Tracks of hatchling turtles who scrambled for the ocean for their first swim after hatching one night this week in south Cocoa Beach.
I could never have imagined during the summer of love, that 55 years in the future, the same August weekend as Woodstock, I'd be talking about being required to have a signed compensation agreement with a buyer before I am allowed to show them a house, yet here we are. We can walk into a store in some states and buy a joint but we can't show a house to a buyer without said agreement. Progress does not move in a linear or even sensical fashion. Today, August 17, 2024, is D-Day for implementation of the new rules relating to the National Association of Realtors settlement. It is already, shall we say, interesting.
The inventory of properties for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral has been shrinking since peaking in May. There are about 13% fewer properties for sale this Woodstock weekend than there were three months ago. There are currently 268 condo and townhome units for sale on the MLS and 47 single-family homes. Median asking price for the condos is $394,000 and for the single family homes, $962,000. Median time on market for condos currently listed is 94 days and for SF homes, 83 days. Median condo fee for the listed units is $650 monthly. Of the 240 condo listings older than two weeks, 158 have dropped the price at least once and there are six listings that have been optimistically listed for over a year without a price drop. Only 22 units have gone under contract so far in August.
There were a total of 50 closed condo and townhome units in the two cities in July with a median selling price of $390,000 and a median time on market of 43 days with a median condo fee of $600 monthly. Contrast that 43 days on market with the median of 94 for the remaining inventory and it's obvious that properly-priced new listings are stealing the bulk of the buyers from the older listings with overly optimistic sellers who are clinging to prices that the market is rejecting. Highest selling price was $975,000 for a 2419 square foot, 7th floor direct ocean unit at The Constellation in south Cocoa Beach. Close behind was a 9th floor corner, direct ocean Stonewood downtown Cocoa Beach with 2170 square feet that closed for $950,000.
In July there were seven single family homes closed with a median selling price of $807,000 and a median time on market of 95 days. Only one home sold for more than $815,000.
From this point forward, no buyer's broker compensation is displayed in the MLS but there is a new Y/N field for "seller concessions". On this morning's hotsheet I noticed four listings that are advertised as "No" seller concessions. That means that buyers of these listings will either have to pay their buyer's broker out of pocket or their offers to the sellers will have to include a request for a concession to cover some or all of the fee they agreed to pay their agent. The sellers who are advertising 'No" concessions can be assumed to be disinclined to agree to one. Buyer's agents are about to become seen as an impediment to a sale for the listings that are unwilling to offer a concession. I can easily see scenarios where a seller counters an offer accepting the price and terms but rejecting the concession and, by doing so, painting the buyer's broker's fee as the sole barrier to a sale. I knew this was going to be interesting but I didn't count on seeing many "no seller concession" listings so soon. I welcome your stories which are sure to follow. My email is at the top of the page. Good luck out there. Things are different now.
"The Woodstock Music and Art Festival will surely go down in history as a mass event of great and positive significance in the life of the country ... That this many young people could assemble so peaceably and with such good humor in a mile-square area ... speaks volumes about their dedication to the ideal of respect for the dignity of the individual ... In a nation beset with a crescendo of violence, this is a vibrantly hopeful sign. If violence is infectious, so, happily, is nonviolence." _Michael Lang, Boston Globe
