Grounded sailboat at Jetty Park, Port Canaveral.
Photo by Lauren Lulich.
In the month of August twelve single family homes closed in Cocoa Beach as reported by our MLS. Median price was $315,000, and all but three were waterfront, two of those oceanfront. There was one reported single family home sale in Cape Canaveral but it was actually a half-duplex. Prices ranged from $681,000 for a short sale 5 year old Snug Harbor home on Edwards Bay to $239,000 for a non-waterfront 3/2 with a 3 car garage on Esther. Another of the twelve Enclave homes in Cocoa Beach closed in the month making five this year. This one sold for $490,000, a far cry from the original million dollar plus asking. Two of the 12 August sales were short sales and none were foreclosures making a total of 17% of home sales distressed. Seven of the buyers paid cash.
August was a record month for condo sales with a total of 57 MLS-listed units closing in the two cities. None sold for more than $500,000. Median price was $133,500. A whopping 79% (45 units) of the 57 total sold for less than $200,000. The former bread and butter of our market, direct ocean units, made up only 14% of the activity (eight units) a reflection of one of the most heavily impacted parts of our depleted inventory. Eight of the total were foreclosures and ten were short sales making 32% of the total condo sales distressed. Highest price paid of the 18 distressed sales was $203,000. Forty three or 75% of the total of the buyers paid cash. The average sale was for 91% of the last asking price.
Inventory this morning, September 12, 2011 is at it lowest point in my memory. There are 353 total condo and townhome units for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral and 74 single family homes. Of these 427 residential units for sale, eleven are foreclosures and 56 are short sales making 16% of the total distressed, well off the recent crazy high percentage.
We are now in the sweet season with the summer crowds gone and snowbirds yet to arrive. What little traffic there is is just blissful locals with surfboards and fishing rods hanging out of our vehicles. There is surf most days, the water is warm, the air not so much and the mullet run is in full swing. If you've never visited Cocoa Beach in September or October you have missed the best time of year.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. __Henry David Thoreau
