What a wild week! Real estate is moving at quite a nice clip with three sales and ten new contracts, three new listings, and but one price change. A really encouraging indicator is our inventory took a nice plunge, dropping by nine to 260, with 69 homes and 191 lots listed in our MLS in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market. We have a fair amount of territory to cover today, so settle back with your beverage of choice, and let’s get rolling
We’ll begin our review of this week’s three sales on the north side of the Cape, stopping in first at Barrier Dunes where this pond-front 2-bedroom, 2-bath townhouse went under contract the first week of January with a list price of $198,500. When adjusted for inflation, that’s far below the $184,500 it sold for in the summer of 2002. On Friday they turned over the keys at closing for $189,900.
Our second sale takes us about two miles down the Cape to Seagrass, to this spacious 6-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath, 3,291 square foot gulf view home that went under contract in early January with a list price of $679,000. In mid-2005, the lot alone sold for $625,000. Those owners built the home but it eventually ended up going as a bank sale in early 2009 where it went for just $475,000. This week the sellers turned it over for $625,000.
Our third and final sale is out near the eastern tip of Indian Pass Peninsula, where this bank-owned lot went under contract two weeks ago with a listing price that had recently dropped to $87,000. Though technically a gulf front lot, its irregular shape is such that the buildable area is far back toward the street with the actual gulf front portion being too narrow to allow for a practical foot print. It last sold in mid-2010 for $250,000, and went for $80,000 on Wednesday which is more in line with first tier lot comps.
Now on to our ten new contracts, returning back to the north end of the Cape stopping first at Park Point where four lots went under contract at the same time, three priced at $34,900, and one at $35,000. They’re about a quarter-acre each and are offered as short sales, having last sold in the summer of 2004 for an aggregate price of $935,000.
Hibiscus Bay attracted a buyer who submitted a winning bid on this neat little 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,010-square foot cottage resting on the banks of a pretty little pond. This small subdivision adjoins Rish Park on the Cape and situated across the street from its sister neighborhood, Hibiscus Beach. Properties in each enjoy deeded access to both the gulf and St. Joe Bay, and share a community pool. When I moved to the Cape in 1994, this home was located on a gulf front lot on Windward Street in nearby Cape Breezes, but when the seller sold that lot, he moved the home on to its present site and totally renovated it. As a result, the county records its effective age as if it had been built in 2006. It went under contract Wednesday with a list price of $295,000.
In nearby Paradise Bay, the parties penned a contract on a roughly one-third acre interior lot measuring 83′ by 190′ and listed for $45,000. The sellers have owned it since 2001 when they paid $39,900 for it, the inflation-adjusted value of which would be $52,730 in today’s dollars. Here again, the lots in this community share deeded gulf and bay access with the owners of Paradise Gulf across the street.
We have a gulf-front beauty up next, a 4-bedroom, 3-bath, 1,889 square foot home on Haven Road listed for $695,000. In the twelve short years since it was built in 2002, this home has seen quite a few trips to the closing table, selling first in 2002 for $565,000, and later that same year in October for $695,000, and then again to the current sellers in February 2008 for $810,000.
Not far from the Tradin’ Post on Catamaran Drive our next contract is on a 50′ wide gulf front lot listed for $239,000. The seller is including a complete set of house plans with this “X” zone lot.
Down on the south side of the Cape near the Old Saltworks a seller accepted an offer on this 2-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 1,312 square foot circa 2003 home tucked away behind the pines on the shores of St. Joe Bay. The sellers bought the lot in 2002 for $115,000 and are asking $225,000 for the home.
Money Bayou is the site of our tenth and final new contracts and this old Florida neighborhood is one of my favorite areas. The area apparently appealed to a savvy shopper whose offer on this 2-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 720 square foot Key West cutie was accepted on Monday. This area is eligible for FEMA flood insurance coverage. When this first-tier home was built in the summer of ’05 it sold for $630,000. The current sellers picked it up in 2009 as a short sale for $265,000.
That does it for this week. Buyers are on the move so if you’re interested in either buying or selling let’s get together and talk. Call or text me on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to [email protected] . I’m loving hearing from so many of you. Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule today to stop by and I hope to see you back again soon.