Which St. Simons Island Number Is Yours? Reading Several Medians and Working Markets

Why are there five medians, and which one is a sold price?

The September article on island medians is useful because it names its sources and their dates. The first is a median list price of $795,000 for August. A list price is what sellers ask, and it is not what buyers pay. The second is Redfin's trailing three month sold median of $664,000 through May, down 2.9% on the year. The third is a home value index of $688,772 as of June, which the article describes as a computed model across the whole housing stock and not a total of sales. The fourth is a sold median of $680,000, down about 2%. The fifth is a single-family-only median of $743,800 for July.

The article says that the sources differ in four ways: list price against sale price, an index against recorded sales, the property types included and the time window. Those are the right four questions for any figure an owner is shown. The two sold medians that use all home types agree closely: Redfin's $664,000 and $680,000 from the other portal are within 2.4% of each other, and Redfin's June figure of $667,137 and Realtor.com's $668,450 are within 0.2%.

The brokerage report adds two more. Its list median of $850,000 in mid-September, at $397 per square foot, is 13.4% above the Realtor.com median listing price of $749,500 for August. Its sold figure is a twelve month median of $707,500 at $340 per square foot, down 1.3%. A twelve month window moves slowly. It includes the strong months of spring and early summer and the slower months of winter, so it sits above the three month medians. The brokerage and the article agree that the best sold-price guide for the south end and mid-island is the trailing twelve month range of $664,000 to $743,800, depending on source and window. That is the brokerage's view and is commentary.

The magazine column's $960,000 is a single-family median as of June 3, written by a local broker who covers five Glynn County markets. It is 29% higher than the single-family figure of $743,800 for July and 44.6% higher than the all-type sold median of $664,000. The column does not say which months it covers or whether it counts sold or listed homes. This brief reports it as a published figure and not as a verified median.

Source: the five pages as cited. The 2.4%, 0.2%, 13.4%, 29%, 44.6% and the $296,000 are this brief's arithmetic. Commercial and magazine content; not independently verified.

Do the days on market and the sale counts agree?

They do not. Redfin reports a median of 42 days on market for the three months to June, against 46 a year earlier, and says the average home sells for about 4% below list and goes pending in about 64 days. The postal area page reports 81 days, up 13.48% on the year and up 90.48% over three years. The brokerage reports a median of 90 days to go under contract over twelve months. A seller who reads 42 and 90 for the same island has read two different counts. A median of 42 days on market for homes that sold in a three-month window is often shorter than the time from first listing to contract, because relisted homes and homes that were taken off the market reset the count in some systems.

The sale counts do not agree either. Redfin counted 143 homes sold in June alone, down from 155. The brokerage counted about 456 sales over the prior twelve months, which is 38 a month. Taken at face value, Redfin's June figure is 3.8 times the brokerage's monthly average. The difference could come from the home types and areas each counts, from the seasonal peak in June, or from the brokerage's data source, but none of the pages explains it. This brief cannot resolve it and treats both counts with caution.

The active listing counts differ in the same way. The brokerage counted 294 active listings in mid-September, the postal area page showed 495 for August, and the magazine column counted 180 single-family homes on the market as of June 3. The Realtor.com page also contradicts itself on one point. Its table shows active listings down 1.18% on the year, while its summary text says up 0.20%. When a page gives two figures for the same measure, neither should be quoted without a note.

What the sources do agree on is direction. Days on market have lengthened from the lows of a few years ago, prices are slightly lower than a year ago, and homes sell at about 95% to 96% of list on average. Redfin's page also shows that 7.2% of homes sold above list, so a minority of sellers still got a premium. The brokerage puts supply at 7.7 months, which it says is past the six-month threshold that typically defines a buyer's market. The postal area page calls the market balanced. Again the label depends on the measure.

Source: Redfin, Realtor.com and the brokerage report as cited. The 38 a month, the 3.8 times and the percentage gaps are this brief's arithmetic. The explanations of the differences are this brief's inferences. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Is the island one market or four?

The brokerage report divides the island into four working markets. The North End is the largest and least developed area, much of it protected by the St. Simons Land Trust, with larger lots and quieter roads. The Mid-North runs from Sea Island Road up along Frederica Road and is dominated by the Sea Palms community and The Commons, with golf and lagoon settings. The South End, south of Demere Road and including East Beach, is walkable and village-adjacent, with cottages, beach homes and a mix of historic and newer construction. The fourth is the small gated enclaves, such as St. Simons Island Club, where sales are rare.

