Rolling Up July

After a slow start for residential real estate in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, the month of July finished with a bang, at least for condos.  The Cocoa Beach MLS is reporting 70 closed condo and townhouse units in the month as of this morning but only four single-family home sales. Seventy condo sales beats last July's 62 units but four single family home sales lags far behind July 2017's eighteen sales. Inventory of condos is slightly higher than last year with 220 existing units for sale and single family homes offered is almost the same, 62 compared to 64 in July 2017.

I don't have a good guess for the drastic slowdown in home sales other than price creep. Only 17 of the 62 homes for sale are priced below a half million dollars with a mere twelve asking less than $400,000. The priciest home sale in July was $420,000.  As prices inflate, the audience shrinks.

The pricing distribution of the condo inventory is considerably more favorable with two thirds of the units offered priced at or below $400,000 with 95 of those asking less than $300,000. Over half of the units that sold in July were on the market for less than 60 days with twenty seven of those sold in less than a month. About half of the units for sale have been on the market for 90 days or more. Seller optimism remains high. Those that price close to fair market value sell fast absent some unusual circumstance. About half the July condo buyers used a mortgage and the other half paid cash.

Happy hunting to those hoping to purchase and, as always, be prepared to move quickly when an attractive target has been acquired. You have competition looking for the same thing.

"I don't mind you thinking I'm stupid, but don't talk to me like I'm stupid." __Harlan Ellison