Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

So November is going to leave us with only .6 inches of recorded snow on record.  Usually it's about 10 inches, and the long winter begins.  But hardly any snow is good news - I hope that when the snow does arrive - December 24th after Alex, Rachel and Liam (and all travelers) are safe and snug - we have a good lot of it, enough for snowshoeing and skiing.

Currently there are only (!) 127 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 37 are in the village and 30 are waterfront.  Absolutely nothing new came on the market this past week.  I went back and checked for the month of November - only two homes that were not re-lists appeared.

But houses are selling.  This past week three homes were placed in the contingent column, two in the village and one new construction.  The total is now seven.  In the "under contract, do not show" group one new one came on, a very pretty certain shake shingled home in the town.  It joins five others in this category.

Nothing new in the pending group; the total is still seven.  But the good news is that there are 20 homes waiting to close, with at least half of them, I hope, closing before the end of the year.  I hope so, because we only have 61 so far, year-to-date.  Still, that means we are down to a two-year supply.  This is a better statistic than in the past.

So if you are looking for a place to enjoy a quiet Sunday afternoon, please come visit my open house at 1153 Old Seneca Turnpike.  It has a new roof on both the house and the adorable garage, and will be open from 1:00 to 3:00.  I call it a Santa Fe home, because I first saw it a day or so before going on vacation in 2010 to Santa Fe - and there it was, a most pleasant surprise.  I had always wondered what was behind the arched door - and I found more arched doors, two fireplaces, a great kitchen, a loft and so very rich painting.  I'll serve something with a southwest flavor for the open....have to work on that.  But please come - the new price is $199,000 to buy or $1,300 per month to rent (and it will be taken off the market for a lengthy lease).   The doors are open....

Monday, November 28, 2011

The Third Twenty

Difficult day.  I just could not read or hear any more about Syracuse University.  I had turned on CNN at lunch and there was Suzanne Malveaux with several reports.  I decided to work out to an old movie, "A Man Called Peter."  It's the true story of a Scottish immigrant who becomes a Washington, D.C. much-beloved minister.  The film is from 1955 - and as far removed from SU and its issues as could be.  I needed that.

But here are the next twenty homes that have closed in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service, listed here in no particular order.

807 Britcher Road - $78,000
1690 Amerman Road - $153,000

724 Reynolds Road - $189,900

7022 North Glen Haven Road - $464,500

57 Jordan Street - $330,000

2355 West Lake Road - $220,000

4491 Jordan Road - $157,000

8 Lakeview Circle - $360,000

895 Andrews Road - $325,000

54 Onondaga Street - $220,000

2530 West Lake Road - $1,875,262

50 West Genesee Street - $395,000

14 Prentiss Drive - $800,000

3543 Millrun Terrace - $305,000

73 State Street - $249,900

11 Day Lane - $765,000

8A Gayle Road - $1,107,850

2317 Bockes Road - $225,000

2985 Benson Road - $575,000

57 Leitch Avenue - $195,000

All right!  Now - let's close another 20 before the end of the year!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

Happy Thanksgiving!  It is a glorious day here in Central New York!  Bob and I started a new tradition today to celebrate.  We decided to walk where we haven't gone before, and this year we chose the Creekwalk in Syracuse.  We parked the car in Armory Square by the Redhouse, and then followed the yellow line that led us out of the Square and over to Onondaga Creek.  While it wasn't Riverside Park on the West Side in Manhattan, we did see several joggers, other people with dogs (yes, Boo came with us) and a few walkers.  We ran into an old friend, Peter, whom we hadn't seen in a while and had a wonderful catching up talk.  Try the Creekwalk - it really shows you the city from a different angle, and also shows the possibilities.

Currently there are 135 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 39 are in the Village and 30 are waterfront.  Only one new property came on the market, and that is a re-list. 

Four properties are marked contingent, and one is new, a pretty home outside of the town but still in Skaneateles Schools.  Five are now under contract, do not show, including a new Village home.  Seven have been pended, with nothing new.  Altogether, there are 61 homes now listed as sold, the most recent one being a waterfront home closing well over a million dollars.

It's a shortened version, I know - but I have three more pies to make!  Enjoy the day!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

It's been an exhausting day, and I am still in the village at my desk at 7:50 pm.  One of my listings appears to have sold, another is rented, a third property went under contract with one of my most prolific clients, and I wrote a purchase offer.  All this and the dentist's office as well as physical therapy.  I retreated at 4:00 to make phone calls and have a latte lite at Dunkin' Donuts, but the two pumpkin munchkins did nothing to give me more energy.  The cole slaw and baked beans from Doug's at 7:20 helped, though.