The report says that the South End and Mid-North have enough sales each month for a stable trend, and the enclaves do not. Its example is a twelve month median of $1.8 million for St. Simons Island Club through June 2025, up 35.8%, based on four closed sales in that June. The September article gives another: neighborhood data from March 2026 showed a median sale price near $1,495,000 in that community, with 11 homes on the market, three homes sold in the period, an 89.7% sale-to-list ratio and none sold above asking. A median of three sales is not a market signal. One estate sale or one very motivated seller can move it by six figures.

The report also shows how far one name can stretch. Sea Palms covers two communities, East and West, split by Frederica Road, with at least three price tiers: entry-level villas of about 1,500 square feet that historically started near $150,000, about 340 single-family homes that typically list at $500,000 and up, and a section of larger lots priced well above that. A home under the same sign can sell for $150,000 or for more than $1 million. Another tier of cost is the club. The September article notes that new homesites in one golf club advertise eligibility for a reduced club initiation fee, in one case $85,000, which is not part of the home price on a listing sheet.

For an owner, the lesson is that an island-wide median is a starting point and not an answer. The question is which of the four markets the home sits in, how many comparable homes sold in that pocket in the last quarter, and whether the comparison is a sale price or a list price. The article suggests asking those same three questions of any agent.

Source: the brokerage report and the September article as cited. The descriptions of zones and tiers are the authors' commentary and have not been checked. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What does the Realtor.com neighborhood table show?

The Realtor.com page lists named neighborhoods with a median listing price and a count of homes for sale. The table below uses its figures. The median listing prices run from $449,500 in Sea Palms to $3,335,990 in East Beach, a spread of 7.4 times. The per square foot prices run from $290 to $876. Two neighborhoods with similar prices can differ by a factor of two in price per square foot, because lot size and home size differ.

The for-sale counts in the table are 24, 22, 17, 14, 9, 8, 6, 3 and 2 for the nine neighborhoods that have any, which add up to 105. The postal area headline shows 495 homes for sale. The table therefore accounts for 21.2% of the listings, and the rest sit in neighborhoods the page does not name or in areas outside the named ones. A reader who sums a neighborhood table and compares it with the headline should expect a gap.

Three of the named neighborhoods show large year-on-year moves in their for-sale counts: Hampton Point is up 81.82% to 17, St. Simons Beach is up 50% to 14, and Sea Palms West is down 50% to 8. These are small counts, and a change of a few homes produces a large percentage. The page also lists East Beach with 0 homes for sale but a median listing price of $3,335,990, which suggests that the price figure is not current. This brief reports the table as published and does not rely on that figure.

Source: Realtor.com as cited. Rows with no price are omitted. The sum of 105, the 21.2% and the 7.4 times are this brief's arithmetic. The East Beach figure appears stale and is reported as published. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What does the Census say about the people and the homes?

The American Community Survey profile for the postal area counts 17,780 people and 12,234 housing units (Census Reporter, postal area profile). Of the 8,574 occupied homes, 7,269 are owner-occupied, which is 84.8%, and 1,305 are rented, which is 15.2%. The median household income is $108,632, the median rent is $1,851 a month and the median home value is $571,100, with a margin of error of $44,003, or 7.7%.

The survey's median value is 14.4% below Redfin's $667,137 and 14.6% below Realtor.com's $668,450. The survey records what owners estimate their homes are worth, over five years and across every owner-occupied home in the area, including older and smaller homes that rarely sell. The market pages record what recent buyers paid. It is a reminder that an owner's sense of value, the census record and a buyer's price are three numbers.

Vacancy is 29.9%, with 3,660 homes not occupied as a usual residence at the survey date. The survey does not say why. This brief infers that many are second homes or short-term rentals, which fits the island's resort setting, but it is an inference. The postal area has fewer vacant homes than a winter-resident community, and that matters for a seller because a larger share of buyers here are likely to be year-round residents.

