The kids are all out of school for the summer and our beaches are brimming with happy visitors. A lot of them decided to snap up some beach properties of their own giving us another brisk week, closing eight sales and writing up three new contracts. Sellers added two new listings and penned new prices on seven others, three of which were price increases. Our overall inventory whittled away just two, closing the week at 272, with 86 homes and 186 lots listed in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor MLS. Let’s see what’s moving.
We’ll head to the north end of the Cape to begin our look at this week’s eight sales. First up is a one-acre lot in The Bluff at Secluded Dunes that went under contract in mid-February as a short sale with a list price of $70,000, the sellers having purchased it in 2003 for $338,500. The bank approved the contract price of $63,500 and the parties went to closing on Monday.
Our second sale is a rarity these days: a large gulf-front tract on the Cape that managed to escape being chopped into smaller parcels during the land boom. Just south of Coneheads Restaurant, Cadence Bank sold this 2.2 acre tract measuring 130′ by 736′ for $650,000 cash. They did not have it listed in the MLS when it went under contract. Shortly after I moved to the Cape in 1994 this lot sold for $195,000 which seemed like a high price at the time. Fast forward 9 years to 2003 when those folks sold it for $1.45M. Those buyers in turn sold it again in April 2005 for $2.45M.
In nearby Peninsula Estates we have a bank-owned 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,272-square foot interior home that went under contract two weeks ago with a list price of $180,000, below the county’s assessed value of $259,862. This is a serious 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. On Wednesday it sold at auction for $174,814.
Next door in Ovation, our next sale is a 48′-wide gulf front lot. The owner bought this in May 2012 when the developer deep discounted their inventory to move a lot of properties and this lot went for $137,000. She listed it the following month for $189,000, but, lucky for her, it didn’t sell, and by the time it went under contract in early May, she had raised that list price to $299,500, and has now closed for very near that price getting an even $290,000.
Our next sale is just past Scallop Cove where we have a bank-owned, half-acre bay view lot that went under contract at the end of April with a list price of $40,500. It last sold in the summer of 2004 for $275,000, a far cry from the $38,500 it went for this week.
We’re down on the south side of the Cape for our sixth sale, this one in Jubilation, where this 79′ by 46′ lot went under contract in mid-May with a list price of $55,000. It wasn’t listed as a short sale even though the seller paid $410,000 for it back in 2004. Monday it closed for $50,000.
In nearby Surfside Estates, we have a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,296 square foot home that was listed for $279,000. By Cape standards, this is an older home, having been built in 1986. The sellers bought it for $272,500 for in April 2008 from sellers who had paid $150,000 for it in 2000. On Thursday they sold it for $265,000.
Our eighth and final sale is a lagoon-front home on Indian Pass listed for $459,000. This is an Old Florida beach cottage nestled back behind a stand of palms, with deeded gulf access right across the street, and its own private dock on the lagoon in the backyard. Virtually all of the lumber used to build this home in the 70’s was salvaged from the old lumber yard along the Apalachicola riverfront Lucky buyers picked up the keys at closing for $436,000.
We’ll start our review our three new contracts up on the north end of the Cape in Sunset Pointe with this quarter-acre lot that went under contract on Wednesday with a list price of $49,900, not too far off the $55,000 the seller paid for it in the summer of 2010. Prior to that it had sold in 2003 for $200,000, and then again in mid-2005 for $437,000. If it has a familiar look to you, we had it under contract back in February for awhile, but that one didn’t work out and it came back on the market April 8th.
Cadence Bank is moving some property off their books this week. On Tuesday they accepted an offer on this assortment of oddly shaped properties. The offering consists of three lots plus the common area for the micro-sub Summer Sands, located a little over a hundred feet north of the 2.2 acre lot they just sold. These properties total about 0.6 acre altogether and are listed for $215,000.
Our third and final new contract is on this irregularly shaped bay front lot listed for$89,900. It’s on Pig Bayou about a quarter mile north of the Tradin’ Post. The listing agent says it is a buildable lot, by virtue of its subdivision, Bay Haven, having been vested.
That’s a wrap – good to see such continuing market interest. Competition for attractive properties is really strong. If it’s looking good to you, chances are others are eyeing it as well. I’ve been working with so many buyers negotiating some great deals on lots and homes, and you can, too. If you’re thinking of getting in on some of these values, let’s talk. Call or text me at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to [email protected] and we’ll get started. Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule today – hope to hear from you soon.