Hard to believe December is already upon us, but even so we’re heading towards the finish line for the year still racking up sales as we had yet another busy week with four more closings, one new contract, only one new listing and five price changes. As a result, our inventory takes a healthy dip closing down seven to 342, with 135 houses and 207 lots for sale in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor markets. Let’s see what’s selling.
Once again the action is almost all waterfront, with three of our four sales and our one new contact all being gulf front properties. First up is a beautiful 6-bedroom, 5-bath, 2,659 square foot gulf front home on Cabo San Lucas about a quarter-mile north of Scallop Cove. This is one of a three-home compound built in 2006 and as a set of rental properties have come to be quite popular with rental parties who have booked the trio steadily over the past four years for summer weddings on the beach. This is the second of the three to sell. The owner put this one on the market this past April for $799,000, recently dropped that to $699,000, and sold it on Tuesday for an even $650,000, significantly above the county’s assessed value of $489,084.
We’ll head less than a mile south for our second sale, this gulf view home on an irregularly shaped lot that includes 10 feet of gulf front. This classic beach cottage is a 1073 square feet, 2-bedroom, 2-bath comfy place to relax and enjoy the beach. Built in 1986, the sellers have owned it since 1999 when they bought it for $205,000. During the boom, they put it on the market with an $825K price tag, but that was about two years too late to fetch that type of return. By this summer that asking price had come down to $377,000, and this week they went to closing and picked up a check for $330,000, again, well above the county’s assessment of $200,000.
We’re heading off the Cape and over to the Indian Pass peninsula for our third sale, a gorgeous custom 2,435 square foot 3-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home on a 1.89 acre gulf front lot measuring 75 by 1100′. The sellers bought the lot in 2001 for $375,000 and then built the home. The owner is a Realtor who sold it without listing it and entered the sale intot the MLS for comp purposes after selling it on Tuesday for $877,000. He did well in the eyes of the county who thought it should fetch only $515,476.
Oddly enough we have a second sale entered into the MLS this week just for comp purposes though this one is far more stale having actually sold back in May. I’m not sure what the circumstances were that prompted the sales agent to finally getting around to entering it in the record now but we’ll take a look at it as it’s at Barrier Dunes, one of the few townhome communities on the beach. This was a bank-owned 2-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 1,200 square foot interior home last sold in late 2005 for $385,000. The bank accepted $185,000 for it in May.
Our one new contract is also gulf front, a 54′ by 535′, 0.66 acre lot on the south side of the Cape in the tucked away mini-subdivision of Pine Bluff. Originally listed in early 2005 for $1.2M, it went under contract this week as a short sale with a far more modest price tag of just $249,900, pretty close to the county’s guesstimate of value of $200K even.
Only one new listing but I’m putting it up for consideration, not quite a Pick of the Week, because I would really like to talk with some other owners of these lots to see how their permitting process with DEP is going. It’s a gulf front lot on the south side of the Cape on Louisiana Lane listed as a short sale at a very tempting $176,000, a price the bank has apparently already approved so closing shouldn’t take very long. It’s a good size property 50′ wide and roughly 450′ deep for a little over half an acre of beach view.
There are several interesting properties among our five price changes so instead of one Price Change Pick of the Week take a moment and look all of them over. So that makes it a wrap for this week. It’s almost a wrap for the year and if your year-end tax planning indicates you could benefit by either buying or selling property there is still time to close by the 31st but we need to get started ASAP, so let me know. Give me a call on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to [email protected]. I’ll be glad to help you make it happen. Have a great weekend, keep warm, and thanks so much for stopping by today.