Our brisk pace continued this week with buyers stepping up to the plate and writing offers, and we also continue to see a lot of the Ovation lots closing. Overall a very good week, with eighteen closings, seven more contracts, nine new listings, and ten price changes. Our inventory remains virtually unchanged, as we end the week with 341 active MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market, down just one from last week, with 106 homes and 235 lots.
Of our eighteen sales, fourteen were Ovation lots and the other four were elsewhere, and those are the four we’ll look at today, beginning as we so often do up in Barrier Dunes where this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,209 square foot model that went under contract the first week of May with a list price of $144,000, below the county’s just value of $155,245. The seller has owned it since 2000 when she bought it for $124,500, and this week she let it go for $138,000.
About two miles south of Barrier Dunes, our next sale is a third-acre gulf view lot that was listed for $69,000. It’s about a third of an acre and measures 100′ by 140′. This was part of a group sale of lots from a minor-replat of a larger parcel, so no sales history on this lot alone. On Friday it sold for $53,500.
Next we’ll head about a mile further south to Aruba Drive in Cape Sands Landing where this beautifully renovated 4-bedroom, 3-bath, gulf front duplex went under contract in early March with a list price of $359,000. A buyer picked up the keys at closing on Wednesday for $293,000. When this home was built in 1985 there were three homes seaward of it, two of which were relocated to nearby lots and the other lost to Hurricane Opal in 1995. 
We’ll head off the Cape out onto the C-30 Corridor travelling east past Indian Pass Raw Bar to a lagoon front lot which went under contract in March as a short sale with an attractive list price of $49,900. It has a sales history illustrative of the real estate bubble, having sold in August 2003 for $135,000 then reselling the following year in October 2004 for $260,000. Today the county has it valued at less than 10% of that, at $24,984, just $16 shy of the $25,000 it sold for on Friday.
Let’s move on to our seven new contracts returning once again to Barrier Dunes where this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,216 square foot townhome with a terrific gulf view went under contract on Friday with a list price of $239,900. The sellers are the original owners who bought it from the developer in 1999 for $118,200. They’ve had it on and off the market a number of times, listing it for the first time in August 2005 for $489,000. The county has it assessed at $173,012.
Our second contract is one-half of this gulf front duplex on Tobago Lane, near the Cape Tradin’ Post. It’s a 1,190 square foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bath home built in 1983 with 60′ of waterfront. The seller has owned it since the summer of 2002 when she paid $301,520 for it. It went under contract on Thursday as a short sale with a list price of $239,000, a bit below the county’s assessed value of $263,057.
Down on the south side of the Cape in Piney Woods subdivision is where we’ll find our next contract. It’s a 2010 model 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,224 gulf view home in an “X” flood zone listed for $278,800. Curious to see what this one goes for as that list is more than twice the county’s assessed value of $126,373.
We’ll head back off the Cape onto the C-30 Corridor and travel east a few hundred feet to Waters Eddge, the first subdivision on the left side of the road. Someone penned a contract on a bank-owned 68′ by 246′, 0.38 acre interior lot listed for $24,200. That’s well below the assessed value of $32,000, and only a fraction of the $165,000 it last sold for in June 2004.
Our next two contracts take us out to the Indian Pass peninsula stopping first at The Reservation, a land-boom development that no one has ever built in. This contract is on a bank-owned road-front, gulf-view lot that sold in April 2005 for $370,000. Those owners started trying to sell it the following spring, listing it for $435,000 but no takers. It finally went to the bank who listed it last fall for $49,500. They withdrew the listing in April, and sold it one week later for $12,000. Those buyers put it back on the market in early May with a list price of $37,000, exactly 10-cents on the dollar of that 2005 sale, and they attracted a buyer with that price on Friday.
Our seventh and final new contract is on a gulf front lot near the tip of Indian Pass, a one-third acre lot in St. Vincent Point which the sellers bought in November 2001 for $670,000. They started trying to sell it in early 2006 when they listed it for $799,000, but were never able to find a taker. On Wednesday it went under contract as a short sale with a list price of $109,900 and county assessed value of $112,500.
That does it for this week. There are still some very attractive opportunities on the market so if you’re toying with the idea of calling a piece of coatal property your own, it’s time to start looking. Call or text me at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to [email protected] and we’ll get started. Have a terrific week, and thanks so much for taking time to stop by today.