Lots going on this week in addition to all the visiting spring breakers. We had another three sales and three new contracts, but the big action was in new listings, with thirty five in all, most of which are a slew of lots re-released by the developer at Ovation with price reductions you won’t believe. There was even a bumper crop of seventeen price changes. All those new lot listings brought a swift halt to the nice steady decline we’ve been following in our inventory shooting it back up to 390 compared with must 359 last week, with 140 homes and 250 lots listed for sale in in the MLS in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 market.
All three of our sales this week were lots on the Cape, the first being this interior lot up in Sunset Pointe just outside the state park. This third-acre property last sold in 2006 for $359,000 and was listed as a short sale at$69,000, well below the county’s assessed value of $78,500. Even so it sold on Wednesday for $55,000 cash, just 15 cents on the dollar.
Our second sale was a bank-owned first tier corner lot in the Seagrass subdivision listed for $235,000, very close to the county’s assessed value of $227,500. It last sold in February 2005 for $325,000 and was put back on the market about eighteen months later for $650,000. On Friday the bank agreed to take $200,000 even for it, 85% of list.
About two miles south our final sale was this bank-owned quarter-acre first tier lot on Tobago just past the Tradin’ Post. This one sold in early 2005 for $605,000 and was placed back on the market just three months later for $769,000. The bank eventually ended up taking it back, listed it for $139,000, and sold it on Friday for $135,000 cash. The county had this one at $203,000. 
The first of our three new contracts is a beauty, a bay front parcel, 100′ wide, in Peninsula Estates, about one half mile south of the state park entrance. The sellers have owned it since 1984 when they picked it up for just $31,400. They listed it just recently for a very attractive $199,000 and they already have a contract due to close by April 14.
Just south of Ovation in Cape Breezes we have our second new contract, and this one’s a bay first tier lot on Leeward Street listed as a short sale for $76,000, not far off from the $60,000 it sold for in 1999. It subsequently resold to the current owners in July 2004 for $275,000, and they put it back on the market in early 2007 with a $499,000 price tag. The county has this one pegged at $126,500.
After looking at five lots, we finally get a house, and it’s a lovely 2,100 square foot, 5-bedroom, 4 1/2 bath gulf view home in Seagrass listed for $409,000, just a little above the assessed value of $341,396. The lot alone sold in early 2004 for $225,000. When the house was completed in June of ’05 it was put on the market for $849,000 but no takers.
My Picks of the Week for New Listings and Price Changes are all rolled into one package and that’s the new listings and price changes released this week on a large number of lots at Ovation on the Cape. There are now good bay and gulf view lots starting as low as $50,000, bay front for $199,000 and gulf front for just $299,000. Ovation has exquisite amenities such as the bay club house with infinity pool over looking the bay,
Club House at Ovation
two docks,
owners club with bar and full kitchen for social events,
weight room and viewing tower. On the Gulf side is an additional pool with pool house for showering and changing.
Some of the prices we’re seeing are getting back down into price ranges where they’re beginning to go under contract much more quickly, so if you see one of these bargain-priced properties you’d really like to have you don’t want to dawdle. I have constant access to my email at [email protected] or on my cell at 850-227-5197 and I’ll be glad to help you with any purchase you want to make.
Have a great weekend – especially if your weather is as gorgeous as what we’re having here on the Cape, and I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today.