I apologize for the site being down for the past several days but sometimes I wander down cyber alleyways I have no business exploring and bad things happen. Thanks to the techies at GoDaddy for getting us back up and running again. They said they would put a child-proof block on my site to protect me from myself when I’m tempted to venture under the hood and start tweaking things I shouldn’t.
So what’s been going on in the Cape San Blas real estate market during our few down days? Plenty! Our inventory remains unchanged from last week with an even 500 properties in the MLS (175 homes, 325 lots), but we actually had 3 sales this week, all on the Cape, 1 home and 2 lots, the most we’ve had in one week since we started tracking back in September.
Not surprisingly, our solo home sale was once again in Barrier Dunes. This 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse, built in 2002, was listed for $259,000 and sold for $227,500, a respectable 88% of final list, although it was originally listed in April for $325,000. The Sellers kept lowering the price until they finally hit the magic number that did the trick; the sale price being 30% off the original asking price. Our Seller bought the home in 2002 for $196K so even deep discounting off the original asking price, he still realized about a 16% return on investment. No crying towel for you, Mr. Seller!
The other two sales were lots, one in Cape Breezes, just north of Rish Park, and the other adjacent to the State Park, just outside the entrance.
The lot in Cape Breezes fronts Cape San Blas Road, is a gulf 2nd tier lot which, when built upon, will offer both gulf and bay views. The Seller bought it in January of 2001 for $70,000 and listed it in June of last year for $245,000, eventually dropping the price to $199,000, and closed this week for $155,000. So is this glass half empty or half full? Some might cry, “Oh, he only got 63% of his original asking price”, while others might congratulate him and say, “good job – you more than doubled your investment in only 7 years”. Plant me in the second camp.
Our third sale this week was a 1.5 acre road-front lot adjacent to the State Park, with a final listing price of $575,000 which sold for $409,000, or 71 cents on the dollar. This lot was originally listed back in August 2004 for $1,375,000. The times they are a-changing. So how badly did our Seller get burnt? Not even singed. He bought it in 1991 for $51,100, so after 18 years he sold it for a 8 times what he paid for it so . . . no crying towel for you either, Mr. Seller! (In the ‘For What It’s Worth’ department, the listing agent here is the wife of the guy who sold the lot to the Seller back in ’91).