Big weekend shaping up as the 4th of July visitors begin pouring in. Big day on Tuesday, July 1, too, my birthday, which Gulf County always celebrates by officially opening Scallop Season for the summer. I’m hearing it should be another good year so I hope you’ll be able to get out on the bay at some point and enjoy gathering some for yourself. You might just want to wait a few weeks for them to grow a bit more, though.
Big week this past week in real estate, too, as we had a record five closings, the biggest one-week total in over 10 months. Unfortunately, even that many sales wasn’t enough to help halt the upward trend of our inventory as we’re up to 476 houses and lots for sale in the MLS vs. last week’s 469, with 185 homes (vs. 181) and 291 lots (vs. 288). We have fifteen new listings, four new contracts, three properties withdrawn, eleven sporting new price tags, and four expired unsold. Lots to cover so let’s get started.
Our five sales include a little bit of everything: two detached single family homes (one on the Cape, one at Indian Pass), two townhouses, and an interior bay view lot at Ovation. If you want to discover your dream home, head over to – https://www.landmark24.com/ for more details.
The Cape San Blas house is a 1,690 square foot, 3-bedroom, 3-bath home built in 2002. Located in Surfside Estates (which is roughly a mile down Cape San Blas Road after you turn onto the Cape), it went under contract just last week on the 16th. It was listed at $399,000 and closed Thursday for $385,000. According to the tax rolls, the sellers paid $569,000 for it in June 2005 so this one hurt a bit selling at only 70 cents on the dollar after three years.
It’s a little bit harder to tell how the seller of the Indian Pass house fared as it was owned and sold by the builder so there’s no way of knowing just how much they actually had tied up in it. It’s a great little 1600 square foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in a terrific location just south of the boat launch at the end of the Pass. They pretty much got what they were finally asking for it since it was listed at $399,000 and sold for on Friday for $350,000 cash with the buyer paying an additional $13,000 of closing costs. However, they’ve been trying to sell this since early 2006 when they originally listed it for $695,000.
The Barrier Dunes townhouse is the one we saw go under contract back on May 21st. It’s an 1800 +/- square foot, 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath gulf first tier unit with very good gulf views, originally listed a year ago for $439,900, dropped to $419,000 in May, and closed on Thursday for $364,000. There were two independent ceritified appraisals ordered to determine the contract price for this sale. The sellers bought it brand new in September 2000 for $180,900 so everyone did well on this one.
That’s not the case with our second townhouse sale, though, as this was a foreclosure. Purchased by the sellers in January 2006 for $335,000, this 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 1500 square foot gulf-front townhouse was listed in March for $283,900 and sold on Friday for $275,000. These townhomes have fought an ongoing battle against beach erosion so that’s an issue affecting their values. Hopefully the beach restoration will give them some relief when it reaches their area later this summer.
Which brings us to our fifth sale of the week, this bay-view lot in Ovation on Cape San Blas. Originally listed in April for $375,000, the sellers reduced the price incrementally, finally reaching $220,000, got a contract on it and closed on Friday for $195,000 cash. Again, according to the tax rolls, the sellers paid $355,000 for this lot in November 2005. These sellers were also the sellers of the Barrier Dunes townhouse we looked at so this is classic win some, lose some; here it was all just a matter of market timing. They hit the market perfectly in 2000 when it was just starting to take off, but bought about a year late with the 2005 lot purchase.
Now onto our four new contracts, one of which has already closed, the house on Indian Pass.
The second contract is on yet another Barrier Dunes townhouse, also a 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath like the one that sold this week. Difference here, though, is that these sellers bought in October 2004 and paid $380,000 for it so they’re behind the eight ball right out of the chute. Another thing working against them is the $364,000 sale has a far superior view. It’ll be interesting to see at closing how that affects the price tag.
Our third new contract is on an interior Peninsula Estates lot very near the lot we saw go under contract last week. This one sports a list price of $110,000. The sellers have owned it since 1985 when they paid, get this – $11,500 for it. If they lose money on this sale it’s all over, folks!
Our fourth and final new contract has a familiar face as it sold as part of a land package deal back on April 25. Back then it was a gulf front house, but it was moved back onto a first-tier lot earlier this week. It’s a 2,366 square-foot, 4-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath custom design home by Florez & Florez. List price is $745,000 and it is projected to close on or before August 1.
Among our fifteen new listings is one to daydream about. It’s a classic 1920’s estate on a gulf to lagoon parcel in Camp Palms on Indian Pass and it’s gorgeous.
Here’s an excerpt from the MLS description:
Built in the 1920’s as a sportsman’s lodge, “Dunworryn”,is one of five classic Old Florida beach retreats hidden along the secluded shores of Indian Pass Peninsula. This vintage beauty sits atop a dune ridge overlooking 200′ of lagoon shore, tucked a safe distance away from it’s gulf front boundary. 4 lg bedrooms,with beautiful views each has private porch entry,fireplace and wash basin. 5 fireplaces,heart pine floors throughout,12 x 30 kitchen overlooking lagoon, dining porch w/original wet bar. 875 sqft wrap-around porch,20 x 40 screened pool area,14 x 34 heated gunite pool & hot tub,deep well,irrigation system wells, 80′ walkway to 20X30 covered dock & boat slip. Guest quarters:Upstairs- 2BR/1BA,kitchen,porch over lagoon. Downstairs:1BR/1BA guestroom,garage/workshop and box stable. 1.35 acre gulf front parcel, (112’ff),3.6 acres total
I’d buy this lovely old estate and move there in a heartbeat if I only had the $2.9M list price lying around. It doesn’t cost anything to dream, though.
What’s my pick of the week of the eleven price changes?
There are several temptations, but the hands down winner is a foreclosure sale on this Barrier Dunes lake-front/gulf-view townhouse. It was originally listed in May of last year for $369,000 and has been reduced several times since then, but this week the owner said sell it NOW and priced it to do just that at $299,900. Here’s the MLS description:
Just renovated and priced to SELL! Freshly painted throughout, decks stained, new plasma TV built in the wall! New lighting and bathroom fixtures. This unit has a great Gulf view. Barrier Dunes is a fantastic beach front community. Unit features lake frontage, a corner location, a large master room, a GRI for 2007 of $32,000, fireplace, ceramic tile in living areas and bathrooms; tile counter tops, generous porches, easy access to the beach and pool, quality furnishings and appliances that will serve well the renters and new owner. This unit rents well and the sale includes a rental website and prepaid internet ads. Unit won’t last all summer. Call for direct website link.
That about does it for this week. Let’s hope this kind of sales activity continues. Prices are getting pretty attractive again, and the stock market’s not looking so hot right now, so maybe some of that capital looking for a place to go will find its way back into properites on the Forgotten Coast. If you’d like further info on these or any other properties, my toll-free number is 877-512-9366, ext. 109, or shoot me an email to [email protected] . As always, thanks for stopping by today and please check back soon.