Art Show and Declining Inventory

As I write this early on Black Friday the crews are setting up barricades on Brevard Ave. in preparation for the annual Cocoa Beach Thanksgiving Weekend Art Show. Weather is predicted to be mid 70s with no rain. Tonight, among others, on the big outdoor stage will be Nashville's Radio Romance (around 9 PM). We enjoy plenty of excellent live music at multiple venues all the time in downtown Cocoa Beach but country music is sorely under-represented. That omission will be undone, if only briefly, in grand fashion tonight.

We find ourselves approaching year-end 2017 with a total of only 187 existing condo and townhome units for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Compared to the 634 units that have closed so far in 2017 our MLS inventory looks like the TV department at Walmart right now. Like Walmart, the only things not sold already are either unattractively priced or just now being wheeled out onto the sales floor. Over a quarter of all condo listings have been for sale for six months or longer. So far in November, the low end of the condo market has been the more active segment with half of the 40 closed sales under $200,000. Only five of the 40 were ocean units and only one sold for over $500,000, a 7th floor remodeled direct ocean Constellation 3/2 in south Cocoa Beach that closed for $635,000 or $298/sf.

There are 52 single family homes listed for sale on the Cocoa Beach MLS in our two cities this morning with 147 having closed so far in the year. It's the same overpricing story, exactly a quarter on the market for over six months. Nine homes have closed so far in November ranging from a small cottage close to the beach in Cape Canaveral going for $266,000 to a 5000+ square foot direct ocean beauty in south Cocoa Beach bringing $1.975 MM.

I hope to see many of you on the street downtown this weekend as the Art Show kicks off tonight continuing through Sunday. Hot Pink perfroming tomorrow around 7:30 on the outdoor stage and Radio Romance doing an acoustic set at Juice n Java about the same time. I heard the old Art Festival organization that bailed on Cocoa Beach is doing something somewhere else but not sure about that. Schadenfreude, baby.

"Take me back to the place I love the most. Take me to the coast." __Radio Romance

Downhill to Christmas

With another month on the books and but two to go for 2017 we are running just ahead of this time last year in number of closed residential sales in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral and look to finish the year somewhere around 700 closed condos and townhouses.

In the month of October, 41 condos closed in the two cities with the high end awakening from a short slumber. Six units closed at prices between $450,000 and $895,000 with four exceptional oceanfront units bringing over $300 per square foot. Oceanfront condo sales of note included:

• A 5th floor direct ocean NE corner Artesia 3/3.5 with 2478 square feet and a two car garage that sold for $895,000.
• A 4th floor direct ocean Meridian 3/2 with 2072 sf that closed for $740,000.
• A nicely remodeled and furnished 4th floor direct ocean SE corner Canaveral Sands 2/2 with 1316 sf that closed for $450,000.
• A modestly updated and furnished 5th floor direct ocean Cocoa Beach Towers 2/2 with 1161 sf and no garage or washer/dryer that sold for $350,000. Ability to rent weekly contributed to the unusually high price.
• A 3rd floor direct ocean Sol y Mar 3/3 with 2298 sf and a 2 car garage that closed for $615,000. This was an exceptionally good deal for the buyer in this 11 yr old luxury building.
• A fully furnished direct ocean 6th floor Palmas Majorca 3/2 with 1801 sf in downtown Cocoa Beach that sold for $470,000.
• A nicely updated 6th floor south ocean view Royale Towers 1/1 with 888 sf and a garage that closed for $225,000.
• An updated and furnished Shorewood north facing 1/1.5 with 888 sf and garage and a peek of the ocean that closed for $225,000.

There were others but these caught my eye as a good representation of what is selling in oceanfront buildings. There were eight single family homes closed in the month all in Cocoa Beach, one riverfront home closing for over a million dollars.

Those of you who have enjoyed hearing Nashville's Radio Romance at Juice n Java or the big stage at the Art Show will be pleased to know but probably not surprised that they won the Nash Next 17 contest last week in Nashville out of 1500 contestants. They won a contract with Nash Next Records under Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Label and the sky appears to be the only limit now. They will be appearing on the big stage once again at the Thanksgiving Art Show this year and at Juice n Java the following evening. This may be the last time we'll get a chance to see the boys in Cocoa Beach as their career has just taken a huge turn. Congrats, guys.

The rains finally stopped long enough for the ground to dry out and the golf course to reopen. Hopefully we have left the worst of the rains behind us and won't be seeing any more messages like the one pictured.

After three years of not being able to keep red snapper caught in the Atlantic we were granted two weekends to fish with a limit of one fish per person per day. The weather didn't cooperate the first weekend but a few folks made it out the second (last) weekend and a few fish were caught. We are closed once again for these fish until the powers that be decide to toss us another crumb, hopefully during a month other than October when the weather stands a better chance of being fishable.

"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot." ______________Steven Wright