January 2015 Halftime

This is our first halftime report of 2105. Sales are typically slow the first part of January reflecting the reduced numbers of contracts during the year-end holidays and this year is no different. The Cocoa Beach MLS is showing 14 closed condos so far this month and three single family homes. Continuing the established trend, over half of the condos sold in less than a month on the market and all three homes sold in less than 37 days. All but three of the condos closed with cash. Highest price paid so far was for a 3rd floor direct ocean Meridian 3/2 that sold for $700,000 or $338 per square foot. Other sales of note included:

3rd floor furnished south facing 3/2, 2340 square foot Xanadu that closed for $330,000.

3rd floor furnished weekly rental Cocoa Beach Towers 3/2, 1323 sf, carport for $317,500.

3rd floor furnished direct ocean Cape Winds weekly rental 2/2, 934 sf, no garage for $269,500.

2nd floor furnished weekly rental Spanish Main 2/2, 1153 sf, garage for $265,000.

3rd floor south ocean view Conquistador 2/2, 1101 sf, open parking for $190,000.

2nd floor furnished direct ocean 1/1 Triton Arms downtown Cocoa Beach for $130,000.

Condo inventory in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral this morning is at 250 units with short sales and foreclosures representing just 7% of the total. That's the lowest level since 2007. None of the distressed units is direct ocean. That boat has sailed.

"I need to see a gentle palm tree and I won't wait too long." Captain Jim's Drunken Dream by James Taylor

Let's Get This Party Started

Here's a ten year snapshot of our condo market that graphically portrays the crash and recovery. It's been a wild ride. The upward trend in number of units sold should flatten out this year while a graph of prices, if I were able to accurately build one, would continue to rise. Supply and demand firmly in effect right now.

Wispy clouds on blue skies this morning, January 3, 2015, and the temp in Cocoa Beach is forecast to be 78,  with a low of 69 tonight before back up to 80 tomorrow. A cold snap next week will push daytime temps all the way down to the high 50s on Thursday before climbing back to the 70s on Saturday. Not rubbing it in but definitely enjoying it.

There seems to be an unusually high number of snowbirds already in town. Buyer traffic in real estate is likewise brisk. We haven't seen many new listings since the holidays so those looking are experiencing a little frustration with the few good choices available. Half of the 54 condo units closed in December sold in less than 37 days on the market, fourteen of those in less than two weeks. Expect that trend to continue until the inventory recovers. Of the 251 total condo and townhome units for sale right now, half have been on the market more than 90 days suggesting overpricing.

Golfers, time to get back in the habit of making advance tee times and steeling yourselves for slow play. The greens in Cocoa Beach are playing great and it's beautiful out there but from now until Easter it's gonna take a little longer to play a round than most are accustomed to. Do everyone a favor and be aware of your own pace of play. If you're not waiting on the group ahead of you, you might be holding up the group following you. And, please repair your ball marks and fill your divots. Play well..

Random fact: Cleopatra lived closer in time to the moon landing than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid.

That's a Wrap, Cocoa Beach

2014 was an eventful year in Cocoa Beach. I had forgotten how much had happened until I began listing the significant events of the year. I know I may have missed some but these are the ones I can remember that felt worth mentioning.

The picture at the left was taken from the golf course at the Cocoa Beach Country Club on December 20. Temp was in the high 70s at the time. It was a carbon copy of every day of the entire preceding week. By the way, how about those new greens? It's been a couple of years since they tore out the old ones and replaced them with new, salt-tolerant Paspalum grass. They were better than the old very quickly but now that they have completely filled in, they are excellent and, according to one old-timer who plays all over Brevard, might be the best in the county. Kudos to the people who made the decision to undertake this disruptive project and who chose the type of grass to use. It has paid off wonderfully.

Some of the Highlights of 2014

Our new fire station is almost finished directly across the street from the old station which is slated for tear-down. Imagine the Chili Cook-off next year.

The Cocoa Beach Pier was sold to Westgate Resorts of Orlando who have begun total renovation of the 52 year old landmark. I expect big things and probably a challenge of the height and density limits for a new structure on the parking lot. That will be highly contentious if it happens.

The Pelican Landings Resort in south Cocoa Beach was sold and torn down to make room for a magnificent new oceanfront home, a rare case of natural density reduction. It was completed late in the year.

We saw the highest price ever paid for a single family home in Cocoa Beach this year. It was for a 13 year old luxurious, three level direct ocean beauty for just shy of $2 million. That record is soon to be more than doubled when the pending Pumpkin Center oceanfront block closes.

