Cape San Blas Real Estate Blog

If you weren’t lucky enough to be on the Cape this week you missed one of the prettiest weeks of the year. The weather couldn’t be more perfect: crystal blue skies, highs around 78 or 80, relatively low humidity and gentle breezes. Mark your calendar: October is a great time to head to the coast.  It was a pretty good week for real estate as well, with one sale and one new contract. Our inventory edged up just a smidgen to 392, with one additonal home (164 vs. 163) and three new lots (228 vs. 225). We also have seven new listings, seven new price tags, and eight expired unsold.

Our solo sale of the week was this 3,324 square foot 4-bedrom, 4- bath gulf view home in Sea Grass on Cape San Blas. Built in 2006, the developer put it on the market in June of that year for $1.175M and kept tweaking the price downward to $785,000 in April of this year when unfortunately it was taken back by the bank. They put it back on the market in June at $749,000 but after three months with no takers they slashed the price to $575,000 on September 2 and got a contract 4 days later. It closed on Tuesday for $550,000 which is well below the county’s assessed value of $588,727.

This week’s new contract is on another bank-owned property, a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 947 square foot gulf front townhouse which the MLS says went under contract on Tuesday, although the listing agent told me back around the 9th that it was under contract. Not sure why it took that long for the change of status to show up since our MLS rules require all status changes to be updated within 48 hours. It was originally listed in August for $254K but dropped not long thereafter to $214,900. There are contingencies to be met so no posted closing date yet.

This is turning out to be a banner week for bank owned properties as my pick of the week from our seven new listings is - you guessed it - bank owned. This lot is a little over a third of an acre and is located just outside the state park entrance. From the looks of this aerial, it seems there should be a decent gulf view. Last sold in January 2005 for $380,000, the county now has its assessed value at $192,000, so with a list price of $99,000 this property should go under contract quickly.

My pick of the week from our seven price changes isn’t bank-owned, but it is definitely priced to sell. This property is located in one of the nicest subdivisions in the area, Jubilation, which features a gulf-front pool, ribbon curbing, architectural street lighting and landscaped common areas. There are some very lovely homes here as well of the classic Florida coastal style. As you can see from this aerial, you should have awesome gulf views when you build. Last sold in August 2004 for $320,000, the county has it assessed for $290,000, and this week the seller lowered the price to $169,000 to get it sold. This is a beautiful homesite.

As you can see, there are some great values on the market right now and with the stock market being as uncertain as it is, real estate is still your safest, surest long term investment, and here’s where you’re getting the chance to once again buy low. Call me at 850-227-7891 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com if you’re interested in finding out more about any of these properties or exploring other real estate investment opportunities.

I don’t know about you but I don’t really want to go through another week like the one we just ended. It has been hard to get anything done while glued to the screen watching the stock market fluctuate wildly out of control. Maybe some of the capital pulled out in the panic this week will seek refuge once again in real estate as we saw after the dot com burst in the late 90’s. I say that because we did manage to close three sales this week. Our inventory remains steady with a total of 388 active MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market; 163 homes and 225 lots. No new contracts, but we do have five new listings, ten price changes and seven expired unsold.

Quick note before we get started; I can’t provide links today as our MLS is acting squirrely, not displaying the correct properties that I’m trying to link to.

 Our first two sales were the combined home and lot at Indian Pass that we daydreamed about back in June when they came on the market as one property for a cool $2.9M. They subsequently listed it as two separate properties, dropped half a million from the total of the two ($1.6M for the lagoon front estate, $799,000 for the gulf front lot) and that was all it took for someone to make an offer on this absolutely gorgeous, truly classic old-Florida home. The parties closed on Tuesday with the house bringing an even $1M, and the lot fetching $750,000. The sellers bought the properties in 1989 for $270,000, put a lot of work into the place over the years and made it into an absolutely lovely retreat worthy of the increased value it has been brought to today. I think both parties did real well here.

