Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wish You Were Here


October sunset over the Banana River in Cocoa Beach.

Halfway through October and we've seen only eight residential sales close so far in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Of the eight, only one was a single-family home, an older 3/2 Cocoa Beach canal home in good condition on Blakey that went for $295,000. The condos closed so far have ranged from a small Canaveral Breakers 2/2 for $85,000 to a 6th floor, 2484 sq.ft. 3/2 Constellation that went for a shocking $400,000. I was happy to assist the buyers in this sale and it may represent the lowest price per square foot for a high floor direct ocean unit for the entire year of 2008. A non-direct Shorewood 3/2 corner unit without a view closed for $220,000 or just over $104 per square foot. Not bad for a fully-furnished 10 year old unit in a nice complex.

Our inventory continues to shrink and is at it's lowest level of the year. As I've mentioned before, there is a rather large shadow inventory of luxury condos held by developers that is not included in the MLS numbers below. Sales of new units have almost completely dried up and crunch time is nigh for the handful of new developments that are still sitting on significant numbers of unsold units. Like the slow motion sub-prime crisis, this is taking far longer to play out than I imagined but, make no mistake, the day of reckoning is coming.

MLS inventory Oct 15, 2008 Cocoa Beach & Cape Canaveral

Condos, all prices_____709
over $500,000_________78 - 28 sold since New Year's Day
Single family homes___112
over $500,000_________36


Florida fixed rate mortgage rates have continued their sharp upward trend since the brief low in mid-September moving over half a point to the upside in the one month period.



"Are we human, or are we dancer?" Brandon Flowers - The Killers