In-Between Season

There are only two houses for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral asking less than a half million dollars. Median asking price of the 25 houses for sale in the two cities is over $800,000. Of the 134 condos and townhouses currently for sale only 11 are asking less than $200,000. Median asking price is $440,000 with 46 units asking over a half million.

Thirty units have closed so far in April, seven of those bringing over $400 per square foot and another eleven over $300/sq ft. Shocking high selling price of the bunch was a 5th floor, furnished, direct ocean Royale Towers 2/2 Sand Dollar unit that closed for $655,000 or $476/sq ft. The three vacation rental units closed so far this month brought an average $404/ sq ft, none of them direct ocean, east facing units. Prices for vacation rental units have pulled back from last summer's levels with lower closing prices in three of our biggest vacation rental buildings. Many of the units still for sale in these buildings have asking prices that are completely out of sync with recent selling prices. Those hoping to buy a vacation rental unit would be well-served by knowing the prices of recent sales. They are considerably lower than the same units were selling for last summer. 

Speaking of asking prices, over half of the units closed so far in April were on the market less than 30 days. Of the 134 units still for sale over half have been on the market longer than that with 53 of them for sale longer than 60 days. That seems to suggest widespread overpricing. Buyers, know the comps, and don't overpay just because the seller is out of touch. Make the case for your offer with recently sold comparable properties and if the seller refuses to acknowledge reality, move on to one who is open to reason. The sellers who are pricing correctly are the ones selling. The optimistic bunch will continue to stagnate on the MLS until the reality check comes.

The bulk of the snowbirds have departed and traffic, other than the air show traffic this past weekend, has returned to its more leisurely off-season pace. From now until June is one of our two good-weather, no-crowd seasons. The other is Labor Day until Thanksgiving barring a hurricane. Things will heat up again as schools begin letting out for summer in late May and our summer vacationers start arriving.

"Twitter is such a mess, it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine..." _Mark Zuckerberg