By Aidan Sowa · October 2026 · St Simons Island, GeorgiaNo documented premium says so, and owners should be careful with any claim that a one level floor plan by itself adds a set amount on St Simons Island. The source material for this market publishes no single-story versus two-story price figure at all. What it does publish is a structure in which the existing house matters far less than the ground under it. Older homes in the 31522 sample averaged 23.1 percent of the price of new construction on a comparable lot, and builders acquired 9 of the 17 older homes sampled, a rate of 52.9 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026). When the modal buyer is pricing the lot, the number of floors in a house that buyer expects to replace is close to irrelevant. A ranch and a two-story house of the same age on the same street can therefore receive strikingly similar offers, not because the market is careless, but because it is pricing the same asset in both cases.
That does not make the question empty. It makes the answer conditional, and the conditions are worth understanding before an owner spends money or chooses a route. A single-story home can be worth more to a particular household buyer who wants step free living, easier maintenance and no stairs in a coastal retirement or second home setting. That preference is real in an island market with an older buyer pool, and the housing characteristics recorded for the surrounding metropolitan area describe who that pool is (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). But a preference held by some household buyers is not a market premium, and it only turns into money if the home is listed long enough, and presented well enough, for that buyer to find it. The same research that records the 23.1 percent ratio also records the exception that proves the rule: a genuinely livable, well kept home with updated systems and no functional obsolescence can capture a live-in buyer premium by being sold as a home rather than as a homesite (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A tidy single-story cottage is often exactly that kind of home. Its value comes from its condition and completeness, not from its floor count alone.
The two-story side of the comparison has its own quiet strengths that owners of one level homes should not ignore. A two-story older house may offer more interior space on the same footprint, and on a small island lot that space can suit a larger household. What neither floor plan can change is the set of facts that drive the island price: location first, then lot size and buildable footprint, then elevation and flood compliance (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Floor count appears nowhere in that ranking. Owners deciding how to present a home will find the wider frame in the survey of what types of homes buyers are looking for in St Simons Island in 2026, and the pricing frame in the analysis of whether buyers are paying more for new construction than older St Simons Island homes.
Key Findings
- No verified figure in the source material prices a single-story premium or a two-story premium for St Simons Island, and this report states that limit plainly rather than filling it with an invented percentage (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Older homes averaged 23.1 percent of new build prices on comparable lots, so the lot, not the floor plan, carries most of the value in the typical sale (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Builders acquired 9 of 17 sampled older homes, and a buyer acquiring the lot assigns the existing structure little or no value regardless of its height (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The documented exception is condition: a livable, well kept home with updated systems can capture a live-in buyer premium by listing as a home rather than a homesite (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- New construction on standard lots has sold in the $1.1 million to $1.9 million range, the finished prices from which older home values are derived (Redfin, 2026).
Why does the floor plan fade out of the builder calculation?
Because the builder calculation runs backward from a finished house that does not yet exist. Start with the expected sale price of the new home, in the documented range of $1.1 million to $1.9 million on standard lots depending on beach or marsh proximity and lot size (Redfin, 2026). Subtract hard and soft construction costs of roughly $620,000 in the worked illustration and a builder margin near 20 percent, and the remainder is a residual land value near $550,000 to $650,000 on a $1,500,000 finished sale, before $20,000 to $35,000 in site preparation (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Nothing in that subtraction asks whether the house currently standing has one floor or two. Both are cleared at similar site preparation cost. Both leave the same lot, the same setbacks and the same elevation questions behind them.
Elevation is where height genuinely enters the pricing, and it enters through the new build, not the old one. Flood compliance caps what can be built and therefore what the ground is worth, and flood zone designations sit in the county record for every parcel (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026). A low two-story house does not satisfy a future buyer elevation needs, and a raised single-story house does not fail them. What matters is the elevation of the land and the requirements attached to it, priced through insurance method as much as through construction. Flood insurance pricing under Risk Rating 2.0 and elevation certificate requirements shape the finished home carrying costs (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026), and those costs are set by the lot and the new structure, never by the old floor plan.
Owners sometimes hope that a second story will be read as more house and therefore more money, the way an automated estimate might read it. Valuation platforms do weight interior space, and their figures for a larger two-story home can look flattering next to a smaller ranch (Zillow, 2026). The sold record corrects the impression where the buyer is a builder. Recorded sales and parcel data show what was actually paid for older island homes as sites (Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026), and the sample average of 23.1 percent already includes both forms. If two-story homes commanded a systematic premium from the modal buyer, the ratio would show it. It does not, because the modal buyer is not buying floors.
