Drive 30A on a summer morning and you can time the town by the noise. Seaside is quiet by 7 a.m., its lanes already fixed in whatever form they took twenty years ago. Rosemary Beach is the same, a finished postcard with nothing left to build. Alys Beach is different. Under a county permit that allows work to start at 7 a.m., crews are still moving trucks along Caliza Lane and the interior streets, still closing a block here and there for utility work. For a town famous for white walls and courtyard living, it is easy to forget that Alys Beach is, in the plainest sense, unfinished.
That fact turns out to matter more to a 2026 buyer than the architecture does. Sales have slowed. Homes are sitting longer. And the price per square foot has barely blinked. Those three things are not supposed to happen at once, and the reason they do is worth understanding before you write an offer here.
The Slowdown That Didn't Show Up in the Price
In February 2026, Alys Beach recorded 21 closed home sales, down from 46 in the same month a year earlier. Days on market stretched from 105 to 139 over that same window, and some luxury listings sat as long as 185 days by March. Across the broader 30A corridor, that kind of pullback showed up in price too, with overall values down roughly 11 percent from the year before.
Alys Beach didn't follow. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the average sale price ran about $9.04 million at an average of $2,111 per square foot, and homes that did sell still closed at 98 percent of list price. Fewer buyers were transacting, and the ones who did were still paying close to asking.
That combination, fewer sales, longer waits, flat pricing, is the tell. In a typical resale market, a slowdown like this pulls prices down with it, because sellers who need to move compete for a shrinking pool of buyers. That competition never showed up here. To understand why, you have to look past the sales data and at how new inventory actually enters this market in the first place.
A Town Still Being Built, Twenty Years In
Alys Beach was founded in 2004 on a master plan from DPZ CoDesign, the firm behind the New Urbanist layout that put narrow lanes, courtyards, and a Gulf-facing green at the center of the town. As of 2026, the community sits at roughly 65 percent complete, with full build-out not expected until sometime between 2029 and 2031.
The town holds 899 approved lots but is planning to stop development somewhere around 550 homes. That gap is not a land constraint. It's a decision, made years ago, to leave the rest of the acreage for amenities, condos, and commercial frontage rather than squeeze in every entitled lot. The upshot is that Alys Beach has more room to build than it intends to use, and the pace at which it releases that room is set by the developer's own construction schedule, not by how many buyers show up in a given quarter.
Most of that schedule runs through the town's in-house construction arm. Alys Beach Construction has completed roughly 75 percent of the homes built there since 2004, working alongside ten outside builders approved for the reinforced-masonry standard the town requires. Town architects Marieanne Khoury-Vogt and Erik Vogt of Khoury Vogt Architects oversee the design review that every new home passes through before a shovel goes in the ground.
That is the mechanism. When a resale market slows, sellers adjust price to move inventory. When a phased market slows, the developer simply builds at the same pace it already committed to, because that pace was never tied to short-term demand in the first place. Supply doesn't loosen to meet a soft quarter. It just sits at whatever rate the town has already scheduled.
Three Ways to Own Here
That structure changes what "buying in Alys Beach" actually means, because the path you take determines how much of this phasing you're exposed to.
| Path | What it gives you | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Finished resale | A completed home, ready to close and occupy on a normal timeline | The least design input, since the home's form is already set |
| Custom homesite | Full design control over a new build on a purchased lot | Design Code review with the town architects, an approved builder, and county permitting layered on top |
| Somerset Custom Home Program | A semi-custom path pairing an architect's plan with Alys Beach Construction | Less flexibility than a from-scratch design, in exchange for a faster route to occupancy |
A resale sidesteps the phasing question entirely. A custom homesite puts you inside it directly, subject to the same review process and construction sequencing that has shaped the town for two decades. Somerset splits the difference, using pre-developed plans to move faster without giving up the ability to select finishes.
Where the Cranes Are Right Now
The active construction in 2026 is concentrated in Phase 4, around the GG Block near the town's Nature Preserve. The Silva, the phase's gathering space with an event lawn, an enclosed pavilion, a pool, and a terrace café, had a spring 2026 target opening. That's the part of town where a buyer touring today is most likely to see work in progress rather than finished streetscape.
Individual builds are moving alongside it. Architect Gary Justiss had homes on Elbow Beach Road slated for a May 2026 completion, and a corner-lot build on Sea Garden Street came from Chancey Architecture and Arkon. None of that is unusual for a town that's two-thirds built. It's a reminder that a listing marketed as "new construction" in Alys Beach is very likely running through the same pipeline, the same approved builder list, the same design review, that has produced most of the town's homes since 2004.
What the 2026 Slowdown Actually Buys You
If price per square foot isn't moving, where does a softer market actually help a 2026 buyer? Not on the list price of a finished resale. It shows up instead in the contract, particularly for anyone building.
With fewer buyers competing for lots and completed homes right now, there's more room to negotiate on things other than price: closing timelines, contingencies, and the pace at which a custom build moves through design review and construction. A buyer targeting a homesite in 2026 has more leverage on terms than they would have had a year ago, even though the underlying supply hasn't loosened and the per-square-foot number hasn't dropped. That's a meaningfully different kind of opportunity than a price cut, and it's easy to miss if you're only watching the median.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Buy
Does a slower sales pace mean prices are falling in Alys Beach? Not based on the data through early 2026. Closings dropped and homes sat longer, but average price per square foot and the sale-to-list ratio held. The softness has shown up in timeline and negotiating room, not in the headline number.
Why is a town founded in 2004 still under construction two decades later? Alys Beach has 899 approved lots but a build-out target closer to 550 homes, spread across phases the developer controls directly. That pacing, not a shortage of land, is why construction is ongoing well into 2026.
Is a custom homesite still a realistic option, or is the town essentially sold out? Homesites are still available, most actively in Phase 4 near the Nature Preserve. The trade-off is a longer path than a resale, since a custom build runs through Design Code review with the town architects before county permitting even begins.
Alys Beach rewards buyers who understand its mechanics before they fall for the white walls. If you're comparing a finished resale, a custom homesite, or the Somerset program against what else is available along 30A right now, Found Real Estate can walk through the current phase activity, builder availability, and timeline realities before you commit to a path. Contact Us.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
