Watch Your Step

Here we are in the busiest month of the year for the Cocoa Beach area; the most traffic, most visitors and, usually, the busiest time for real estate sales. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, sales have been slower than what we usually experience during snowbird season. That trend continues. There appears to be no one reason for the slowdown other than somewhat optimistic pricing for residential property. It's certainly not for lack of real estate agents. I don't remember any other time when there were more agents working this small market, not even during the money-on-trees years of the mid-2000s. Visitors would be well advised to lower their voices when discussing a property search in public lest they be tackled by multiple nearby agents which will probably include their server and bartender. I'm starting to think that Uber requires a real estate license to become a driver given the number of real estate business cards I've been given during a ride.

The February numbers are in and it was a decent month despite being slower than last year. There were 43 total condo and townhome units closed in the month in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Direct ocean units sold ranged from $239 per square foot for a nicely updated 2nd floor Majestic Seas 2/2 to $337 per square foot for a 2nd floor 3/2 Artesia in Cape Canaveral. Median price paid for direct ocean in February was $294 per square foot. Note that the price per square foot is an inaccurate gauge and is useful only as a starting point for comparison. Those units that can command selling prices over $290 per square foot are usually remodeled and/or newer with garages and furnished.

There were 12 single family homes closed in the month, all in Cocoa Beach. Prices ranged form $1.26 MM for a direct ocean Cocoa Beach 4/3 to $315,000 for an updated 1763 sq ft 4/2 a few blocks from the beach. A three quarters of the home purchasers used mortgages while half the condos were purchased for cash.

Inventory is better than just a few months ago with 266 existing condos and 72 single family homes available this morning in our two cities. A third of the homes and 20% of the condos have been for sale for six months or longer. We know what that likely means, overpriced.

There are several new restaurants in downtown Cocoa Beach since my last list that I've not had the opportunity to visit. The 4th Street Filling Station is getting good reviews as is Luna. I'll try to do an updated list as soon as the snow has melted. Stay tuned.

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." __Pablo Picasso