And once again, as we've done for the last six years running, the number of closed residential sales exceeded the preceding year. The over 670 condo units closed in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral (as of Christmas) exceeded the total for every year since 2005.

The final chapter of the Glass Bank saga was begun late in the year as preps for demo began.

The new oceanfront condos on the site of Crawford's Cocoa Cabanas in south Cocoa Beach finally broke ground after first being announced back in 2006 just as the housing crash began. I've been hearing ever since then that construction was about to begin. They are being offered with "boat slips". Caveat emptor.

After voters overwhelmingly supported mixed-use zoning in a small area of downtown Cocoa Beach in 2011, we saw our first two new mixed-use buildings completed, residential upstairs over commercial downstairs. I think we can expect many more of these types of buildings downtown. Also downtown, we saw several other commercial buildings remodeled and re-purposed and several new restaurants, offices and watering holes opened. The old Post Office was sold and remodeled and has reopened as retail and offices.

The Port continued it's blazing pace of growth. The old boat ramps next to Grills were closed to make room for the new Cruise Terminal One which is almost complete. We recreational fishermen scored on this one as we got brand new ramps much closer to the Port entrance adjacent to Jetty Park. The container port appears to be either complete or close to it. The main channel of the Port near the entrance has been widened to allow two cruise ships to pass one another. Next on the agenda there is to turn the area around the Exploration Tower into something like downtown Disney. The conceptual renderings are breath-taking. We've come a long way since Captain Ed's and the scallop plant.

SpaceX completed several successful missions from the Space Center as did the other usual players. The big launch of the year was a massive Delta 4 Heavy in December carrying the Orion space craft. There are a dozen launches scheduled right now for the next eight months from the Cape, seven by SpaceX and five by the United Launch Alliance. The space flight business is firing on all cylinders (nozzles?).

And, while not Cocoa Beach news, the online real estate world experienced a couple of major moves with Zillow buying Trulia and News Corp. buying Point2 and Move, Inc. so that they now own, in addition to Realtor.com, the pipeline for the vast majority of Zillow and Trulia's listings. This one ain't over by a long shot. I can't wait.

We are entering 2015 with an inventory of 257 condo and townhouse units for sale and 60 single family homes.That's about a 4.5 month supply at 2014's rate of sales. Considering this, I think it's reasonable to expect the number of sales to decrease in 2015. There are a total of five short sales and 24 bank-owned properties for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. That scarcity of distressed sales combined with the low inventory should be a tailwind for continued rising prices. As always, buyers should be aware of market conditions and recent selling prices and be realistic if they hope to purchase. Prices have risen but are still less than the cost to build in many cases. There are gems to be had. Good hunting.

Happy safe holidays to all and a positive and gratifying New Year.


"Your purchase choices are probably fueling slavery. But convenience often trumps ideology, so...whatever." ___ M.Lapa

Robberies Update

Thanks for the feedback from those of you with knowledge of this ripoff. It didn't take me long to find several more examples of the same local brokerage charging their clients the junk fee. The "Broker Only Commission" is exactly the same as the infamous "Regulatory Compliance Fee" that used to be charged by another local brokerage. It's a junk fee that has no place on the vast majority of settlement statements. One reader was kind enough to forward me a portion of their contract that showed the fee disclosed and pre-printed on the last page, presumably to make it seem legit. In two other cases that I looked at, that line was omitted from the contract but the fee was inserted on the settlement statement.

People, do not pay a fee to your agent or broker above the commission they are receiving unless it's a case of reduced or no commission and you want them to be paid an appropriate amount for their work. If you are presented with a contract or settlement statement showing a "Broker Only Commission", "Regulatory Compliance Fee" or any other fee paid to your broker by you, refuse to pay it unless you previously agreed to and are OK with paying it. No agent or broker is going to let the deal die because you refused to be robbed of $345 at closing.

Agents, don't be bullied into ripping off your clients. This is a shady practice and it won't continue without your complicity. There are plenty of good brokerages that don't encourage you to treat your clients poorly. Do the right thing.
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Beautifully Written Breath Hold Diving Techniques from Breathing.com

Release snorkel, pike, raise leg, begin to drop. A few strong slow kicks to get to negative and then, depending on the type/depth of diving, glide down to depth or kick a bit more to get through the top portion of the dive and down to depth. Mentally, as a natural low-level anxiety emerges, the game begins. The relationship towards the fear of air starvation becomes a game. It is "out there" in the consciousness, and I physically smile at it like an old acquaintance, neither friend nor enemy.

