Too Much Information

I figure it's been long enough now, eleven days into the new year, for almost all the laggards to have updated their sold listings on the MLS for 2013. Here are what we'll arbitrarily call the "final" numbers. These numbers apply to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral only and reflect just those property sales reported to the MLS. There were a handful of non-listed sales during the year that aren't part of these stats.

As I mentioned in a previous post, 2013 saw the highest number of condo sales since 2005. Cash still dominated the purchases with three out of five buyers stroking a check rather than getting a mortgage. The number of distressed sales continued to decline with short sales shrinking to only 7% of the total. One in three listings sold in less than a month on the market.

2013 Total condo sales - 660

Purchased with cash - 402

Short sales - 43

Bank-owned - 109

Sold in 30 days or less - 226

The story was similar with single family homes sales in 2013. Almost half of the buyers paid cash. Distressed sales were few and short sales were but a tiny blip on the screen. Almost half of all homes sold had a contract in less than a month from listing.

Total single family home sales 2013 - 125

Purchased with cash - 56

Short sales - 8

Bank-owned - 12

Sold in 30 days or less - 56

As of this morning, there are 62 total single family homes in the two cities for sale on the MLS. Seven of those are either under construction or not yet built. Two are short sales and three are bank-owned.

There are 303 condos for sale with 23 of those not yet built (possibly never). Of the 303, seven are short sales and 25 are bank-owned. Of the 25 bank-owned units, well over half have been on the market for more than 50 days, with four growing mold for over 100 days. This is a reflection of the banks' too-optimistic recent pricing.

The surf temp is lingering in the high 60s making short sessions without a wetsuit still possible. With winter guests arriving every day, the days of breezing through nine holes in less than two hours are over until after Easter but with today's forecast high of 79, I'm going to brave it.

Snowbirds, don't forget to tip your server. She is probably being paid $4.91 per hour (the minimum in Florida for tipped servers) which means she needs your tip to feed the babies.

"I embarrassed a lot of people. At this point I should know better than to make political statements."  __Dennis Rodman