The homes are newer than in many coastal markets. The median year built is 1989, and 2,746 homes were built in the 1980s, 2,071 in the 1990s, 2,037 in the 2000s and 1,562 in the 2010s. The 3,599 homes built in the 2000s and 2010s are 29.4% of the stock, and the 3,709 built before 1980 are 30.3%. An older cottage on the south end and a 1990s golf-course home are different products, which is the point the brokerage makes about zones.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024, Redfin and Realtor.com as cited. Shares, sums and gaps are this brief's arithmetic. The explanation of vacancy is this brief's inference. The postal area is larger than any single neighborhood.

What does the Brunswick area add?

St. Simons Island sits in the Brunswick, Georgia metro area, and Realtor.com publishes monthly series for it. The median days on market rose from 57 in April to 85 in August, an increase of 49.1% (Realtor.com, days on market). Active listings rose from 864 to 985, up 14.0% (Realtor.com, active listings). The count of price-reduced listings went from 170 in March to 250 in June and 194 in July (Realtor.com, price reductions).

The metro area includes Brunswick city and the mainland, where the magazine column reports a median of $185,000 in the city and $325,000 in the county, so the series is not a measure of the island. The column also calls the county market soft and the city market strong, which shows how different the parts of one metro can be. The direction of the series, more listings and longer waits through the summer, is consistent with the island sources, but the series cannot prove anything about a home on the island.

The magazine column names traffic and zoning as the island's main challenges and says that congestion is causing some residents to consider moving off the island. That is the author's opinion and has not been checked. It is included because it is the kind of local factor that a median never shows. Readers comparing markets can also read the Paces brief and the Milton brief.

Source: Realtor.com series published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and the magazine column as cited. The 49.1% and 14.0% are this brief's arithmetic. The series names were checked against the series pages. The column's opinions are the author's.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

Start with the pocket. Ask for the sold prices of homes in the same neighborhood and of the same type over the past year, how many there were, and how far each sold below its list price. If the count is three or four, treat any median as a story about those homes and not a market. Then ask whether a figure is a list price or a sold price, which months it covers and whether it includes condos.

Ask about the fixed costs that sit outside the price: club membership and initiation fees, association dues and the rules of the specific condominium or villa association. The brokerage report explains that a Sea Palms unit may belong to a specific association with its own dues and rules, separate from the larger property owners association. This brief has not reviewed any association's documents. Treat this as a list of questions, not findings.

The fee arithmetic is simple. At the twelve month median of $707,500, each 1% is $7,075, so 3% is $21,225 and 5% is $35,375. At $960,000, 1% is $9,600. At the Realtor.com listing median of $1,950,000 for the gated community, 1% is $19,500. These show what each point is worth. They are not a prediction of what any seller would pay.

A public listing on the island meant a median between 42 and 90 days, depending on the count, with a home kept ready for showings and a buyer's inspection to follow. A private sale with Maison Off-Market changes that. There are no showings and no neighbors talking about you selling. The closing date can be flexible, so there is time to find a new home. There are no commission costs, no closing costs, and no inspections or repairs. This brief does not claim that a private sale always yields more than a public one.

If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a St. Simons Island home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Source: the pages above and Maison Off-Market as cited. The fee figures are this brief's arithmetic and not claims about any sale.

Methodology and limitations

Medians, days on market, sale-to-list ratios and counts come from Redfin's page for the three months to June 2026, Realtor.com's postal area page with indicators as of August 2026, a September 24, 2026 brokerage report, a September 10, 2026 brokerage article and a magazine column dated August 20, 2026 with data as of June 3. The sources cover different periods and areas, and some are brokerage marketing, so they are not independent.

Census figures come from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates for the postal area, through Census Reporter. Regional series are Realtor.com data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for the Brunswick, Georgia metro area, and the series titles were checked on the series pages. Percentages, gaps, ratios and fee amounts are this brief's own arithmetic and are labeled as such. Where a reading goes beyond what a page says, it is called an inference. Commercial pages are not independently verified. No agent contact details or street addresses from the pages are reproduced.

Conclusion

The St. Simons Island record shows five or more medians between $664,000 and $960,000, a sale-to-list ratio near 95% to 96%, days on market between 42 and 90 depending on the count, and a gated community whose published median rested on three sales. It describes several markets under one name, and the number that matters to an owner is the one for their own pocket.

It does not fix a price for any one home. The choice between a public listing and a private sale comes down to whether an owner would rather meet showings, inspections and a public clock, or sell quietly on a date that suits them. Maison Off-Market speaks only to sellers, and a conversation costs nothing.