Ultimately, my control of, or my relationship to, these feelings begins to erode. It "becomes" time to go up. Small contractions may begin in my gut/diaphragm and throat. I begin to smile and to redouble my relaxing "non-effort efforts". Anxiety, tension and wasted movement are the tricksters that conspire to rob me of oxygen (and life). I smile at them, search for that relaxation, and rise. Kicking slowly, trailing my gun. Streamlined. I focus on the beauty of the light above and I move towards it.

The Robberies Continue

For the second time in two weeks I've witnessed a buyer being ripped off by their agent. The crime: a junk fee tacked on the settlement statement among the dozens of other, legitimate charges. If the buyer was told about and agreed to this fee in advance, it's still wrong. I don't know if the broker lets the agent decide whether to charge the client or pay it out of their own pocket. Agents working for a broker who charges them a transaction fee in addition to skimming a cut off the top of their commission are being ripped off. Agents who pass on the fee to their client when a substantial commission is already being paid are ripping off the client. Long-time readers of this blog will remember that this exact distasteful practice by my former broker (one of the big franchise offices) was the impetus for the opening of Walker Bagwell years ago.

I understand why some agents are tempted to pass the fee along. In this particular case, the buyer's broker is receiving $4920.00 commission from the seller's broker. Depending on the agent's split with the broker, if the agent pays the $345 "Broker Only Commission" there's a good chance the agent's take-home pay (before taxes) will be less than half the original $4920. Still doesn't justify ripping off the client. Agents, do the right thing or look for a broker who doesn't see you as just another revenue stream to squeeze and massage.

The photo is of the north side of the Cocoa Beach Pier yesterday, Dec. 10, midday, high tide. Surf was big and clean and, as is usually the case at the Pier, easy enough for Grandma to catch a head-high peeler. Things were a little more intense and consequential a few miles south where the north swell was hitting directly. The epic conditions continue today.

"Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all you see." ____John Lennon

Status Quo

It's December 6 and the Cocoa Beach Christmas parade will shut down southbound A1A through downtown for a couple of hours this afternoon. Small town America at it's core.

The MLS tells me that there are 245 condos and townhomes for sale in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral this morning. This is the same number of units that have closed since July 21 this year. That's the entire inventory selling in 183 days, a tight market to put it mildly. Looks like 2014 will come close to matching last year's record-breaking 660 units with 631 closed units so far, as of this morning. Activity slowed considerably in November with only 38 units closed which is right in line with last year's 37 units.

Oceanfront and riverfront units continue to dominate the landscape with ocean units ranging from $240,000 for a direct 6th floor handyman 2/2 at the Sands to a 2nd floor southeast corner Sol y Mar 3/3 that closed for $750,000. Just three years ago a same floor plan corner unit on the 3rd floor closed for $447,000. That, ladies and gentlemen, is some serious price recovery.

Others sales of note included:
A 3rd floor southeast corner 3/3 in the ten year old Ocean Oasis in downtown Cocoa Beach for $600,000.

A smaller but totally remodeled 5th floor southeast corner Windrush 3/2 for $460,000.

An upgraded 5th floor direct river 3/2 corner at Solana River closed for $390,000 after just 23 days on the market.

A 4th floor direct river River Bend 3/2 in south Cocoa Beach sold for $350,000.

A few blocks north, a remodeled 3rd floor direct ocean 2/2 at Waters Edge closed for $345,000.

A few more blocks north, still in south Cocoa Beach, a remodeled 3rd floor direct ocean Sun Club 3/2 went for $329,000.

There were eleven closed single family homes in the month at prices from $194,900 for a bank-owned little beauty in Cocoa Isles to $450,000 for a totally remodeled canalfront 5/2 pool home with dock and boat lift.

Of the 49 total residential sales, seven were either short sales or foreclosures. Of the 304 active for sale residential listings of all property types, five are short sales and 19 are bank-owned. The short sale chapter in our boom, bust and recovery history is drawing to a close.

If you'd like the full details and photos of all or specific closed sales, shoot me an email.

Don't forget; parade at 2 this afternoon downtown Cocoa Beach.

"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."  __Gloria Steinem.

Condo Fee Ripoff...or Not

"I'm not looking at condos because the fees are a ripoff." I heard this one again this week. It's a common sentiment but is less based in fact than in ignorance of exactly what a condo fee covers. There are plenty of good reasons for preferring a single family home over a condo but the existence of a condo fee shouldn't be one. That nasty condo fee usually covers insurance on the building, water and sewer, lawn and landscape maintenance, basic cable, sometimes WiFi, pool maintenance and reserves for future major expenses like painting, roof, parking lot and driveway. In almost every one of the many comparisons that I've done, the monthly costs of owning a single family home have matched or exceeded the average monthly condo fee. Not all condos fund reserves but those that don't have respectively lower fees.

