Just another gorgeous week in paradise with warm sunny weather nudging the azaleas, wisteria and wild flowers of spring into full bloom. Our real estate market continues blossoming as well, with one sale and three new contracts, ten new listings and two price changes. As you would expect, our inventory remains virtually unchanged, moving up just five to close the week at an even 350, with 131 homes and 219 lots listed in our MLS in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 market.
We begin today’s review with our solo sale, a bank-owned bay-front fixer-upper home in Peninsula estates located about a mile south of the entrance to the state park. The value in this property is its location on a 100′ wide lot in the best area of bay front on all of St. Joe Bay. If you’re into boating and enjoying all the fun living on the bay has to offer, you want to be in this north-west quadrant of it. Here the water is deeper and there are stretches of firm white sandy beaches. The shot above is the sizzle that sold this property.
This is the home itself. She needs a good bit of TLC but she’ll be an awesome coastal retreat when she’s fixed up. The bank had her listed for just $277,200 and some lucky buyer snatched her up this week for just $265,000, not too far above the county’s assessed value of $231,395. This home last sold in 1996 for $125,000; those owners listed it in 2007 for $950,000.
The first of our three contracts is on a bargain-priced townhouse at Barrier Dunes. It’s a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,172 square foot interior unit built in 2003 when it sold for $180,000. Those folks more than doubled their money just two years later selling it in late 2005 for $389,500. This week it went under contract with a list price of just $125,900. There are several other townhouses around this price if you’re interested in a weekend getaway on the coast for a super reasonable price.
Our second new contract is just next door in Ovation where this bank-owned lot on the crescent overlooking the bay went under contact with a list price of $99,000, less than a third of its 2005 sale price of $375,000. The last lot along here to sell went for Ashwood’s full list price of $125,000 and since they still own several others it’ll be interesting to see if they stay at $125K or drop them to meet this new comp.
If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you have no doubt noticed I’ve been a big fan of Ovation, but I have to tell you I learned something disturbing about it this week that has me cooling off a bit. It seems the DEP leaned on the developer to amend their covenants to prohibit cats anywhere on Ovation, even inside homes. Their purported purpose is to “protect” St. Andrews beach mice, which no one aound here has ever actually seen on the Cape, but according to DEP the habitat is right and they could live here. So we have eagles, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, alligators, etc., etc., but little Fluffy perched on a sunny window sill is a greater threat than any of them. If the government wants to stop development, they should just come out and say so, not try to hide their true intent behind the guise of “saving” vermin.
OK, I’ll climb down off my soap box and get on with our third and final new contract which takes us all the way over to Indian Pass Beach Subdivision where this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 940 square foot classic circa-1930’s Florida cottage went under contract with a list price of just $199,900. That’s less than a third of the $635,000 it sold for in 2005, and also below the $515,000 it sold for in 2003.
This primitive cottage was completely restored inside and out in 2001 to keep with the originality of it’s time. It has all natural heart pine walls and floors, and has updated heat/air, septic, wiring, plumbing, appliances and paint.
What a beautiful little piece of Florida’s past.
It’s Pick of the Week time, and this week I’m going with this bank-owned lagoon front lot at Indian Pass as the best of the crop of our ten new listings. It’s a little over half an acre, with 69′ of water frontage and 350′ deep. Plenty of room in the “X” zone for building your home high and dry. In 2004 it sold for $325,000, but you can have it now for just $149,000. Such a deal! If you’re familiar with Indian Pass, this lot’s located just a couple of hundrd feet west of the stately large blue and white home locally referred to affectionately as “Tara”.
That’s a wrap for this week. If you’re in the area this weekend there’s lots to do. This afternoon there’s a nature tour of St. Vincent Island wildlife preserve, the annual air show is at Tyndall both Saturday and Sunday, and there’s the Florida Realtors Tour of Homes. Whatever your plans for the weekend, I’m glad you stopped by here today. If you’re interested in finding out more about picking up some coastal property while the market is at the bottom, let’s talk. Give me a call on my cell phone, 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to [email protected].