It’s been an absolutely beautiful week on the Cape weatherwise: clear and sunny, highs in the upper 60s/lower 70s, with cool, clear nights in the 50s. It’s been a decent week for the real estate market, too; not as red hot as last week, but decent, with one new contract and one closing.
Our inventory remains virtually unchanged, with 479 active listings in the MLS (175 homes and 304 lots), down only one from last week. Ten listings expired, ten sellers tried dropping their prices, and six new properties came on the market.
Our single sale of the week was a bay front home located in Peninsula Estates on the Cape, less than a mile south of the state park entrance. This 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1800 square foot home with a dock is situated on a .6 acre lot with 100 feet of bayfront. Peninsula Estates property owners all have deeded bay and gulf access.
Our Sellers tried for some time to sell this on their own, but back in March decided to hire a Realtor and listed the home for $795,000. In December they dropped the price to $675,000, and in less than four weeks they went under contract. On Friday they closed for $600,000. The county records offer no sales data on the property, but I know they’ve owned it for at least ten years if not more, so I’m sure they did all right.
Our new contract this week is on a brand new gulf front home on Indian Pass. This 3,076 square foot, 4-bedroom, 3-bath home sits on a .26 acre lot with 50 feet of gulf frontage. It was originally listed back in July for $1.395M, but they dropped the price to $950,000 in early December. There are contigencies in the contract so until those are met, we won’t know when it’s scheduled to close.
Six new listings this week, four houses and two lots, all but one located on the Cape. The one exception is a Treasure Bay lot on C-30 listed at an enticingly low $109,000; the agent says the seller is motivated and that price proves it. That’s about half the price of what similar lots were selling for just two years ago.
This is something I didn’t think we’d see again: a brand new gulf-front home on the Cape for only $799,000.
Here’s what the builder has to say:
“This is your chance to get a X-Flood Gulf Front Home on Cape San Blas for the cost of a vacant lot. This is a Pre-Construction Opportunity where you build your dream vacation home on Cape San Blas or put on the rental program and have this home paying for itself. There are 3 Gulf Front lots to choose from. The lots are 50′ wide and in X-Flood Zone which means no flood insurance required. Also, the homes will be built behind the CCC Line which means no extra permitting time and money going through the DEP. There will be a community pool for the lots located by the first tier home. Pricing example for a 2000 sq. ft. home like the one shown in the picture would be in the $800K range. (Contingent on homeplans and finishes). Builder has many plans to choose and pull ideas from.
With waterfront properties being what we’ve seen the most sales and contracts on recently, at this price I’ll bet it won’t take long for a buyer to step up to the plate. Also, with the tremendous slow-down in construction in the past year or so, most builders are hungry for work to keep their crews going, so they’re more likely to be willing to negotiate.
This 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1288 square foot home with in-ground pool and elevator caught my attention at $399,000. Located in the same subdivision as this week’s bay front sale, Peninsula Estates, it comes with both bay and gulf deeded access. The pool appears to offer privacy and is attractively landscaped. 
This is what Florida living is all about!
Let’s take a look at those ten listings which dropped their prices to see if there are any potential hot investments to be had. It turns out that six of them are all the same seller and located in Sea Grass on the Cape. It’s a very nicely done gulf front subdivision with lovely homes and a club house with pool. With this many properties I think we’re looking at another situation where a buyer will be in a position to negotiate.
That about does it for this week. If you’d like more info on these or any other properties, or if you’d like to get an idea of what your property might bring in the current market, shoot me an email to [email protected] or call me on my cell at 850-227-5197. Thanks for stopping by today.