The average homeowner rarely has a discipline for setting aside reserves for future major expenses. Replacing a roof on a condo might be entirely funded from the reserves without the need for an extra assessment. That average homeowner will be pulling out the checkbook and stroking a big check when the roofer presents his invoice. Same for painting the house or cutting down a damaged or diseased tree or replacing a pool pump.

I'm not making a case for condos over homes here. Families with several big dogs or needing four or more bedrooms may not have many, if any, condos worth considering. My intention is to educate those who haven't accurately considered the differences in expenses.

Speaking of education, the gas stations at both forks in A1A in Cocoa Beach (4th St. North & 21st St. South) continue to gouge customers on premium gasoline. If your vehicle uses premium gas, you'll save around $.40 a gallon by getting your gas at the Sunoco at 1st St. South.

The Thanksgiving weekend Cocoa Beach Art Show was a great time for all yesterday and continues today. While the Space Coast Art Festival moved to the Port to attract out-of-towners and cruise passengers, the Cocoa Beach locals collectively ignored it and swarmed the downtown festival as they've been doing for 53 years. Most of us are happy to enjoy the hometown feel and the chance to visit with friends and neighbors as we stroll the streets. That vibe can't be recreated elsewhere, especially a location that requires Cocoa Beachers to drive. We tend to favor bikes, skateboards and walking for our transportation. Good luck to the other Festival. I'm sure it was well attended and will continue to thrive in it's new venue.

"You're less pressurized - the cabin tends to be pressurized to the equivalent of a few thousand feet. You expand, not contract. That's why you tend to get a bit gassy on planes. Flight attendants have mastered the art of stealthily farting as we walk down the aisle - a practice generally known as "Crop Dusting"." 

___flight attendant in response to the Food Babe's error-ridden blog on airline meals

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2014 Buyers, You May Be Owed Money

Buyers who closed on property in 2014 before November may be owed money from the seller. In Florida our property tax bills for the year arrive in November. For closings before then, property taxes are prorated based on the previous year's bill and the seller's portion of the unpaid taxes (the period from January 1 through day of closing) is credited to the buyer.

Buyers and sellers both sign a document at closing agreeing to pay the other party the difference in the actual tax bill and the estimated figure used at closing should the shorted party pursue it. During a period of rising property values such as the present many buyers will be owed money from the seller as taxes rise. The most significant differences will be for properties that were previously homesteaded with artificially low taxes. Closings that happen later in the year will have accrued larger differences, if any, than those that closed earlier in the year.

I looked at recent closings on the property appraiser's site this morning for a good example. I found a Cocoa Beach oceanfront condo that had been homesteaded for years and closed in September this year for a little over $300,000. The ad valorem portion of the property taxes was $1874 in 2013 based on a homesteaded taxable value of $129,000. This was probably the figure the closing agent used to prorate the taxes for the September closing. When the new owner's 2014 tax bill arrived this month, the new taxable value was $252,000 and the tax bill had increased to $3958. If the closing agent used the 2013 tax figure for pro-rations, the new owner is owed around $1450 from the seller. In order to get this money he needs to contact the seller and/or the closing agent to request it. No seller is going to send a check if not asked.

Of the last 15 recorded condo closings in Cocoa Beach, only four had taxes increases large enough to amount to over $250 owed the buyer. My example above was the only one with more than a $400 difference. A couple of hundred dollars might not be worth the trouble but $1450 certainly is. New owners who closed before November should check the tax history of their property at the Property Appraiser's site by looking up their property and clicking on the "Taxes" tab on the left of the property page to get to a history of property taxes. If the 2014 ad valorem taxes are substantially more than the 2013 figure the seller may owe the prorated difference.

After approaching 50 degrees Tuesday night, temps are forecast to bump back to 80 by Sunday. Nightly room rates are at their lowest of the year right now for anyone needing an escape from the snowbank. We're having dueling Art Shows next weekend with the traitorous Space Coast Art Festival newly relocated to the Port while a new downtown festival The Cocoa Beach Art Show will pick up where the backstabbers left off. It's an easy decision which show to attend for most locals. Bring the kids and the dog and I'll see you downtown.

In 19 years of pro basketball Shaquille O'Neal only attempted a three point shot 22 times and sank just one of those. Know your weaknesses and use your strengths.