There’s been a fair amount of activity compared to the past several weeks surrounding the holidays, so let’s take a look at what’s been going on in real estate the past week in the Cape San Blas market.
For the first time since we started tracking activity back in early September our inventory grew this week by over 2%, back up to 500 from last week’s low of 489, with 174 homes and 326 lots, up from 169 and 320 respectively. I hope this is just a one week blip and not the beginning of a new trend; we need to bring the inventory down. Way down. We have 500 properties on the market and only one sold in the past thirty days; we’re looking at an absorption rate of 41 years! Not good.
On the bright side, we did have two new contracts and one sold this week (the first since November 30). The two properties that went under contract were both single family detached homes on Cape San Blas, one a bay view and the other a bay front, and both located within easy walking distance of the state park.
The bay view home on Blue Heron Dr. built in 2002 is a 1040 sq. ft. 2 bedroom, 2 bath home with a loft. It sits on a one-half acre lot and was listed on October 18 for $287,000.
The bayfront home under contract this week is located in Peninsula Estates, less than a mile south of the state park entrance. The lot has 100′ of bayfront, about 0.6 acres in all. This 1800 square foot home, built in 1993, has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a private dock, and deeded gulf access. The home was for sale by owner for some time before the seller finally hired a Realtor in March of last year and listed it for $675,000. They are scheduled to close by February 28.
And finally this week we have our first sale in over a month, and it, too, is a bayfront home.
This 2188 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1 bath home with 80′ of bayfront has been listed since November 2005, originally for $2.6M, finally ending up listing for $899,000. The seller, who is also the listing agent, closed this week for $605,000, or just 23% of the original asking price. I think this one falls under the category of ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask’.
An even one dozen price changes this week, most modest, with our biggest reduction being a 25% price cut on a 50′ Gulf front lot on Cape San Blas, reduced from $750,000 to only $569,000. According to the MLS notes,
“this site is ready to build on in an X Flood zone buildable area. SELLER MOTIVATED – MAKE AN OFFER! The Seller has obtained building permits for this lot. The water tap fee is paid and a septic tank permit has been obtained. These items will transfer with the lot. Watson Constuction will construct either of the home plans included with this listing for approximately $210,000.00. The home plans are approx. 2100 square feet with decks. The pilings are now set and the lot is ready for building!”
Later this week I’ll be highlighting some of the truly atrractive pricing we’re starting to see showing up. There are more and more buying opportunities and now is the time to really start being on the alert for great investments. If you have questions about a specific property feel free to give me a call at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an e-mail to [email protected] .