1. Ashley started playing the trumpet in the 7th grade. 

2. She currently plays in the St. Augustine Community Orchestra. (Did you even know we had an orchestra? Better yet, they are good!)

3. Ashley is a red belt in Tae Kwan Do and expects to get a black belt by December 2011.

4. She recently won a gold and bronze at the state Tae Kwan Do competition.

5. And she is determined to win two golds when competing in the Tae Kwan Do nationals at the end of June.

6. The premature birth of her daughter made her decide to be a stay at home mom…she realized no one could take care of her children the way she could!

7. Ashley got her real estate license in 2005. 

8. She decided to work at Davidson Realty at World Golf Village because she loves the family atmosphere we have here.

9. Ashley believes her best business attribute is giving great customer service and maintaining the relationships long after the sale.

10. Ashley is unique and she loves it! When Davidson Realty took a personality test, she was the only one in the “Explorer” category!

My favorite 3 trends from the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats are:

1. The median sales price and the average sales price have increased.

The prices of St. Augustine FL homes and Jacksonville homes continue to show signs of stabilizing after falling for the last couple of years. The average sales prices for the NEFAR area for January, February and March were $162,752, $166,812 and $169,944.

The single family houses in St. Augustine in the 32092 zip code which includes the World Golf Village area had average sales prices for January, February and March of $214,288, $217,408 and $237,736. I think we will continue to see some ups and downs in pricing but the prices appear stable for now.

2. There is an increase in closed transactions.

There are so many obstacles to close a transaction lately between short sales, appraisal issues, and lender policy changes, I think closings tell us more about what is happening in the market. The closed sales for Northeast Florida tracked by NEFAR have increased from 910 closings in January to 1,449 closings in March.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the number of closings after June when the Homebuyer Tax Credits have expired. I expect to see fewer closings for a few months; however, the buyers seem to have more confidence in the market since prices have stabilized.

3. The number of pending sales is up dramatically.

Pending sales by Jacksonville Realtors have increased from 1,204 in January to 2,071 in March. That is a very large increase and shows the amount of buyer activity we are seeing  in our area.

I can’t predict the future of our real estate market, but these three trends are very encouraging.