Cape San Blas Real Estate Blog

A bit quieter week compared to last, but we still had two closings and four new contracts so that’s a strong week in my book. Another healthy trend is that our inventory continued its downward trend, closing down two from last week, with 384 active MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market, with 137 homes and 249 lots for sale. In other activity we had eight new listings and fourteen price changes. Let’s take a look at what caught buyers’ attention.

Both of this week’s sales are on the Cape, the first of which is this 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 1716 square foot gulf front townhouse at Barrier Dunes with a list price of $415,000; closed on Friday for the deep discounted price of $320,000.  This is one of the original units built in 1985 and this seller had owned it since 2000 when he paid $310,000 for it, so that’s pretty cool to have a gulf front get away for over ten years and then get paid $10,000 for doing so. It’s been a vacation rental property so I’m pretty confident that income more than offset the carrying costs. We’ve seen a couple of sales recently in the 2000, 2001 price range.

We’ll head about a mile south for our second sale, this one a $50,000 road-front lot in Ovation that sold for full list, which also happens to be exactly the county’s assessed value. The adjacent lot sold in September 2005 for $235,000 and the one next to it that same month for $375,000 for reasons I sure can’t figure out.

On to our four new contracts, the first of which is a short sale on this 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 1706 square foot first tier home on Rachel Beach Lane just a little north of Scallop Cove. This is a very nice home with terrific views and a pleasing layout. The sellers bought it back in July 2004 for $769,000 and put it back on the market the following summer with an asking price of $1.2M. That would be the “It doesn’t hurt to ask”  theory of establishing a list price which rarely ever results in a sale, and that is certainly the case here as it has been on the market ever since with that price tag whithering down to $375,000, finally low enough to attract a buyer.

Our second contract is on this bank-owned 50′ wide gulf front lot on the south side of the Cape listed for just $159,000.  It was my Pick of the Week two weeks ago when I predicted it would not remain available very long at that price and I encouraged anyone who was interested to act quickly. On Wednesday somebody decided to do exactly that and it is under contract with no contingencies.  The property lies entirely seaward of the CCCL so they’ll have to go through DEP for permitting, but there is a recently built home on the same street so apparently its doable.

We’ll head off the Cape and out onto the C-30 Corridor for our third new contract, this one a bank-owned 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 1,702 square foot gulf front home at Brighton by the Sea with a list price of a mere $325,000. That’s pretty attractive when you can get a 12-year old single family detached home on the gulf for the same price as a 25-year old townhouse. This home last sold in August 2004 for $689,000 so the bank is apparently going to take quite a hit. I’m going to be watching to see what they take for it as the sale prior to that was another 2000 comp at $288,700, so once again, that seems to be pretty clearly where the market has fallen back to at this point. A full decade of appreciation vanished.

This poor little house is just having the hardest time getting someone to see her all the way down the aisle. She has been on the market ever since she was built in 2006 when she debuted sporting a seemingly attractive price tag of $850,000 , but she has languished ever since with several contracts along the way but in each case the buyers got cold feet and walked away. It’s a pretty home in a lovely wooded setting in the Mystic Palms subdivision out near the tip of the Indian Pass peninsula. It’s 2,298 square feet with 3-bedrooms and 3 baths, and finally attracted yet another suitor as a short sale with the current list price ot $299,000. The sellers paid $250,000 for the lot alone in early 2006. That’s above what the county now has it assessed for even with this lovely home on it – they have it pegged at just $219,417.

An easy winner among our eight new listings for Pick of the Week – I’m going with yet another $159,000 gulf front lot, this one over at Indian Pass. This one is 50′  by 370′, for a full half acre on the gulf. It’s definitely a short sale at that price having last sold in May 2006 for $1.3M. Whoa. Twelve cents on the dollar. Unbelievable. Even the county thinks it’s worth $200,000.You definitely want to act quickly if you’re intrested in snapping this one up. Call me at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsoworth.com and yes, I work weekends.

Nothing in our fourteen price changes can compete with that so we’ll call it a wrap for this week. Let me know if you’re interested in either buying or selling – there are lots of great opportunties right now. I appreciate your checking in today and hope to hear from you soon.  Have a great weekend.

