March Madness

Easter week. It's the busiest week of the year in Cocoa Beach. We still have our snowbirds who have been here for the entire season, spring breakers, families with children on spring break, high school and college baseball teams and families and the random couple escaping the deep freeze up north for a few days. Two more weeks and it will all be very different. School will have resumed and the snowbirds will be well into their annual northward migration. No tee times will be necessary at the Cocoa Beach Country Club and rates will be halved. An outside table on the deck at Coconuts on a beautiful sunny day will be there for the taking with no wait. And waiting for more than one traffic light change anywhere in Cocoa Beach will once again be a thing of the past.

Sales so far in March have been very strong in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral with 52 closed condos and townhomes and nine sold single family homes. Of the closed sales 28% were either short sales or foreclosures. This is a reflection of the contracts in the system that finally worked their way to closing and not indicative of the currently for sale inventory. Of the 370 total residential properties currently for sale on the Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral MLS only 8% are short or foreclosed. The few new foreclosure listings that are hitting the market are attracting multiple offers the first few days in most cases. Only three of the 12 closed foreclosures this month sold for less than asking price. A couple closed for more than 10% above asking price.

If you're still looking and hoping to steal something, you will likely be disappointed. That said, current selling prices are so far below recent years that buyers shouldn't be deterred by having missed the exact market bottom. As always, know the current value of the properties you're considering and be realistic and speedy with your offers. In a few years it is very likely that we'll look back at 2013 as having been a great opportunity.

"Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's party." __Robin Williams