Our third sale was this bay front lot in Heron Bay Village off C-30 just south of the St. Joe Bay Buffer Preserve (formerly the Treasure Bay Lodge for us old timers). This is a great setting with 100 feet of bay front on a good size lot of roughly 1 1/4 acres. The Sellers bought it in February 2005 for $575,000 and listed it in July of the following year for $835,000. They have had to keep lowering the price with the changing market until finally reaching $299,000 almost a year ago in November and it still took them until August 1st to get this offer, which closed Friday at $282,500.

  No doubt about my pick of the week from our five new listings. How about a single family detached gulf front home for only $575,000? Here’s the scoop from the MLS:

Priced $100,000 less than next available home for quick sale. Beautiful 3 Bedroom/4 Bathroom Gulf Front Home is situated between Cape San Blas and Indian Pass along the Forgotten Coast where “Old Florida” still exists. Great area to enjoy abundant wildlife, hiking, kayaking and fishing. Gulf front Pool, boardwalk to the Beach and three decks to relax and enjoy the views. X Flood Zone. FEMA Flood Insurance Available. Master suite at top floor with deck.

My pick of the week from among our ten new price tags goes hands down to this bay view lot again over on C-30 which went from an already low $99,000 to $75,000. This is well below the County’s assessed value of $97,500. Great location to build a weekend getaway for fishing and hunting with easy proximity to several boat launches.

That does it for this week. I hope you are all holding up well with everything going on in the market. There are a lot of very stressed people right now, so let’s all try to be maybe just a little kinder than usual to the folks we encounter during the normal course of our days. A smile is free and could be worth its weight in gold to someone who needs a little cheer.

If you’re like some of the people I’ve been talking with who are wanting to add real estate to shelter some funds back in real estate, give me a call toll free at 877-512-9366 or send me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com .

Well, the world didn’t end this week as everyone predicted, so if Wall Street is still alive I guess there’s hope for real estate, too. Aother nice drop in our inventory this week, down 10 to 388 with nine fewer homes (160 vs. 169) and one fewer lot (228 vs. 229). Despite all the doom and gloom from the media, we managed to eke out one closing and one new contract. Much of the inventory reduction is from expireds not relisting; we had 23 expireds in all, only one new listing and nine price changes.

The house at Seagrass that went under contract back on September 11 closed on Wednesday after having been on the market 524 days.  The sellers bought the home in May 2005 for $1.1M and put it on the market in April 2007 for $1,199,000. Since then they have repeatedly dropped the price, finally ending up at $699,000 in August, which was all it took to get a buyer to step up the plate with an offer. The buyers were able to get a contract for $625,000 plus agreeing to pay one half of the cost of the doc stamps and $8400 of the sellers’closing costs.

Our new contract is on a lovely gulf first tier home located in the Two Palms subdivision on Cape San Blas.  The sellers have had it on the market since December 2005 when they listed it for $1.16M. Like our sellers above, they, too, have been tweaking the asking price downward ever since to a final list price of $749,900.  These sellers should fare a little better, though, as they purchased the undeveloped lot in early 2000 for $68,500 and then built the home, so depending on what the actual contract price is and provided they haven’t used it as an ATM, they should come out ok.

Our solitary new listing is on a home in Sea Grass where our one sale was this week, but since no photos have been posted of it yet I’m going to include it in next week’s new listings so you can have a better idea of what the place is actually like.

   My pick of the week from among the nine price changes is this bay front house just a little south of the entrance to the State Park. The sellers have been trying to sell since May 2006 when they listed it for $1.2M. They’re been lowering the price since then and this week dropped it to $799,000. This is a beautiful secluded setting, very peaceful and private, with 100 feet of bayfront.  There are lots of little extras to like with this home, one of my favorite of which is the bay front pool. Check out this view from one of the decks:

That wraps it up for this week’s review. Give me a call toll free to 877-512-9366 ext. 109 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com if you’d like further info on these or any other properties. If you’re considering selling, ask me for a property pricing report. Have a great week.