Wow!  I don’t know what strange alignment the planets shifted into this week but real estate sales just sky-rocketed. I can’t remember when if ever we had this much activity in one week in the three years I’ve been writing this blog: we had six sales and five new contracts, four new listings and eleven price changes. With all that activity you’d expect a little bit of a change in our inventory, and you’d be right, as we end the week down three from last week  to 386, with 143 homes and 243 lots listed in the MLS in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market. We have  a lot of territory to cover today so let’s get started.

All but one of our six sales were on the Cape so we’ll start at the north end and work our way southward to our final destination of Indian Pass. First up is this gulf front lot up in Secluded Dunes, the northernmost subdivision on the Cape and which adjoins the state park. It’s a beautiful area, and one of the earliest subdivisions out here having been a project of Langdon Flowers (of the Flowers Bakeries family fame) who also developed Barrier Dunes, both projects done in the early ’80′s.  This lot has 58′ feet on the water and is just shy of half an acre. It was listed for just $289,900, well below the county’s assessment of $350,000, and some lucky buyer claimed it this week for an even$250,000.

Next door to Secluded Dunes is the site of our second sale, this one in Sunset Pointe, a very nice gated-community done about five years ago by a local investor/developer.  The dunes and beach here are just gorgeous. This sale’s a 71′ wide gulf front lot entered as a comp into the MLS with a list and sale price of $300,000, that being well above the county’s assessed value of $248,500. This wasn’t a resale, so no pertinent previous sales data for comparison purposes.

Here we are at Seagrass, a subdivision about three miles south of Sunset Pointe where our third sale is a first tier lot with gorgeous gulf view with an equally gorgeous price tag of just $140,000. This is a bank-owned, 90′ by 121′, quarter-acre lot which last sold in January 2004 for $225,000.  The county thought at this point it is was worth at least $170,000 but our savvy buyer thought otherwise, and picked it up for a mere $125,000.

Our fourth sale  is also our first home, and for a change of pace we’re heading to the bay side of the Cape to this bay front home with a dock overlooking Pig Island.  This is a nicely tucked away 4-bedroom, 3-bath home with both the dock and a small guest house built in 2000, and all of which last sold in late 2004 for $690,000.  This time around it was down to a list price of $437,000, WAY above the county’s assessed value of $300,285,  but we had a buyer step up to the plate this week who basically split the difference with an offer of $395,000 which was enough to pick up the keys at closing.

Another house, this one a gulf front 6-bedroom, 4-bath, spacious 3,888 square foot home on the south side of the Cape with a list price of $849,000. In June of 2009, it sold as a bank-owned home in mid-construction for just $303,000.  When the bank took possession in October 2008 the mortgage recorded was listed by the county as $1.094M.  Anywho, the current sellers finished the home off very nicely, furnished it equally well, and sold it for a tidy price of $700,000. I’d say this was a win/win situation for both buyer and seller.

Our sixth and final sale is yet another gulf front lot, this one over on Indian Pass, a 50′ wide lot sold as part of an estate  from a family which has owned the property for quite some time. This is a very ineresting comp in that the county had it assessed at $350,000, the list price was well below that at $289,900, and yet it closed for $156,000. That’s noteworthy.

OK – let’s take a look at what caught buyers’ attention this week, and the first of our five new contracts is up at Barrier Dunes, back at the north end of the Cape, where this 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 1,856 square foot gulf view townhouse goes under contract with a list price of $299,000. This is one of the newer units having been built in 1999, and it last sold in September 2004 for $499,000.  Values have obviously shifted since then and the county currently has it peggged at $263,831.

Our second contract finds us back at Seagrass, looking at what is technically a first tier lot but there is some question whether permitting could be obtained for the platted gulf front lots seaward of it. It’s another bank-owned property which last sold in early 2005 for $875,000 and today the bank is trying to move it off their books with a low list price of just $214,000, still a good bit above the county’s assessment of $150,000.