There are currently 141 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service, with 41 in the Village and 32 considered waterfront.  There have been no new additions - there were no houses open this week for Tuesday's brokers' open, and now I know why. 

Of the contingent properties, three can continue to be shown and two of them are in the village.  Of the four that can't, two more are village homes.  The pending category yields eight altogether, of which three are village homes.  I mention this because there appears to be a higher proportion of homes in the village that are selling.

Congratulations to everyone - we have reached the third group of twenty with three closings this past week.  One is waterfront (and not truly Skaneateles, but on the lake and in the MLS), another is in the town, and the third is village.  Within the week I will publish the list and their selling prices, all a matter of public record.

Just to continue with the evening's theme, one-quarter (15) of the closed single family homes are village homes.  Which bears out the reason the contracted properties appear to be disproportionate.  Almost half of those waiting to close are village homes (7).  Conjectures, anyone? 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Celebrate the Season

On Monday I started a quick program of physical therapy to take all the twists and pains out of my legs and get me ready for cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing.  The office next to the therapist's office was under construction, and Christmas music was wafting over.  Kevin Gretsky, the therapist, and the rest of his clients, including me, were growling.  We had hardly had Halloween, and here it comes again!  Too soon!  Kevin asked the workers to tone it down, and they did, not without some good-natured kidding. 

On Wednesday when I went back it was blessedly silent.  Since it was generally the same group, Kevin told us that someone who lived a ways away had received a flyer from Nordstrom's (http://www.nordstrom.com/) stating that they "would NOT be decking their stores' halls until November 27th."  The flyer then wished everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Hooray!  Vindication!

Despite my in-laws absolute joy over Christmas, so much so that Christmas is almost a year-round event, and despite the fact that they have brought Hobby House Toys to Skaneateles so we can share their joy, I think it should be one season at a time.  The altercation this week made me realize that I should practice what I preach and instead of grumbling at November, enjoy it.

I do love the colors, and have already donned my fall apron (purchased last year at Bittersweet Cottage) and made a pumpkin pie and pumpkin muffins, as well as an apple and apple/cranberry pie.  We have pumpkin candles everywhere, and an orange light at the road plus strings of orange and purple lights on the porch.  Some day I will break down and make squash soup, just for the color.  Before my brokers' open at 3244 East Lake I went to the Skaneateles Bakery for some black bean and pumpkin soup - wonderful and filling! 

The weather cooperated beautifully, too.  I walked Boo up into the fields in the 60/70 degree temperatures we had.  I wrap a day-glo orange sweatchirt around my waist, and Boo wears his orange vest.  Last night while I waited for my salmon at Doug's I walked out onto the pier.  The moon was up and almost full, the waves crashed in the wind.  The flags across from the Sherwood Inn were blown horizontal, but are so firmly planted they will last in memory of the Veterans. 

After dinner (Bob had vegetarian black bean nachos from Bluewater) we went out for a walk in the moonlight, back up the trails to the fields.  The wind lessened in the woods, but it howled as we got to the hill.  And there the moon showed the hills and valleys, the woods beyond, as if it were daylight.  We walked back thoughtfully, kicking leaves as we went.

So this is the season to celebrate and not rush through.  At the Big M today I couldn't help but notice that their slide show on the cash registers showed the harvest and late fall scenes, in all their rich colors.  Kevin said his son doesn't know what a cornucopia is, and I can imagine that the Thanksgiving songs I grew up singing are almost lost.  Maybe not.  But even when the temperature drops, and the eventual rains and snows come in, it is still a season to celebrate.  Life is too short not to enjoy every minute.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

One of my friends added me to her Facebook friends and I confirmed the "friending," then got into the list of people whom I might know.  After about 15 minutes of requesting and seeing faces I hadn't seen in years, I had to back out.  There was the woman who had lived down the street from me in Syracuse when we were in about 5th grade at Sumner School, the Nottingham grads I hadn't thought of in years, the kids (now with families of their own) of relatives of friends, the clients who moved or decided not to move...Other Realtors, too.  If I missed anyone, I apologize!  The blog called, as did my day, and I had to stop.  I am not one to check Facebook on a regular basis, so please forgive me if I don't respond rapidly.  My e-mail or cell is always the better way to reach me.  But it is a pleasure to see old and new friends!

Currently there are 141 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 40 are in the Village and 31 are considered waterfront.  No new single family homes came on the market this past week, but three were re-listed.  The same number of contingent (6) and "under contract, do not show" (4) homes remain with no changes.  There are only 8 pending properties, and that usually signals closings.

There were two - a waterfront (actually lake rights) home in the village that came down in price but was sold rather rapidly, at least for this market.  A smaller home - priced under $100,000 - also closed, again, fairly quickly.  These two bring us to 57 closed for the year-to-date.

