closed across the coast this past week, and one of them did some heavy lifting on the numbers before anybody even looked at the rest.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?
For the week of July 6–12, 2026, the…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | June 29–July 5, 2026 | Port Realty Group

St. George Island Lights Up the Fourth of July Week with the Coast's Priciest Closing

Somewhere between the boiled peanuts stand on Highway 98 and the fireworks over the bay, this stretch of the Port St. Joe to St. George Island run does its own kind of celebrating every July. Boats stack up at the ramps. Porches fill with families who've been coming back for thirty summers.  This year, the market threw its own small fireworks show: a $1,712,000 closing on Cape San Blas and a $1,574,120 sale on St. George Island reminded everyone that the high end of this coast is still very much alive, holiday week or not.

For the week of June 29 through July 5, 2026, 18 homes closed across the five communities we track, with vacant land adding 6 more sales to the…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | June 8–14, 2026 | Port Realty Group

St. George Island and St. Joe Beach Carry a High-Dollar Week as Summer Inventory Keeps Building

Mid-June on the Forgotten Coast has its own flow. The lots at Salinas Park fill up before nine, the tarpon start rolling off the Cape, and the heat settles in for the long haul. This week's market moved the same way the fishing did. Not crowded, but the ones that hit were big.

Nine homes closed across the coast, and the dollar figures behind them ran high. A pair of $1.25 million sales on St. George Island and a five-home run at St. Joe Beach and Mexico Beach set the tone. Meanwhile inventory kept stacking up the way it does each summer, which keeps buyers in a comfortable seat.

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

For…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | June 1–7, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Summer Opens With a Quiet Week Across the Forgotten Coast

June arrived the way it usually does on the Forgotten Coast, with heat you can feel coming off the pavement and water so clear it almost doesn't look real. The crowds are building, the vacation rentals are turning over, and the real estate market is doing what it's been doing for several months now: moving at its own deliberate pace. Eight homes closed last week. The buyers who pulled the trigger found everything from a $292,000 entry-level in Port St. Joe to a $1.285 million estate on St. George Island. The spread tells the story.

Inventory held steady at 604 active residential listings coast-wide, and with only 8 homes closed during the week, supply remains elevated at 17.4 months. That…

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