Seems buyers were house shopping this week as our next contract is on yet another home, this one a quaint gulf view 2-bedroom 2-bath, 1,840 square foot bank-owned property on Cancun Drive, about half a mile south of Scallop Cove.  The bank was in the process of listing this at $235,000 when they accepted an offer already in negotiations.  Last sold in May of 2002 for $240,500, it is currently assessed by the county at $201,015.

Here’s yet another bay-front home, one we’ve seen a number of times in this blog as both a Price Change Pick of the Week and as a new contract, though never as a Sold. Maybe this time will be the charmer, as it’s a lovely circa 2004 bank-owned  2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,095 square foot home with dock and in-ground pool on the bay on the the south side of the Cape listed as a short sale for just $425,000, having last sold in late 2005 for $980,000.

Our fifth and final new contract is on a gulf front lot on Louisiana just a few lots away from the 6-bedroom house we looked at earlier that sold this week. This lot’s a short sale listed for $229,000 pretty much on target with the county’s assessment of $235,000. Interesting sales history in that it sold in April of 2007 for $400,000 and then again just four months later in August 2007 for $650,000.  The bank has had it on the market since last November when they listed it for $299,000, and at even less than half the price it sold for just three years ago it still couldn’t attract a buyer, and so they had to lower it even further.

Well, I don’t know about you but I think eleven properties is enough for one week so I’m going to hold off til next week for Picks. There are only four new listings this week so they’re easy enough to scan through, and there are actually several interesting price changes and picking just one would be hard so take a look at what there is to choose from. I appreciate your hanging in there today for our marathon review.  If you’d like info on either buying or selling, please give me a call on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . I’m loving hearing from so many of my readers and helping a lot of them realize their real estate goals.  Have a great weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Well, summer is officially over here on the Forgotten Coast as Friday was the final day of Scallop Season.  A good number of the business calls I made yesterday were to mobile phones of colleagues “working” from their off shore offices.  Scallop Season may be over, but the real estate shopping spree isn’t, as we had another good week with one closing and an impressive four new contracts, eight new listings and six price changes. Our inventory seems to have finally broken through that 400 barrier it had been stalled at for so long, and it continued the healthy trending downward, closing down two at 389, with 144 homes and 245 lots in the MLS for the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market. Let’s see what kind of bargains buyers landed.  

Our solo sale was a lot on Indian Pass Road in the Indian Pass Beach Subdivision which is a fun and funky old Florida neighborhood not far from the boat launch.  If it looks familiar maybe that’s because we looked at it just last Saturday when it was one of our new contracts. The little lot measures just 75′ by 105′ and carried a small price tag of just $64,900, roughly half of the $120,000 the county thinks it’s worth.  Our savvy shopper thought both of those were too high, offered $59,000 cash and picked up the title at closing on Friday. That sale price is interesting in that it is so very close to what the property last sold for in late 1997, $50,000.

All four of our new contracts this week are on Cape properties, starting with this six-bedroom, 5-bath, 2,659 square foot gulf front home about half a mile north of Scallop Cove.  It’s a beautifully furnished home and it along with the other two homes on Cabo San Lucas has beome a popular spot for wedding parties staying on the Cape for beach weddings. It was built in 2006 and sold in early 2008 for $1.26M, but is currently listed for a far more modest $699,000. The county has this one pegged at $492,096 so it will be interesting to see it closes for.

Our second contract is on a bank-owned gulf front condo at Dunes Club on the south side of the Cape, and it’s going to be a comp killer since it went under contract almost immediately when the bank dropped the price this week from its already ridiculously low price of $205,000 to $185,000, way below the county’s assessment of $218,892. That generated a pile of offers, and my buyer made a good, clean offer and emerged victorious on Thursday. Dunes Club was built in 2004, and this particular condo sold that year for $438,800. It’s a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,171 square foot home overlooking the pool and the gulf.

We’re heading up to Barrier Dunes for our second contract to this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1172 square foot furnished townhouse located along side the state park in a very private and peaceful setting. The seller put this on the market with the serious intention of selling it soon and he did just that with an asking price too low to resist, just $159,900. It was exactly what my young buyers were looking for and they snapped it up just three days after it hit the MLS. It was built in 2003 when it sold for $180,000, almost exactly what the county has it assessed for today, $178,929.

