By Aidan Sowa · October 2026 · St Simons Island, GeorgiaIn the sample compiled for this report, an older home in 31522 was worth, on average, 23.1 percent of what new construction on a comparable lot sold for. That single ratio does most of the work in answering the question. New construction on standard island lots has sold in the $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 range (Redfin, 2026), and at the sample ratio the older homes comparable to those finished houses fall roughly between $254,000 and $439,000. The research worked example sits in the middle of that band: where a new build sold for $1,400,000, the older home on a comparable lot changed hands for roughly $325,000 (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Over three quarters of the new home value sits in the land at that ratio, which is why an older island home is best understood as a lot with a structure the market credits lightly, not as a smaller version of the new house.
The sample behind the ratio is specific. Seventeen older homes in 31522, built in 1980 or earlier, were sampled, and builders acquired 9 of them, a builder demand rate of 52.9 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The typical older property in the sample is part of the island original mid-century stock, ranch homes and cottages built from the 1950s through the 1970s under the live oaks, on lots where buildable land is finite because St Simons Island is a barrier island. When the majority buyer for that stock is a builder, the price is set by land arithmetic rather than by kitchen finishes, and the figure an owner should carry away from this report is the ratio and the band, not a single island wide price. A broader framing of the same valuation question appears in the report on how much a house is worth in St Simons Island in 2026, which starts from the individual property rather than the ZIP sample.
That does not mean every older home in 31522 is worth the same fraction of a new build. The band from roughly $254,000 to $439,000 already reflects a wide spread of finished prices, and within it, segment, lot and elevation move an individual home up or down. What the ratio rules out is the hope that an older home is worth close to the finished price of the house that will replace it. Construction cost and builder margin sit between the two figures, and no buyer pays for those twice. The sections below work through the arithmetic, the exceptions and the costs that separate a headline worth from what a seller actually keeps.
Key Findings
- Older homes in the 31522 sample averaged 23.1 percent of new build prices on comparable lots (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- New construction on standard island lots has sold from $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 depending on beach or marsh proximity and lot size (Redfin, 2026).
- At the sample ratio, the older home comparable to a $1,400,000 new build changed hands for roughly $325,000 (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Builders acquired 9 of the 17 sampled older homes, a demand rate of 52.9 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The sample minimum lot was 6,098 square feet, and over three quarters of the new home value sits in the land at the sample ratio (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
How is the worth of an older 31522 home actually calculated?
From the finished home backwards. The worked illustration in the research starts with a $1,500,000 new build sale, subtracts roughly $620,000 in hard and soft construction costs and a builder margin near 20 percent, and arrives at a residual land value near $550,000 to $650,000, before $20,000 to $35,000 in site preparation costs. The illustration is labeled simplified in the research and is not a promise for any address, but its logic is the logic of the market: the older home is worth what remains after the finished price pays for building the next house and compensating the builder for building it. An owner who starts instead from what the house cost to build decades ago, or from what a neighbour hopes to get, is working forwards from numbers the buyer never uses.
Three documented factors move the residual for a given property. Location on the island comes first, because beachfront and marsh-view premiums show up in new build comps and raise the finished price at the top of the calculation (Redfin, 2026). Lot size and buildable footprint come second, measured against the 6,098 square foot sample minimum, with flood zone setbacks constraining the envelope a builder can use (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Third in that order comes how high a lot sits and whether a new build there can meet flood rules, since those limits shape the size of house allowed and, in turn, the value of the land itself. Parcel records carry the lot dimensions and flood zone designations that feed the second and third factors (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026), and the tax assessor parcel and permit records show the county own record of the property (Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026). Recorded deeds then confirm what buyers actually paid for comparable island lots (Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026).
Set against that arithmetic, automated estimates need careful handling in this ZIP. Valuation platforms draw on sold data across the island (Zillow, 2026), and where new construction has closed at $1,400,000 or more on a street, an older home estimate can absorb reflected value that no buyer will actually pay for the older structure. The comparable sales question, handled properly with recorded prices separated into older sales and new sales, is worked through in the report on what comparable homes are selling for in St Simons Island. Coastal Georgia house price index data gives the background trend for the region (Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026), but the ratio and the residual, applied to a specific lot, remain the sharpest tools this research provides.
