Cape San Blas Real Estate Blog

Not much change since this morning in the weather, still blustery with occasional gusts and brief periodic rainshowers, but the  heavy bands still seem to be to the east of us, over around Wakulla and stretching out into the gulf south of St. George Island. With the center of the storm tracking slowly to the northwest, I’m beginning to wonder if these heavy outer bands are even going to effect us much or not.

I took this photo around 1 o’clock this afternoon over at The Green House on White Sands Drive which is just north of Ovation, south of the state park on the northern part of the peninsula in a subdivision know as San Blas Shores. This neighborhood has fought an ongoing battle with beach erosion and I was glad to see that so far, at least, the beach restoration seems to be working wonderfully for them.

This might not look so remarkable but there have been times when during similar tropical systems I have stood on the deck of this home and watched water lap up underneath it.  Huge difference in the depth of the beach now and it’s a beautiful thing to behold.

Fay has dominated the scene for more than a week now as she’s made her agonizingly slow and meandering path to the panhandle. We’re all just ready for her to be gone. As I’m writing this on Saturday morning we’ve only had about 3 inches of rain, but the heavy stuff is supposed to hit us late this afternoon or this evening. Fay didn’t slow down the real estate market all that much as we managed to come up with one sale and one new contract. We end the week with our inventory down by six to 450, with two fewer homes than last week (177 vs. 179), and four fewer lots (273 vs. 277). In other activity we have seven new listings, fourteen new price tags, almost half of which are price increases, and twelve expired unsold.

  Our one sale is the lot we saw go under contract only last week, the roughly half-acre one over on Country Club Road near the golf course. It was listed for $109,000 and closed on Monday for $66,500. Don’t rush for those crying towels, though; the sellers only paid $23,500 for it in 2000 so they came real close to almost tripling their return in just 8 years.  Works for me.

Our one new contract this week is not surprisingly yet another Barrier Dunes townhouse, this one a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,197 square foot model built in 1995. This photo shows the view from the main deck. Regular readers may well recall this lovely home was my pick of the week back on July 19 when the price was slashed to well below market value to $275,000.  There are contingencies to be met so no word in the MLS as to when this will close and we get to see just how sweet a deal some savvy buyer snapped up.

Out of this week’s seven new listings I have to say my fave is this bay front lot about 1 1/4 miles north of Scallop Cove BP which enters the competition at $495,000. According to the MLS notes

100′ X 742′ Bay Front lot located 6.2 miles after turning on Cape San Blas Road, Dock that extends into St Joe Bay is shared with property owners to the North. The access road is shared with property owners to the South

I like its location, just north of Pig Island, which you can clearly see in this aerial photo showing the lot’s location and the channel leading out past the sandbars:

Among our fourteen price changes this week is something we haven’t seen before up until now, and that is the fact that six, or nearly half, of these price changes were price increases, and they’re all on lots at Ovation. The listing agent roughly doubled each of their list prices. I’m curious as to what prompted this so I left a message for her on her voice mail but haven’t heard back from her yet.  I’ll let you know what I find out.

My pick of the week from the properties with new price tags this week goes to this cute little Cape San Blas beach cottage over on Cancun now listed for only $459,900.

This home has charm to spare, good location and a really nice view of the gulf. Check it out.

OK – I know you’re looking at those power lines – but, hey, this is the beach we’re talking about and after a few rounds of blender sports all you’ll see is that beautiful emerald green water. This place has a lot going for it; here’s what the MLS notes have to say:

Open Floor Plan, Unique beach cottage, X Flood Zone. Living room, Separate Family Room, Office Area. Large screened back porch with hot tub. Great Views of the Water. New Roof in October, 2006. Recent Exterior Paint. Selling Below Appraised Value. Workshop and Cedar lined closet downstairs. Short walk to our beautiful beach. Good rental income.

That about wraps it up for this week. If you’d like info on these or any other properties or if you’re thinking about selling, give me a call on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com .  I’m out of here for now. Going to head back over to the beach and take a look at what the surf’s up to. I’ll have some photos posted for you later today.

I drove around the Cape this morning and other than some deck chairs and small items blown around there was little evidence of our being in the midst of a tropical storm. Of course the winds so far have been blowing off shore and we’re in the eye of the storm this morning. We should start seeing the in-shore surf action late today as the eastern portion of Fay passes over us and that may well be a different story. I didn’t even see spray coming over Stumphole which is another good indicator of how quiet the surf is so far. The power was only out for about an hour or so last evening, and was back on by ten o’clock (good work, Progress Energy).

On my way to the office I stopped by Scallop Cove for a cup of coffee and to catch up on the latest buzz. Sheriff Nugent happened to be in there at the time and he said it had been a quiet night. One of the cashiers lives at Indian Pass and she said looking at the beach over there you’d never know there was a storm in the area it was so quiet.

I called a friend of mine on St. George Island who had just gotten off the phone with their turtle patrol manager who said they’re doing fine over there and so far so good for their turtle nests, but they’re afraid tonight the nests might not be as fortunate.

I’ll be posting throughout the weekend to keep you up-to-date on the latest Fay activity so be sure to check back. If you have specific questions feel free to call me at 850-227-5197.