The Origin Condominium Auction results were interesting.  The same auction group hosting the Ocean Reef, Palazzo and Marina Landing auctions presided over the Origin auction.  While the auction format surprises many people, once again they delivered a strong number of contracts in a matter of hours. 

Origin at Seahaven is not the easiest property to accurately report auction pricing on.  This condominium contains many unique qualities that set it apart from some other condominiums on the beach.  Having said that, Origin at Seahaven is a gulf view and not a gulf front condominium.  It sits on the north side of Front Beach Road.  The four separate floor plan orientations (north, south, east, and west) add to the complexity when comparing this condominiums to others on the beach.   

Part of the condominiums appeal is that it is part of the Town of Seahaven.  From day one it was marketed as the first phase in this development.  The first 30 minutes of the auction was spent explaining the concept, management, and history behind Origin and the Town of Seahaven.  They also noted how we should look at the new condominium tower under construction (referring to Emerald Beach Resort tower II) as a clear indication that Panama City Beach is moving ahead with new preconstruction projects.  What they failed to mention is that Emerald Beach Resort Tower II is being constructed for Wyndham as a Fractional Ownership Tower.  Because of the land, construction cost, and market conditions, it will be very challenging for any new preconstruction projects to break ground in the years to come.  It could be quite some time before pricing can recover to a level that will allow developers to start new preconstruction projects in Panama City Beach.  The last time I checked, you would have to charge between 400-450 a square foot to move forward with a profitable resort style preconstruction project in this area. 

Here are the auction boards.  Please look at how they broke the units down into groups.  I have used the titles of each group to explain what happened at the auction.

Origin Auction Board 1

Origin Auction Board 2  

Origin Auction Board 3

 As I mentioned above, different floor plans have different orientations and views.  Some units look directly over the gulf.  The even number units are on the inside of the U shaped building.  Depending on the unit orientation, the floor plan balcony may face the ocean directly or at an angle.  It is important to note that Origins grand pool terrace is spectacular.  The odd number units are on the outside of the U shaped building.  The units on the East and West side of the building give you a gulf view at an angle.  Some of the units on the back have no view of the gulf at all.  They look over what is proposed to be, the Town of Seahaven. 

The Origin auction started with the "three bedroom lockouts".  These floor plans directly overlook the gulf with a master bedroom on the water.  The second bedroom has a gulf view from the east side of the condominium.  An additional bedroom doubles as a efficiency lock out overlooking the east side of the condominium.  The auctioneer worked his way down from 400k to 250k before getting his first bid.  The first three bedroom lockout sold for 270k.  They asked if anyone else was interested in one at that price, but there were no takers.

They moved on to the "three bedroom traditional" floor plans.  Three of these were offered (1701, 1503, 1603) together, but there were two very different floor plans.  Unit 1701 has a balcony that directly overlooked the water, but all bedrooms faced the north and overlooked the proposed village.  1503 and 1603 face the north and overlook the village.  The bidding started at 200k, then 210k, and finally sold at 220k . . . Except it didn't.  The winning bidder decided he didn't want it.  Then the 210k bidder wasn't interested.  So . . . they moved on to the next floor plan. 

 Now with a quick transition to the next floor plan, we moved onto the "two bedroom traditional" units.  There were four units offered in this group (429, 1505, 1605, 1432).  Unit 429's balcony faces east with a angled gulf view.  Unit 1505, and 1605 face north and have no view of the gulf.  1432 overlooks the pool and has an angled gulf view.  The first one auctioned off for 210k, the second for 201k.  Units 429 and 1432 sold, but the north facing units remained.  They asked if anyone else would like one at that price, but there were no takers.  We then got our first scolding as bidders.  If you have been to any of the other auctions, you are familiar with this.  It is a common occurrence with this auction group when they do not like how things are going.  They let us know that this "May be the last one they auction".   They took a moment to get their bearings and announced they sold a "three bedroom traditional" for 200k. 

We then moved on to the "two bedroom lockouts".  There were seven units to choose from.  Four of these units directly faced the gulf.  Three faced the north overlooking the proposed village.  They started with bidding up at 400k, but no bidders showed up until the pricing wend down to 100k.  The biding increased to the first winning bid of 200k.  They asked if anyone else wanted one at this price.  One more buyer went up on the board.  They then specifically auctioned off unit 1425/1427 which is a north facing unit.  The winning bid was 160k.  You could clearly see they were not happy. 

The moved on to the "one bedroom village view".  They started the bidding high and slowly worked there way down to 75k.  When there were no bidders at 75k, they simply moved on.  They were clearly not pleased with the bidders and made us aware they were skipping the "one bedroom gulf view" and the "studio gulf view" groups. 

They auctioned one "studio village view" for 55k and they had enough.  They told everyone they were going on break.  At this point they had sold 5 units prior to the auction and 10 units during the auction.  They never came back to auction more units, but they did start announcing sales.  Roughly 90 minutes after they went on break there were 27 units sold on the board.  They sold "one bedroom gulf or pool and gulf view" units for 125-130k and "studio gulf or pool and gulf view" units for 85k. 

As always, it was an interesting auction, but they ended up putting a significant number of condominiums under contract.  Please keep in mind that a 10% commission was added to everyone's purchase price.  So, if you bought a:
"three bedroom lockout" (gulf view) for 270k, you paid $297,000 which is $166 a square foot
"three bedroom traditional"(gulf view) for 200k, you paid $220,000 which is $112 a square foot
"two bedroom traditional"(east facing gulf view) for 201k, you paid $221,100 which is $155 a square foot
"two bedroom lockouts" (gulf view) for 200k, you paid $220,000 which is $174 a square foot
"two bedroom lockouts" (village view) for 160k, you paid $176,000 which is $135 a square foot
"one bedroom" (gulf view) for 125k, you paid $137,500 which is $169 a square foot
"studio" (gulf view) for 85k, you paid $93,500 which is $196 a square foot
"studio" (village view) for 55k, you paid $60,500 which is $130 a square foot

The final results won't be known for another 45 days.  There is usually some fall out of condominium buyers during the condominium documentation review period.  We could also  see several more contracts written if the developer continues to offer this pricing in the days to come.  Please keep in mind that I am getting my sales numbers from the auction sales boards after the auction.  These numbers will change as some bidders cancel and others write contracts.  There are still developer units available.   Feel free to contact us if you are interested.