The luxury second home market : an analysis of historical sales and property data at The Greenbrier Resort (White Sulphur Springs, WV)

Abstract

The global economic expansion and subsequent creation of wealth as well as increased purchasing power and disposable income has contributed to the growth in the secondary home market. Over the past decade developers that cater to such discerning buyers have focused significantly on bringing to market products that will meet the wants, needs, and expectations of their target customers. Despite the significant growth in the secondary home market and general infatuation that most individuals have with real estate, there are limited studies that analyze the second home market. Instead most research has focused on the commercial and primary home real estate markets. This study examines a specific development, The Sporting Club at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The study focuses on the residential home price transactions that occurred at The Greenbrier Resort since 1980. The data collected from the Greenbrier County Assessor!s Office will be used to derive a hedonic price equation. This equation will help to explain the value derived from key home attributes; beds, baths, home square footage, and location. Then a nominal and real price index will be constructed and used to understand the correlation between home prices and supply and GDP. The end goal is to calculate, through regression analysis, a price equation with the dependent variable price and independent variables of supply and demand (GDP) and a supply equation. The analysis has three conclusion sections. The first is the hedonic price equation that implies the law of marginal utility is recognized with respect to the number of bedrooms a home has and that any more than three a negative affect on price occurs. However, with respect to bathrooms, additional bathrooms do add to the price of the residence. The second and third conclusions are derived from time series equations. The first explains that for every increase by 1% in GDP the real price of a property increases by $4,332. The second equation tries to explain supply and concludes that a 5% increase in the real price index causes a 5.4% increase in supply or unit supply elasticity is observed. A recommendation for the owner/developer of The Greenbrier Sporting Club is to buyback vacant lots because currently 78% of the supply is in control of the owners. This phenomena will most likely lead to future price volatility as supply will be delivered to the market as families and speculators chose. In other words supply will not be delivered to the market at a rate that will stabilize prices.