Why does the structure add so little to the price?
Because the modal buyer in the sample did not want it. With builders acquiring 9 of 17 sampled older homes, the typical transaction priced the structure at or near zero and paid for the lot, its position and its buildable footprint (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The renovation illustration in the research makes the same point from the spending side. A $75,000 update on a 1968 island cottage might lift the sale price by $50,000 to $65,000 for a live-in buyer, and it returns $0 if the buyer clears the lot, because that buyer assigns the improvements no value. Money spent inside a structure the market is pricing as a site is therefore hard to recover in 31522, however sensible the project looks from inside the house.
Flood and insurance facts push in the same direction. Flood insurance pricing under the National Flood Insurance Program Risk Rating 2.0 methodology, together with elevation certificate requirements, shapes what it costs to keep an older island home insured (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026), and wind and flood insurance on the island runs well above mainland levels. An older structure that is expensive to insure and built to an earlier elevation standard carries a running cost that a new, compliant structure does not, and buyers subtract that difference, quietly, from what they will pay for the old one. Upkeep economics reinforce it: maintaining older homes costs their owners more, a pattern documented nationally and felt acutely in a salt air environment, though this report keeps its island figures to the sample and the ledgers in the research.
One genuine case runs against that pattern, and the research is upfront about it. A genuinely livable, well kept home with updated systems and no functional obsolescence can capture the island live-in buyer premium by listing as a home rather than as a homesite. Such a home is not priced by the residual alone, because a household buyer is paying for occupancy, character and the oak shaded street, not for a building site. The exception is real but narrow: it requires the systems and condition to be genuinely current, not freshly painted. Owners unsure which side of that line their home falls on will find the market signals in the report on what makes certain St Simons Island homes sell above asking price, where the features that move household buyers are separated from the features builders ignore.
What separates headline worth from what a seller keeps?
The selling ledger, and in 31522 it is heavy enough to move the answer by six figures on a mid range sale. Work through the documented example of a $550,000 sale. A typical total commission of 5 to 6 percent takes $27,500 to $33,000 (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Seller side closing costs, title, transfer taxes and prorations commonly add another 1 to 2 percent; state by state closing cost data in the source pool confirms that seller costs are a real and variable line rather than a rounding error (Bankrate, 2025). Together, commissions and closing costs run 6 to 8 percent, or $33,000 to $44,000 on that $550,000 sale. Concessions and inspection repair credits on older island inventory routinely run $10,000 to $25,000 on top of that.
Carrying costs finish the ledger. Over three to six months of market time, the research puts carrying costs at $15,000 to $35,000, covering mortgage or equity opportunity cost, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance, with island insurance well above mainland levels. A listed older island home commonly takes 60 to 120-plus days to sell, so those months are not hypothetical. Adding the midpoints, a $550,000 list price nets in the mid-$400,000s after a normal market cycle, before any price reduction. The gap between the $325,000 sample figure for an older home and its eventual net is smaller in dollars but identical in structure, which is why this report treats worth and net proceeds as two different questions. Estate sellers meet the same ledger after a legal sequence, and the timing of that sequence is covered in the report on whether a probate house can be sold before probate is completed in St Simons Island and in the report on whether a vacant probate house can be sold immediately in St Simons Island.
What does a direct sale pay for an older 31522 home, and what does it save?
A direct sale pays the land driven price and removes most of the ledger above. Frontier Capitals is a wholesaler: it sources off-market deals to builders and buys directly from sellers, and it does not claim to be a builder. Privacy leads the list of benefits, because the sale involves not a single showing, no open houses, no period on public display, and nothing on record before the deed changes hands, a real relief on an island this small, where neighbours tend to know exactly which cottage belongs to which family. The second benefit is flexible closing, in 7 to 21 days when speed matters or months out with a leaseback, instead of the 60 to 120-plus days of a listed older home, which cuts the carrying cost window from the $15,000 to $35,000 range down toward a few weeks of ownership.
