This is a real estate market analysis for Millhopper Forest, a subdivision in NW Gainesville Florida located on Millhopper Road in Alachua County.
The Neighborhood’s Split personality
There are two distinct faces to homes in Millhopper Forest. Homes in Millhopper Forest proper are larger, more extravagant, and more expensive. And according to experts from lanned Maintenance London & South East | Cardoe Martin, the homes in The Cottages are for those who don’t want to worry about maintenance – the homes tend to be smaller and on smaller lots while the headaches attached to home ownership are largely handled by the association, who is responsible for the exterior of the homes as well as the yard work.
Because of these significant differences I’ll analyze the two segments of the neighborhood separately.
Homes for Sale in Millhopper Forest
For sale now
There are 3 homes for sale showing up as available in the MLS, two are resale homes and one is Shannon’s model home. To see details of the homes, photos, etc. Just clock on the photo here.
There is also 1 home under contract in Millhopper Forest (we won’t know the sales price until the sale closes). The home was on the market for over a year. Originally listed at $586,000 the owner was asking $479,000 when they agreed to their contract. It is a large home – about 3,000 sqft.
Want a current list of homes for sale in Millhopper Forest? Just email us
Millhopper Forest
Most of the homes were built from 2000 – 2006, so re-sales have been fairly rare. The first few years it looks like there were some homes flipped quickly, but after 2002 only 2-4 homes were sold each year – even during the market peaks.
It seems that with the exception of the Shannon model home, the homes that come onto the market in this neighborhood sell within 4-5 months of listing. The average price has come down from it’s peak in 2006 at $605,000 to an adjusted* average for 2007/08 of $566,000 – not even a 10% price drop. The interesting thing is that the homes that sold were smaller, so the average price per square foot has increased each year since the neighborhood was started – currently at $185/sqft.
Market stats for homes in Millhopper Forest
The Cottages at Millhopper Forest
The market peaked in 2006 with 8 home sales at an average price of $467,000. It was surprising that there was only one sale in The cottages in 2007 and none in 2008. The home which sold in 2007 went for $598,000 ($190/sqft).
There were 5 homes that were on the market and didn’t sell in 2007 – they averaged an asking price of $424,000 ($167/sqft). This is an important statistic, because it shows what buyers weren’t willing to pay for homes in the area.
There has been one sale so far in 2009 – the home sold for $365,000 ($152/sqft). This shows a shift of $10/sqft since the market peak. It was on the market for well over a year before it sold, starting at an asking price of over $400,000.
Market stats for homes in the Cottages of Millhopper Forest
Summary
This neighborhood is beautiful, and most people aren’t in a hurry to leave. If homes are priced at today’s market rates they don’t take long to sell, but if they are overpriced buyers will let them sit on the market for months waiting for prices to come down.
(*because there was only 1 sale in 2008 at $619,000 the years 2007 and 2008 were added together to generage an adjusted number)