Cape San Blas Real Estate Blog

 Another week of beautiful autumn weather here on the Cape with warm days, calm waves, and clear, deserted beaches. Not a lot of visitors this time of year, and typically real estate activity begins to quiet as we head into the holiday season, but this week we had a definite up-tick in interest. No closings, but we do have four new contracts, twenty new listings (mostly one subdivision), eighteen price changes, and nine expired unsold.  Unfortunately our inventory of active listings in Cape San Blas, C-30 Corridor and Indian Pass also grew by almost 3%, jumping from 380 to 391, with 163 homes (vs. 158) and 228 lots (vs. 222).

Our four new contracts consist of 3 homes and one lot, all on Cape San Blas, and since one home and lot appear to be a package deal, we’ll start there.

This roughly 3,000 square foot, 4-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath gulf front lovely is located in the shopping district across the street from Scallop Cove BP. It’s a fairly new place having been built in 2004.  I understand it’s supposed to close fairly quickly. These same owners also had the 1st tier lot listed for a parcel that would stretch from the road to the Gulf and since it  went under contract the same day I think it’s safe to assume one buyer took them both. Here’s a view of both taken from Cape San Blas Road.

List price for the house was $849,000 and for the lot $399,000 so I’ll be very interested to see what sort of a package deal was negotiated.

  At the opposite end of the size spectrum, our next contract is on this 520 square foot cottage on Jamaica Drive behind The Tradin’ Post. (I guess our buyers this week all wanted to be in “the shopping district”).  This one is likely to have some ouch factor when it closes since it was listed for $149,900 even though the sellers paid $185,000 for it in May 2005.

  Our fourth and final new contract this week was on this 2-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath gulf view end-unit townhouse at Barrier Dunes with a situation very similar to the little cottage above in that the property is listed for $370,000, well below the $575,000 the sellers paid for it in mid-2005.

Of our twenty new listings, ten are lots located up at Sea Cliffs, just outside the state park, and my pick of the week is also at Sea Cliffs, a 2,000 square foot, 4-bedroom, 4 1/2 bath furnished townhome with terrific views and a terrific price of only $419,000. Check out this view of the gulf and pool from the spacious deck off the living area of this home.

  I love the layout with the first two levels each having a master suite and a bedroom, and then the living area is on the top level providing those great panoramic views. Don’t worry - there’s also an elevator. As an added bonus it is being sold completely furnished and ready to enjoy. Just pick up the keys at closing and head to the beach.

  I have two picks of the week from our eighteen price changes, two side-by-side gulf front homes at Indian Pass which originally came on the market at $1,395,000 each, have been whittling their way downward ever since, coming in this week with new price tags reading just $750,000 each. Whoa. These are gorgeous homes, new contruction (2007), and being sold fully furnished. Each has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, and 3,000+ square feet of living area. How long would it take you to get used to this view of the beach from the deck?

If you’ve been wondering what to get that certain special someone for Christmas this year, give me a call and we’ll write up the paperwork for Santa to make you a hero.

Speaking of beaches, its time to wrap this up and get on over there to enjoy this beautiful sunny autumn day. Give me a call at 850-227-7891 or send me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com if you’d like more info on these or other properties, or if you’re thinking of selling. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to hear from you soon.

What a tumultuous week.  The 22-month campaign marathon finally, mercifully came to an end while the stock market continues to whip wildly back and forth like a loose fire hose. It doesn’t look as if the stock market is going to be the safe haven of choice any time soon, which bodes well for the likelihood of real estate returning as the alternative investment of choice. 

No wild undulations locally as our inventory continues to whittle its way down, coming in this week with a total of 380 active MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market, down 6 from last week, with 158 homes (vs. 157) and 222 lots (vs. 229).  Only one sale this week and no new contracts, but we have four new listings, ten price changes, and twenty expired unsold.

Our one sale was the home out on C-30 that went under contract back in mid-September. This 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1600 square foot home was listed in August for $285,000 and closed this week for $260,000. The sellers did ok as they paid $220,000 for it in 2001 so they’ll make a nice little 9% return. 

