The complaints nibble at the edges of their optimism, but the upbeat mood among real estate brokers remains firm, though things could be even better – and South Sound is still booming.
A growing U.S. economy has infused buyers with optimism, translating into abiding interest in homebuying, driving prices up more than 20 percent in the last year – itself a banner exercise in free-market economics.
No one has spotted any warning signs – inflation is low, pegged at 1.9 percent, unemployment is at 4.1 percent, matching the U.S. rate, and air arrivals are strong, setting an all-time record of 418,403 in 2017, and a January 2018 record of 39,185.
Those numbers, says Kim Lund, RE/MAX broker and co-owner, “should continue to increase in 2018,” largely due to “the influx of new tourism from hurricane-ravaged destinations.”
James Bovell, another RE/MAX broker/owner and head of the in-house “Bovell Team,” says tourism growth “may be due somewhat to visitors seeking alternatives to the Caribbean islands hit by last year’s hurricanes, but I believe that Cayman’s market is able to create such a positive experience for visitors that they will want to come back again, which bodes well for us both tourism-wise and for the real estate industry also.”