Four-dollar-a-gallon gas made for a fairly quiet Memorial Day weekend out on the bay as the cost of filling those boat engines climbed into the triple digits. It’s been anything but quiet in real estate activity, though. Definitely starting to see a bit of a pickup in activity.
Our inventory is slowly creeping upward again, up to 470 from 466, with 175 homes (vs. 174) and 295 lots (vs. 292). No new contracts this week, but we did have three closings. There are eight new listings , nine price changes, and three each withdrawn and expired.
Sorry, lot owners, but all three of our sales this week were homes, two single family and one townhouse at Barrier Dunes. I don’t typically plug my own company in this blog but I am proud to say that two of the three sales were Boardwalk Realty listings. We’ll start with the townhouse.
This is the view from the deck off the living room of this 2-bedroom plus a loft, 2 1/2-bathroom unit which was one of my picks of the week back in March. Originally listed in July of last year for $430,000, the sellers dropped the price incrementally every couple of months, finally reaching $349,000 which was all it took to attract a buyer, and it closed on Friday for $337,700 with the sellers giving an additional $4K credit towards the air conditioning unit. They may have only gotten 78% of their original asking price, but they only paid $295,000 for it in 2003, so you could say they earned $8,540 per year to have a great place to play at the beach. Can’t have that much fun with treasury notes.
Next up is a short sale over in Money Bayou on a 2-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath gulf first tier home listed for $520,000 which sold on Thursday for $455,000. This was sold by the builder and sits on a lot which according to the tax rolls he paid $75,000 for in 2003. If this was a short sale at $455K, it sounds as if this place might have been used as an ATM along the way.
Finally, our third sale this week was this gulf front home we looked at on May 6 when it went under contract. The sellers bought it back in April 2003 for $710,000, then less than two years later listed it in February 2005 for $1,695,000, or a nearly 140% increase. We shake our heads in disbelief now but this made sense to people just three years ago. Anyway, he’s had it on the market ever since and has been racheting down the price, finally reaching $1,079,000, which was enough to get a buyer to step up to the plate and make an offer. He closed this week for an even $900K, which is a nice 27% return on investment over a five year period, or about 5.3% per year. Not breathtaking but still twice the interest banks are paying.
There are two properties in the new listings that caught my attention. One is a gulf front lot in Indian Pass for, get this, $399,000 and the other is a bay first tier on the Cape for only $165,000, both short sales.
The gulf front lot is 48′ by 408′, just a smidgen shy of half an acre, and comes complete with fully engineered plans and DEP permits for a 2,700+ square foot 4-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath home with private gulf front pool. Here’s a map showing its lovely secluded location:
The bay first tier lot for only $165,000 includes a dock shared by three adjacent lots. This is a great place to launch from and it’s also a prime scalloping area.
The lot is 100′ by 240′, a little over a half acre, and is located one mile north of Scallop Cove BP on the bay side of the road. These are both terrific values.
My pick of the week among the price changes is on the lowest priced gulf first tier home on the Cape in Peninsula Estates which the seller dropped on Friday from $549,000 down to $499,000. The views from the deck of this three-bedroom, two-bath home are gorgeous. The large, deep deck which spans the length of the front of the home just screams “party central”. Located only a few minutes south of the boat launch at Eagle Harbor in the state park, it also comes with deeded gulf and bay access. There is plenty of room to park your boat under the house, too.
That does it for this week. If you’d like to make one of these sweet deals your own, give me a call at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth. As always, thanks for stopping by.