My pick of the week from our four new listings is this Florida cottage with a gulf view in Money Bayou which is priced right at only $299,900.  This 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 1650 square foot home was built in 1999 and is situated on a quarter acre lot. Just a short stroll and you’re on the beach. Here’s what the listing notes say:

Beautiful home with view of water. Large living space with fireplace and oversized bedrooms. Wonderful wide porches for entertaining. Florida room /Art Studio gives this house several nice living spaces. Fenced back yard with shed. Large workroom/storage under house. Lots of parking area.

There’s lots to like among this week’s ten new price changes, too, but if I had to pick just one it would be this gulf front single family home in Treasure Shores reduced from an already low $795,000 to bargain priced $749,000.  Check out the view from the decks:

  I could get used to having my coffee there in the mornings. Here’s the listing notes details:

Lovely home with a great layout for lots of company. Each bedroom has a private bathroom, and all rooms face the beach. On the first level the kitchen, dining and living space enjoy ample beach front views; this area extends to the front deck with equally breathtaking views and roomy space for gatherings. On the west side of this floor is a king size bedroom with bath. On the top level are two bedrooms, a den-sitting area, and the master bedroom. All three rooms open to a large screened porch. Storm shutters, tile roof, great rental with a loyal follow up, and mostly in excellent condition with new carpet installed in 2007.

With a gross rental income of $31,185 the numbers work well. This 3-bedroom, 3-bath 1,886 square foot home was built in 1997 and sits on a 75′ wide, roughly half acre gulf front lot.

That’s a wrap for this week. I enjoy hearing from my readers so if you’d like additional info on these or other properties, or if you just want to talk about what’s going on at the beach, give me a call at 850-227-5197, or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . Thanks for stopping by today.

Living in a coastal community is 99% bliss, but when hurricanes threaten life gets challenging. We on the Cape have had some inconveniences from Ike but no life threatening problems. I’ve been listening on the internet tonight to KTRH from Houston where the storm is bearing down and as a fellow coastal resident with a keen feeling of “but there but for the grace of God go I”, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Galveston, Houston and all the coastal communities in harm’s way with wishes for their safety, survival, and access to rapid resources to help them restore, when this storm is over. 

Please remember these people in your prayers tonight.

  Have we reached the bottom of the market yet? This article from the Florida Association of Realtors caught my attention today.

Is this the real estate turnaround?

On the heels of an increase in Florida home sales, a spike in new home sales and an upswing in consumer confidence, traffic to Realtor.com went up significantly in July with month-over-month increases in both traffic (29 percent) and time spent on site (26 percent) on Realtor.com, the official consumer Web site of the National Association of Realtors. Year-over-year page views on Realtor.com and the Move Network increased by 22 percent and 11 percent, respectively, as consumers spent more time searching properties in popular and unexpected metro areas than they did this time last year.

Local markets in July experiencing the largest year-over-year percentage increases in consumer searches on Realtor.com included Stockton-Lodi, Calif. (140.9 percent), Las Vegas, Nev. (93.9 percent), Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla. (69.5 percent), Detroit, Mich. (51.8 percent) and Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV, VA (49.1 percent).

Lorna Borenstein, president of Move, Inc., the oversight company for Realtor.com, says that year-over-year traffic on Realtor.com increased by 9.5 percent, despite the fact that traffic within the real estate category declined by 1 percent, and consumers spent 24.7 percent more time in July on Realtor.com than on the next closest competitor.

Realtor.com currently offers potential home buyers access to over four million property listings, as well as the most brokers and agents.

© 2008 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

After creeping slowly upward for the past several weeks, the real estate inventory of active MLS listings for the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market finally showed a nice healthy drop this week, coming in at 455 total, down 27 from last week’s 482, a nice 5.6% decrease. The big change is in the number of lots, now at 271 (vs. 295), largely the result of an entire subdivision’s 26 lots being withdrawn without explanation on Thursday (Red Fish Cove near Spinnaker just outside the state park on the Cape). We have three fewer homes competing against one another, with 184 vs. 187 last week. Fairly quiet week otherwise with just one closing and one new contract, four new listings, eleven price changes and five expired unsold.

Our one sale was a 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath interior townhome with no gulf view at Barrier Dunes. Built in 2000, the sellers bought it in late 2004 for $380,000, listed it for sale over a year ago, originally for $374,500, eventually reducing it to $349,000, and it sold on Tuesday for $317,500. They also offered to pay the first year’s flood insurance premium and a $5,000 bonus to the selling office. Not a pretty ride if you’re sitting in the seller’s seat for this one.