Where can a single-story home genuinely earn more?
In the household market, under the documented exception, and only when the rest of the home supports the claim. The research is specific about the profile that escapes land pricing: a genuinely livable, well kept home with updated systems and no functional obsolescence (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A single-story cottage that meets that description offers something a buyer can move into on day one, with the step free layout that many island buyers actively prefer. Against a dated two-story house with stairs, deferred systems and a floor plan that fights modern living, that cottage can absolutely sell for more, and the difference will look like a single-story premium even though it is really a condition and usability premium wearing a floor plan label.
Maintenance economics support the same conclusion from the cost side. Owning and improving older homes costs new owners more than comparable newer stock, a pattern documented in national housing survey analysis (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). A one level home presents a smaller roof span, simpler access for trades and no stairwell to heat, cool and maintain, so its ongoing cost story is easier for a buyer to accept. None of that creates a published percentage. It creates a negotiating texture in which a clean ranch can hold its price while a tired two-story house is discounted for the work list attached to it. Sellers should describe that texture honestly rather than advertising a premium the data does not name.
There is a second, narrower place where one level living earns its keep: speed and certainty with the right buyer at the right moment. High season brings more foot traffic to the island resale market and a cottage shows better in May than in January, as the research notes. A well presented single-story home listed into that traffic can find its household quickly. The counterweight is that builder bids do not depend on seasonal foot traffic at all. Builders buy year round, pricing from new build sale prices, construction costs and lot availability (Frontier Capitals, 2026). An owner who waits for the seasonal household buyer is choosing a real but uncertain premium over a documented and immediate land value, and paying carrying costs of $15,000 to $35,000 over a normal three to six month market period for the privilege of the wait. That trade suits some owners. It should be made with both numbers on the table, which is also the honest way to approach selling a St Simons Island house with unpermitted renovations, where condition questions follow the house into any listing.
What should owners of each type do differently?
Owners of single-story homes should lead with livability if they list, and with the lot if they sell directly. Leading with livability means presenting the home as the finished product the exception describes: systems current, interior clean and functional, and the step free plan explained as the practical benefit it is. It does not mean renovating toward a premium that may not return its cost. The documented renovation illustration is blunt on this point. A $75,000 update on a 1968 cottage might add $50,000 to $65,000 for a live-in buyer and nothing at all where the buyer acquires the lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). An owner who spends heavily to chase a floor plan premium that the data never promised can end the process poorer than an owner who sold the same house untouched.
Owners of two-story homes should discard the assumption that extra floors protect their price, and test the same two values every island owner faces: the household value of the house as it stands, and the land value of the lot as the sample prices it. Parcel records establish the lot side of that test with dimensions and flood designations (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026), and permit and tree rules establish what a replacement home could be (Glynn County Community Development, 2026). Where the land value is the larger number, the second story is not an asset in the negotiation. It is simply part of a structure the buyer intends to replace, and arguing for it weakens an owner credibility on the points that do matter.
Both groups should also weigh who is actually buying on their street. Where recent sales on the street are finished new builds in the $1.1 million to $1.9 million range (Redfin, 2026), the buyer pool for the older homes between them is the builder pool, and floor plan arguments will fall flat. Where the street still trades as intact older cottages to households, condition and layout carry more weight. House price movement for coastal Georgia supplies the background trend (Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026), but the street level evidence in deeds and permits (Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026) is what should settle the strategy. The related problem of how a house with foundation problems can be sold in St Simons Island shows how quickly a structural issue, at either height, returns the conversation to land value, and how much time is left to sell a house before foreclosure in St Simons Island shows the same return happening against a hard deadline.
What does a direct sale offer each floor plan?
The same thing, which is precisely the point. Operating as a wholesaler, Frontier Capitals purchases homes straight from owners and places those off-market opportunities with builders, and it is upfront that building is not its role. A direct sale prices the lot and the position, so neither owner has to perform a floor plan defence. Privacy comes first: zero showings, zero open houses and no public marketing period, with no public record until the deed transfers. On a small island that discretion spares owners the neighbourhood commentary that a listing invites. Flexibility comes second: closing in 7 to 21 days when speed matters, or months out with a leaseback when an owner needs time, against the 60 to 120-plus days a listed older home commonly takes.