Our fourth and final new contract is on a 4-bedroom, 3-bath, 2100 square foot bay front beauty with a bonus guest house included. It’s a great place for fun on the water with its easy access from its large dock overlooking the channel running past Pig Island. The place last sold in late 2004 for $690,000, and the owners put it back on the market the following spring with an asking price of $995,000. It’s been on the market ever since with the price whittling downward, and it went under contract this week with a list price of just $437,000. The county thinks that’s too high, as they have it assessed way low at $300,285. This is another comp I’m curious to see as there haven’t been many bay front sales this year and this is a particularly nice property.

There’s an interesting gulf front lot among our eight new listings I’ll go with for my New Listing Pick of the Week. It’s a bank-owned 50′ wide lot on the south side of the Cape for just $159,000. It lies entirely seaward of the CCCL so you’ll have to go through DEP for permitting, but there is a recently built home on the same street so apparently its doable. I don’t imagine this one will stay on the market long at this price so if you’re interested I’d advise acting quickly.

There are some attractive properties among our six price changes, but two in particular caught my eye.

The first one is this bank-owned 70′ wide gulf front lot in Sunset Pointe on the Cape which goes from $449,900 to $399,900. This is a gorgeous stretch of beach front up by the state park in one of the nicest subdivisions on the Cape.  Have we seen lower-priced gulf front lots? Yes, but not for waterfront this pristine, and in a gated upscale community, near the state park, and with the western-facing exposure for enjoying those picture-perfect sunsets over the gulf.

My second price pick is at the other end of the scale, a bay view first tier lot in the Treasure Bay subdivision out on C-30 which goes from $64,900 to $29,900, less than half of the county’s assessment of $60,000. What a great value on a quality building site. All the properties in Treasure Bay incuded deeded bay access, and because it’s on the mainland and outside the CBRA zone, Federal flood insurance is available. You’ll have terrific views of sunsets over they bay when you build.

That’s a wrap for this week. If you’re interested in seeing what you might be able to find along the coast foryourself while prices are so low, or if you’re thining of selling, I’d love to hear from you. I’ll be glad to help you either way. Try me on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com .  Have a terrific weekend and thanks for taking a few minutes to stop by today.

Lots to write about as we head into the busy Labor Day Weekend.  We’ve all been working hard around here this week moving a lot of real estate; we closed two sales, wrote an impressive six new contracts, listed eleven new properties, and launched a classic Labor Day Weekend Sale by rolling back the prices on a whopping 14 listings. You’d expect all that activity to have an influence on our inventory and you’d be right; we end the week down ten, with a total of 391 active MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor markets. Let’s jump right in and see who’s buying what.

It’s probably no surprise that a lot of the action had to do with distressed properties, and both of our sales were bank-owned foreclosures, starting with this lovely lagoon front lot in the Mystic Palms subdivision up near the boat launch at Indian Pass. That setting is just so beautiful and calming. It’s an irregularly shaped piece totalling roughly a third of an acre  and in 2004 it sold for $450,000. The owners tried to flip it the following summer listing it for $625,000 but by then that was more than the market would bear, and they eventually lost it to the bank who listed it for $79,000, which the county deems a little low having it assessed a bit above at $110,000. Somebody got a really sweet deal last Friday, picking it up for a mere $68,500.

Our second bank-owned deal hasn’t been under contract very long so it may look familiar as it’s not our run-of-the-mill sale, being an under-construction, as-is, fixer-upper with a list price of $290,000.  Hard to believe the lot alone sold in mid-2005 for $600,000.  The owners here also tried to flip it the following summer by listing it for $739,000 but the music had died by then and it, too, ended up with the bank. who let it go on Tuesday for $265,000, almost exactly at the assessed value of $254,291.

Now onto our six new contracts where we’ll begin our trek up on the northern end of the Cape and work our way southward. We haven’t seen much action at Barrier Dunes lately so I was glad to see a couple go under contract this week, the first of which is this 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 1,716 square foot gulf front townhouse. It’s one of the original homes built in 1985 so she has witnessed a lot of Cape history. The sellers have owned it for a good while, having bought it in 2000 for $310,000, and they’ve had it on the market since mid-2005 when they listed it for $649,900. Five years later they finally have a contract with a list price of $415,000 vs. an assessed value of $284,925, so we’ll be looking to see who wins this clash of the pricing wars, the listing agent or the property appraiser’s office.