  Our one new contract is on this lovely 2-bedroom, 2 1/2/ bath 739 square foot Key West-style home over in Money Bayou we saw deeply discounted several weeks agao. The seller gave $630,000 for it in mid-2005, listed it back in March of this year for $399,900, but dropped it not long thereafter to the unbelievable price of $299,000. There are contingencies to be met so no way of knowing yet when it might close, but this will be an interesting one to watch. I hate to see this happen to anyone.

The one thing in common about our four new listings this week is that every single one of them is listed for well below what the sellers paid for them. There is a gulf-front lot at Sunset Pointe listed for $795,000 for which the sellers paid $841,000; an interior lot at Waters Edge listed for $110,000 for which the sellers paid $186,800; another gulf-front lot just south of Rish Park listed for $999,000 vs. purchase price of $1.125M; and a water view lot in Ocean Haven listed for $475,000 vs. $500,500 purchase price. With the exception of the Waters Edge lot which last changed hands in 2002, all the other last resales were in ‘04 or ‘05.

 My pick of the week from our eleven price changes is without a doubt a bank-owned Indian Pass lagoon front slashed from the already low list price of $99,500 to the give-away price of $50,000 which you can read about in my earlier post. This property last sold in December 2004 for $259,000.  There is already an offer in on it.

That about wraps it up for this week. If you’d like more info on these or any other properties along the Forgotten Coast, please give me a call at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . I love hearing from my readers.

   This is the first weekend of the 2008 scallop season and the weather forecast looks good for people to get out in the bay and play.  If you’re new to scalloping, here are a few guidelines to get you going.

First of all, you’ll need a current Florida fishing license. If you don’t have one you can pick one up at Scallop Cove BP here on the Cape. Stop by the bait and tackle shop and they’ll fix you right up. You’ll also want a mesh bag to put your bounty in and a good scallop knife to shuck ‘em afterwards. If you’re not sure how to clean scallops, here’s a link to a great step-by-step lesson with photos.

Most seasons you’ll typically find the greatest concentrations of scallops in the southern part of the bay; around Black’s Island is usually pretty good. The best way to hunt for them is to snorkel over grass beds. They’re easiest to spot on a bright sunny day with very little surface wind.

This early in the season you’re going to find a lot of really small ones. Please, resist the temptation to go for quantity vs. quality. The little ones aren’t worth shucking and they need to stay in the bay to mature. The best time to go scalloping is really late August or early September when the majority have grown to decent size. 

There is a daily limit of 2 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or 1 pint of bay scallop meat per person during the open season.  In addition, no more than 10 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or one-half gallon of bay scallop meat may be possessed aboard any vessel at any time.  The Marine Patrol is pretty active this time of year and the fines are hefty.

If you do head out this weekend, happy hunting and be sure to slather on the sunscreen.

I know we typically only focus on the Cape San Blas area real estate market but this sale on an interior lot in Mexico Beach in this morning’s MLS hot sheet made me choke on my coffee.  The property is located in one of the many new subdivisions that mushroomed almost overnight in 2004/2005 in MB; this one’s called Ocean Plantation and is tucked way back off Hwy. 98 so we’re not talking about gulf views or the sound of the surf to sell the sizzle. It’s a 45′ x 130′, 0.13 acre lot with a community pool and a fairly good walk to the beach.

Anyway, the seller bought it in August 2005 (see a pattern developing here as we track these things?) for $150,000 and put it on the market 10 months later for $210,000 hoping for a nice 30+% return. Only problems was that by June ‘06 the game of musical chairs had long been over and this poor guy was definitely left standing.  No takers at $210K so he dropped it 6 months later to $199. Still no takers so in September of this year he dropped it to $79,000 with the caveat that at that price the buyer must close by the end of 2007 (bet the accountant insisted on that).

It went under contract on the 21st (merry Christmas) and closed this past Friday for $59,000. Our seller here was willing to take 39 cents on the dollar to just walk away. There are currently 8 other lots and 2 houses for sale in Ocean Plantation, ranging in price from $99,900 to $124,900 for the lots, and roughly $368K each for the houses.  What’s with that lot for $99,900 when the others are up to $124,900?  Turns out it’s a brand new listing.

The guy just bought in on Friday for $59K.