The money terms follow. No commission is charged, against a typical 5 to 6 percent that costs $27,500 to $33,000 on a $550,000 sale (National Association of Realtors, 2025). No seller closing costs are charged either, removing another 1 to 2 percent, with commissions and closing costs together running 6 to 8 percent or $33,000 to $44,000 on that example. Finally the sale is as-is, with no inspections and no repair credits of $10,000 to $25,000 negotiated after an offer. For a single-story owner, that means not spending to prove a premium. For a two-story owner, it means not apologising for floors the buyer never valued. In both cases the documented land value is reached directly, a point heirs weigh alongside whether an inherited house can be sold without probate in St Simons Island when an estate is choosing its route.
Methodology and limitations
This report rests on the St Simons Island sample of 17 older homes built in 1980 or earlier, 9 of them acquired by builders, with an average older home price of 23.1 percent of the new build price on a comparable lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Finished prices come from the sold record (Redfin, 2026), parcel and flood facts from county records (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026; Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026), permit and tree rules from the county development office (Glynn County Community Development, 2026) and automated estimates are cited only to explain how owners encounter the question (Zillow, 2026).
The governing limit is stated without qualification. The source material contains no verified St Simons Island figure for a single-story premium, a two-story premium or any price difference organised by floor count. This report therefore answers by method, applying the documented ratio, the documented residual illustration and the documented live-in buyer exception to the floor plan question. Any agent or buyer who quotes a precise percentage for one level living on this island is quoting a number this research cannot verify.
Conclusion
Single-story homes are not documented to be worth more than two-story homes in St Simons Island, and in the builder priced majority of older home sales the two forms are worth much the same, because the lot is the asset and the structure is priced near zero. A single-story home can earn more in the household market when it is genuinely livable and well kept, and a two-story home can hold value where its space suits a household buyer, but both outcomes are condition stories rather than floor count premiums. The owner who understands that distinction stops defending a layout and starts choosing between two documented values: the house as a home, tested by listing, and the lot as land, available directly.
Owners who want the land value and the livability value of a St Simons Island home weighed side by side can telephone Frontier Capitals at 401-219-4207 or email [email protected].
If the buyer for your street is pricing the ground beneath your house, does it still matter how many floors stand on it today?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there any published percentage premium for one story homes on the island?
No. The source material publishes no single-story or two-story premium figure for St Simons Island. The documented figures are the 23.1 percent average ratio of older home price to new build price and the residual land calculation (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Why might my one story cottage still sell above a larger two story house nearby?
Because condition and usability, not height, drive the household exception. A livable, well kept cottage with updated systems can capture a live-in buyer premium (Frontier Capitals, 2026), while a larger house with deferred work is discounted for the cost of that work.
Does an automated estimate reward my second story?
It can appear to. Valuation platforms weight interior space and may show a higher figure for a larger two-story home (Zillow, 2026). The sold record for builder acquired homes follows the lot instead, which is why estimates and offers diverge on older island streets.
Should I remove a second story or add a first floor bath to chase a premium?
The data does not support spending toward a floor plan premium that is not documented. The renovation illustration shows even a well chosen $75,000 update returning less than its cost for a household buyer and nothing for a lot buyer (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Price the values that exist rather than building toward one that is not published.
How does flood elevation interact with the one story question?
Through the land and the replacement home, not through the existing floors. Flood zone designations and elevation requirements shape insurance and buildable value (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026; Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026). A low two story house gains nothing from its height in that calculation.
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 17 homes sampled in 31522, 9 acquired by builders, average older home price 23.1 percent of new build. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 31522, St. Simons Island GA. Market data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 31522. Market data.
- Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026. Parcel records, flood zone designations, and lot dimensions for St Simons Island. Official record.
- Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026. Parcel and permit records, St. Simons Island GA. Official record.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2023. Cost of Improving and Maintaining Older Homes Higher for New Owners: upkeep spending data for owners of older homes, 2021 American Housing Survey. Government data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2025. American Community Survey, housing characteristics for the Brunswick metropolitan area. Government data.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026. National Flood Insurance Program: Risk Rating 2.0 methodology and elevation certificate requirements. Government data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Highlights from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- Glynn County Community Development, 2026. Building permit and tree protection requirements for St Simons Island. Official record.