This post was first published on Sept. 1 at larrystake.substack.com
Today, September 1, marks the reopening of snook season on the east coast of Florida. The Southwest Florida season will reopen on October 1. As long as the surf cooperates these tasty fish can be caught from the beach anywhere in Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach as they shadow the abundant schools of migrating mullet and pogies (menhaden). One fish per day per person between 28” and 32” can be harvested. Be prepared to catch other fish feeding on the same schools of bait like Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jack crevalle, ladyfish, sharks and the occasional giant tarpon. When conditions are favorable, this is the most exciting time of the year for surf fishing.
Real estate sales during August were slow with 32 condos and 9 single family home sales closed during the month in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. It was the slowest month of the year so far. Condo inventory continues to shrink with a total of 309 MLS-listed condo and townhome units for sale this morning. Single family home supply remains steady with 71 homes actively for sale. Two thirds of the sold homes sold for over a million dollars with only one sale below a half million. One condo exceeded the million dollar sold price with a median selling price of all sold units of $387,000. Median monthly condo fee of the closed condos was $790.
If historical patterns hold, the four-month period from October through January is likely to bring slower activity compared to earlier this year. The reduced inventory will benefit prospective sellers by limiting competition, but it is offset by that seasonal decline in buyer demand. Sellers who know which listings they are competing with and who adjust their strategy accordingly will be better positioned for success. Good luck to all and if the process becomes tiring, take a morning off to hit the beach and try for a snook.
I hope the early risers among the readers, like myself, have been enjoying the spectacle of a bright Venus in the morning sky as it has been racing towards the far side of the Sun all summer. Its relative position to the much slower Jupiter in the early morning sky has widened drastically over the last month and it experienced its brightest point in this half of its revolution (from our perspective) just last week. We will lose sight of it in the next few months as its position in the sky gets closer to the sun and it rises later in the morning. It will reach superior conjunction on the far side of the sun in January and then, when it reemerges, will become visible in the evening sky as it completes this trip around the sun and is once again approaching Earth. One doesn’t need a telescope to understand that some of the objects in the night sky are very much closer than others.
I spotted another red-headed agama lizard yesterday, this time at my office in downtown Cocoa Beach. Their northward invasion has progressed far faster than I expected.
“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.” _Galileo Galilei