The second Barrier Dunes unit is a gulf view, 1,716 square foot, 3-bedroom townhome also built in 1985 but with a look much newer as she has seen a number of recent renovations such as new sliders and trek decking laid down on all of the decks. It’s an end unit with better-than-average furnishings included. I suspected when the seller reduced the price last week from $264,900 to $249,900 this one would be snapped up pretty quickly. The seller bought it in late 2004 for $177,000 and put a lot of work into it with upgrades and new furnishings, and then put it back on the market at the end of 2005 asking $515,000 but it was just not good timing.  The county now has it valued at $195,392. 

About a mile further south is Ovation, the premier community at Cape San Blas, and here is our third new contract of the week, a 57′ by 100′  “X” zone lot listed by the developer for just $50,000, exactly where the county has it valued. This same lot debuted in mid-2006 sporting a $375,000 price tag. That is so hard to believe now looking back.  If you’re sorry you missed this at $50K, there are several others at that price also in the “X” zone  but probably not for long so let me know if you’re interested.

  Our fourth contract is on a gulf front  beauty on Hartley Lane, just a little south of Rish Park towards the north end of the Cape. This is a great home with a spacious open layout and lovely furnishings throughout. She’s a big gal, 2,788 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths and a whole lot of wrap-around decks and porches, for a total square footage of 7,704. This one’s a short sale with a list price of $699,000, having last sold for $1.5M in the summer of ’04.  That list is really close to the county’s assessment of $652,970.

We’ll head on down to the south side of the Cape for our fifth contract on a 50′ wide, half-acre  gulf front lot on Louisiana Lane near Surfside Estates. The entire lot lies seaward of the CCCL (Coastal Construction Control Line) so DEP will eventually have to approve the building permit when the buyer’s ready to put up a home on it. This is another short sale, with a list price of $229,000 vs. the previous sale price of $1.15M.  The list is in line with the county’s assessment of $235,000.

Our sixth and final new contract is all the way over on Indian Pass on Higgins Street in the Indian Pass Beach Subdivision where this 75′ by 105′,  0.18 acre lot listed for $64,900 finally found a buyer. The sellers have owned it since ’97 when they picked it up for $50,000. They started trying to sell it in mid-2006 when they put it on the market sporting a $325,000 price tag.

I have no problem selecting a New Listing Pick of the Week from among our eleven new listings - I love the Money Bayou area out on C-30; this area brings alive memories of the Florida of my childhood.  The views from the decks of this home are just like sitting in a Florida postcard.  Here’s the view from the covered deck off the living area:

Now imagine getting that view in a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,251 square foot home built in 2004 for just $295,000.  Works for me. At that price it’s a short sale since the sellers paid $675,000 for it in 2004. Ouch. They’ve been trying to sell it since late 2005 when they listed it for $749,000. The county pretty much agrees with their list price having it valued at $256,141. I suspect this one won’t linger on the market very long at this price so if you’re interested please get in touch with me soon.

OK – now on to our 14 price changes and I have a Price Change Pick of the Week, too. If you thought you couldn’t afford a gulf front single-family home, consider this 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 1,702 square foot home on C-30 at Brighton by the Sea reduced from $499,000 to $449,000.  It’s not listed as a short sale, but the listing agent stresses the owners are highly, highly motivated. According to county records, they paid $319,000 for it in 2001 so unless it has been used as an ATM, it would seem there should be some wiggle room in that list price. Brighton is a small community of nine Key-West style homes, and low cost federal flood insurance is available. There is also a community gulf front pool.

We’ve covered a lot of territory today but we have finally wrapped it up. If you want to get in on the action either buying or selling, give me a call on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com.  I hope you enjoy great times with family and friends this holiday weekend - I’m staying here at the Cape to enjoy all the sunny skies they’re forecasting. Looking forward to hearing from you -  I really appreciate your taking time out of your schedule to stop by today.