Summer is off to a great start as we enjoyed yet another strong week of real estate activity, closing five sales, writing up nine new contracts, adding six new listings (one of which is already under contract) and changing prices on seven others. We trimmed three from the inventory, closing the week at 275, with 81 homes and 194 lots listed for sale in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor MLS.
We’ll begin our review of this week’s five sales up on the north end of the Cape in Barrier Dunes, with this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,377-square foot pond-front townhouse that went under contract three weeks ago with a list price of $199,900. The sellers bought it back in 2002 from the developer for $175,600, have had it on the market since late 2011, and sold it on Tuesday for $189,000 cash.
We’ll travel on down to the south side of the Cape to Florida Avenue in Boardwalk for our second sale, an interior lot listed for $69,000. The sellers bought this 78′ by 103′, 0.18 acre “X” zone lot in mid-2001 for $75,000, even though it had sold just a month earlier for $60,800. On Tuesday it went for $60,000.
Lots of activity off the Cape this week, so we’ll travel out onto the C-30 Corridor for our third closing, a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,444 square foot home built in 1996. It sits on a half-acre lot fronting the road, and the sellers had it listed for $82,500, As Is. She needs a good bit of work including a new roof and all new appliances. A buyer stepped up to the challenge and got it for $71,250.
We’ll now trek back in the direction of the Cape but continue on C-30 a few hundred yards past the turn off on to Cape San Blas Road until we reach the little gated community of Curve at the Cape. Here we have a first tier, quarter-acre lot measuring 65′ by 162′ in a FEMA eligible area listed for $135,000. The views from these lots are fantastic. The sellers bought it back in late 2002 for $125,000, and have sold it for $121,850.
Our fifth and final sale is in nearby Gulf Pines, where this quarter-acre first tier lot went under contract at the end of April with a list price of $95,000. The first tier lots in Gulf Pines have terrific water views and FEMA flood insurance eligibility. The sellers bought it from a bank in December 2012 for $78,500, (quite a change from the $435,000 it sold for in early 2005), and have now sold it for $87,000.
The first two of our nine new contracts take us back to Barrier Dunes, beginning with this 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath, 1,984 square foot single family home built in 2006. The owners bought the home in December 2010 for $350,000. That seller had bought it earlier that summer from a bank for $116,000. The current owners live here, are selling it unfurnished with some appliances, and have it under contract with a list price of $484,900.
The other Barrier Duns contract is just around the corner on Sabal Drive where this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,216 square foot gulf view townhouse went under contract with a list price of $275,000. The sellers bought it in April of last year for $192,000 and have spruced it up very nicely since then.
In nearby Peninsula Estates we have a bank-owned 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,272-square foot interior home that went under contract with a list price of $180,000, below the county’s assessed value of $259,862. This is another fixer upper in need of a lot of TLC. The previous owners purchased the lot alone in July 2004 for $165,000 and then built the home in 2006.
The little subdivision adjacent to the south side of Peninsula Estates is San Blas Shores, one of if not the original subdivisions on Cape San Blas. It was platted with small lots that people bought and configured together as they pleased, and that’s what we have here: multiple lots being sold as a package with a likely eye toward replatting them into a single parcel. You can see the irregular shape of the lots which according to the MLS notes represent roughly one-third of an acre. The lots are under contract with an aggregate price of $119,800.
Ovation is next door to San Blas Shores and here we have a first tier, X zone lot under contract with a list price of $150,000 but not as a short sale, despite the sellers having paid $775,000 for it in the summer of 2005.
We’re back down on the south side of the Cape, this time on McCosh Mill Road in Piney Woods, where we have two contiguous gulf front lots under contract as short sales with list prices of $250,000 each. Each 1+ acre lot has roughly 57′ of waterfront and depth of about 890′, with X zone. The lots sold for $700,000 apiece back in May 2005.
More gulf front action, this time in Boardwalk, where a freshly built 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 1,898 square foot home went under contract Wednesday with a list price of $699,000. The owners have it with a property management company who report it has already booked $63,000 gross rental income to date for 2014.
Our ninth and final contract is in nearby Cape Dunes where this 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 2,324 gulf front home listed as a short sale went under contract with a list price of $395,000. The sellers bought it in mid-2004 for $650,000 and have done a very nice job restoring it. The gulf views from this very comfortable home are simply amazing.
That does it for this week. As you can see, the market is definitely well on the road to recovery. Your dollars may have less buying power in almost everything else you encounter, but when it comes to real estate your buying power is stronger than it has been in years. Now’s a great time to diversify. To get started, call or text me at 850-227-5197 or send me an email to [email protected]. Have a terrific week and I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks so much for taking time to stop by today.