I wondered about the number of listings because it seems as if we have hovered around the 150 mark for quite a while so I went back to check.  This blog began in the spring of 2007 but the updates didn't start until the following year after I attended the RE/MAX convention and heard more about how blogs were being used.  So I went back to November of 2008 - right around President Obama's election, as I saw when I read some of that month's blogs. 

That month (the 5th actually) there were 129 active listings and I hadn't broken them out to village or waterfront at the time.  Nineteen were in the contingent or pending categories (we didn't have "under contract, do not show" then.)  I wrote about closings occurring within 60 days of contracts back then, so the assumption was that these would close before the end of the year.  There were only 45 closed at that time, so I was looking forward to about 64.  In actuality, there were 66.  I also wrote that we seemed to be at our low point, and that we were now coming out of it.  Which we did, to an extent.

What intrigued me was a comment I made about the number of lots on the market, "thanks in part to Butters Farm."  At that time, there were 87 active listings.  Today there are 52 active lots in the Skaneateles area.  Interesting - I think we can make the assumption (always troubling) that there has been a great deal of new construction in the area in the past three years.  But I think we also need to recognize that many people are simply waiting - until the economy does turn around, closings don't take 90 days, homes sell within three months of listing on a regular basis, and the number of active listings comes down.  It will happen.  The pendulum will swing back.  I have no doubts!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update (part two)

The world intervened, and so I decided to post and continue later....which is now!

There are 6 single family properties in Skaneateles marked contingent.  Three of these are new within the past week.  Two are waterfront, one which I would have thought would have gone much earlier but someone is getting a very good deal now, and another right on the water.  Also a village home is considered sold, but with the usual contingencies.

There are still four homes under contract that do not need to be shown any more, and of the 10 pending one is new.  Priced under $100,000, this one went straight to pending.

We now have 55 properties that have sold and closed this year.  One is new - a home that has been on the market for a bit and again, someone got a great bargain.  As of this time last year, there where 59 closed sales and we ended up with 75 for the year.  This means that in the next 8 weeks there will - presumably - be a lot of closings!

And don't forget my open at 3244 East Lake - $295,000!  You can also see 1153 Old Seneca Turnpike this weekend.  Roxanne Plummer from RE/MAX will hold it open, both for sale and for rent:

1153 Old Seneca Turnpike
$218,000 (includes the upcoming new roof)
$1,300 plus utilities for rent
Open 1:00 to 3:00, Sunday, November 6th

I thought I'd take the time to see how the other areas are doing in comparison to 2010.  Camillus is within 2% of their past performance, but Elbridge is off by about 30%, and the same with Marcellus.  This makes us - as in Skaneateles - look quite good.  I checked Syracuse - 631 for 2010, year-to-date, and 540 so far.  Lately everything seems to have picked up, so the year should end with a very loud real estate cheer!

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

When I started this blog three years ago I said I would write about my experiences as a Realtor in the lovely lakeside village of Skaneateles.  I think I've veered off the path a bit, talking a lot about the houses and not as much about the people or my thoughts and feelings, always afraid of offending.  But today started out filled with emotion and I want to share that, because emotion has been so much a part of this job.

I received an early morning text - I check, because Alex and I are playing "Words with Friends" and he is about to beat me (for the first time, I might add...)  The text stated - and I could feel the excitement - that clients I have known for years have finally prevailed with their bank and will be cleared to buy something soon.  This has been a huge undertaking, and their persistance to not allow the bank to ride roughshod over them has vindicated them and their credit.  Such joy!

The next text was about the passing of a friend/client's family member...so very sad. 

It's not just a job - it's a lifestyle, of becoming involved with people on a very intimate level.  And caring about their lives, hoping to relieve stress, helping with decision-making but always knowing it's not my decision.  In the past few weeks I have heard dozens of times (a bit of hyperbole) "I couldn't do what you do!"  A doctor who deals with life and death every day tells me she wouldn't have my job for anything.  I wouldn't have hers...but I do deal with life and death, illness and money woes all the time.  And I am blessed with the clients I have and the clients I will have in the future.

Back to the houses....there are currently 139 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service, of which 40 are in the Village and 30 are waterfront.  There's a new waterfront that just came on for under a million and my listing at 3244 East Lake Road which will be open Sunday, from 1:00 to 3:00.  I call it a "storybook home" - if you saw The Player, the Altman film from several years ago, there's a scene in which the young couple stands in front of their idyllic home - and it looks just like this one!  

3244 East Lake Road - Open 1:00 to 3:00 Sunday, November 6th