OK – by Cape standards, summer officially began, Saturday, June 19, because it was the first day of the 2010 Scallop Season. The governor decided to move the date up by nearly two weeks to encourage visitors to come down early. Our beaches are still beautiful and open for business, and several visitors this were so impressed with our waterfront properties they bought some for themselves. Sales remained strong with three closings, and two new contracts, while three new listings entered the competition and eight sellers opted for new price tags. Our inventory remains unchanged from last week, at 404, with 155 homes and 249 lots for sale in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor markets. Let’s see who went to closing.
The first of our three sales is this elegant bay front home on Cape San Blas which has been on the market looking for a buyer since May 2005 when the sellers initially listed it for $1.475M. By the time it went under contract a few weeks ago, that list price was down to $750,000. On Monday they went to the closing table and accepted a check for $675,000, not too far off from the county’s current assessed value of $607,358. It’s a 3,455 square foot, 3-bedroom home on over 2 acres with 130′ of waterfront.
Our second sale is a bit more modest home, also on the Cape, this one a 1,352 square foot, 3-bedroom beach cottage on Cape San Blas Road in Peninsula Estates about a half mile south of the state park entrance. It was built by Piergiovanni back in ’94 and has been well maintained over the years. The sellers only put it on the market a couple of weeks ago, priced it right and so were able to attract a buyer in no time. They were apparently highly motivated as they listed it for $279,900 but took $219,500 for it. I think the county’s assessment on this one at $170,555 was a bit low.
We have yet another bargain gulf front lot for our third sale, this one a 75′ wide one at Indian Pass which also went for well below its list price of $399,000. The sellers have owned it since 1990 when they bought it for a mere $32,500. On Wednesday they let it go for just $280,000, or $3,733 per waterfront foot, which puts it almost dead on the money with the county’s guesstimate of $266,000.
More gulf front for the first of our two new contracts, this one over on the Cape in Tucker Shores which is that micro-subdivision of six homes just past the rocks at Stumphole. This one’s a bit unusual in that it last sold just this past January for $433,000, and have it back on the market with a list price of $699,000, or a 63% mark up. It’s a nice home, 2,642 square foot with 5 bedrooms, 5 baths and an in-ground pool. It went under contract on Friday with no contingencies and is scheduled to close by July 8th.
Our other contract is also a bit different from what we typically see – it’s a quarter-share ownership in a 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath Barrier Dunes townhouse. With this ownership, the four owners rotate weeks where each has one week to use the home every four weeks. This owner had their share listed for $60,000 and it was just what my buyers were in the market for, so we’re under contract scheduled to close in one week.
I am amazed at how busy the past few weeks have been – I’ve been showing property daily, responding to requests for info, and getting properties ready to list which is great but I hate not having gotten this post out on time. I’m already working on getting together my info for this coming Saturday’s update so I intend to be back on track. I appreciate all the emails of concern I’ve had in the past two days from readers asking if I’m ok because my blog hadn’t been updated. Thanks so much for keeping me honest! If you want real estate info or just want to know what’s going on with the oil spill, please feel free to pick up the phone and call me at 850-227-7891 or shoot me an email to [email protected]. Have a great week.