The third benefit is no commissions, saving the typical 5 to 6 percent, $27,500 to $33,000 on a $550,000 sale (National Association of Realtors, 2025). The fourth benefit is no seller closing costs, saving the further 1 to 2 percent, for a combined saving of $33,000 to $44,000 on that example. The fifth benefit is no inspections or repairs: no $10,000 to $25,000 repair credits, no renegotiation over a roof or a system, and a sale as-is, which the research describes as the market native format in this ZIP because the buyer purchasing for the land performs no structural inspection. A seller should still verify the buyer properly, asking for proof of funds in the buyer name dated within the last 30 days and checking recorded deeds in the buying entity name from actually closed purchases in county records (Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026). The lot side of the same valuation is priced on its own in the report on how much a residential lot is worth in St Simons Island.
Methodology and limitations
The evidence behind this report comes from the research sample assembled for St Simons Island, covering 17 homes in 31522 from 1980 or before, with builders taking 9 of them (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The 23.1 percent figure is an average across that sample on comparable lots. The dollar band of roughly $254,000 to $439,000 is that average ratio applied to the documented new build range of $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 (Redfin, 2026); it is a derived band, not a separate set of observed prices, and individual homes will fall outside it where a lot is exceptional or constrained. The worked residual illustration is labeled simplified in the research and used the same way here. No property was inspected, no appraisal was performed, and no figure in this report should be read as a valuation of a specific address. Automated estimates (Zillow, 2026) are discussed as a comparison point, not adopted as evidence of worth.
Conclusion
An older home in 31522 is worth, on the documented average, 23.1 percent of the new build price on a comparable lot: roughly $325,000 against a $1,400,000 new build, inside a band of about $254,000 to $439,000 across the documented finished range (Frontier Capitals, 2026; Redfin, 2026). Location, lot and elevation move a specific home within and occasionally beyond that band, a genuinely livable home can earn a household premium, and the selling ledger then decides how much of the headline figure the seller keeps. Worth, in this ZIP code, is a land question first and a house question second.
Owners who want the ratio and the residual run against a specific older home in 31522 can telephone Frontier Capitals at 401-219-4207 or email [email protected].
If over three quarters of the value of the new house on your lot sits in the land, how much of your home price have you been attributing to the building?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single best figure for an older home in 31522?
The sample average: 23.1 percent of the new build price on a comparable lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Applied to the research worked example, that is roughly $325,000 for the older home against a $1,400,000 new build. It is an average across 17 sampled homes, not a quote for any one address.
Why is the older home worth so much less than the new one?
Because the finished price has to pay for roughly $620,000 of construction costs and a builder margin near 20 percent in the worked illustration, leaving a residual land value near $550,000 to $650,000 before site preparation. The older home trades inside that residual logic, with its structure credited at or near zero by the modal buyer (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Can an older 31522 home be worth more than the ratio suggests?
Yes, in the documented exception: a genuinely livable, well kept home with updated systems and no functional obsolescence can capture the live-in buyer premium by listing as a home rather than as a homesite. The claim has to survive inspection of the systems and condition; cosmetic freshness alone does not move a home out of the land driven band.
Should I renovate before selling to raise the figure?
The research illustration is discouraging: a $75,000 update on a 1968 cottage might add $50,000 to $65,000 for a live-in buyer and returns $0 where the buyer acquires the lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Renovation only pays where the home will genuinely be sold to a household buyer as a home.
How do I check the figures for my own lot?
Read the county parcel record for lot dimensions and flood zone designations (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026), then check recorded deeds for what comparable island properties transferred for (Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026). Those records ground the ratio and residual method in your specific segment of 31522.
Sellers in St Simons Island also ask Can an Inherited House Be Sold If It Has Liens in St Simons Island?
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.
- Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026. Recorded deeds and plat records for 31522. Official record.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026. House Price Index data for coastal Georgia markets. 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.
- Bankrate, 2025. Average closing costs by state. Market data.