Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Fourth Twenty

I am not sure that I have EVER written a Fourth Twenty - certainly not at this time of year!  The Third Twenty was published on August 8th, so we are only about 7 weeks past that.  Magnificent!

The list is a bit odd - I will point out where - but I believe that it closely follows what has occurred.  We are well into the 80s for closings anyway....

1905 Stump Road - Town of Skaneateles - unpublished sale price

1719 Russells Landing - Town of Skaneateles - $355,000

80 West Elizabeth Street - Village of Skaneateles - $150,000

1863 Sugar Maple Lane - Town of Skaneateles - $198,000  (reported twice)

9 Academy Street - Village of Skaneateles - $295,000

174 East Genesee Street - Village of Skaneateles - $270,000

2812 East Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $293,000

38 Academy Street - Village of Skaneateles - $349,900

25 Hannum Street - Village of Skaneateles - $225,000

4755 Austin Road - Town of Skaneateles - $278,000

1711 Lancelot Lane - Town of Skaneateles - $280,000

628 Crow Hill Road - Town of Skaneateles - $337,000

2258 Cherry Valley Turnpike - Town of Skaneateles - $170,000

639 School Street - Skaneateles Falls - $87,000

3143 West Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $270,000

2753 East Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $499,900

3 Ramble Wood Drive - Village of Skaneateles - $557,500

24 East Elizabeth Street - Village of Skaneateles - $220,000

1025 Autumntree Court - Town of Skaneateles - $402,500


Thursday, September 20, 2012

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Bi-Monthly Update

Summer is over, sort of, but it doesn't feel like it is.  I've had only one new apple so far thanks to the frost, and it was hard!  Usually I stop on Route 20 coming out of Lafayette and grab the first of the Jersey Macs.  Besides not having time this year, it just hasn't felt right.  Maybe because the rush is still on for real estate, and I haven't done the fall open house with cider and donuts because everything is selling.  It's just very different this year.

What is really different is the amount of business we are all doing.  Hold on to your hat!

Currently there are 117 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 34 are in the Village and 27 are reputed to be waterfront properties.  Since I last wrote on September 5th, 13 new listings have come on the market.  Five of these are re-listings with a good deal of price reductions.  All of the three waterfront listings are in this category.  In the Village there are four new homes out there ready for their buyers.  They range in price from $400,000 to $800,000 or thereabouts.  There are four new ones in the town section.  Those range from the mid-$100,000 to higher $300,000s.  If the selling continues, I am willing to guess that half of all of these will be gone in two months' time.

In the contingent-under contract-pending category we have a low of 23 waiting to close.  Five are new to this, three of the non-waterfront properties averaging around $200,000 are "sold" but not closed.  The two new waterfront additions are quite lovely and higher priced, as you would imagine.

So of course if you've been reading this blog you know that if there are so few in the last category, then a lot must have sold and closed.  Eight more to be exact!  That brings us to 84 for the year, an unheard-of number in recent times.  As I have reported since spring, the majority are Village homes.  It's been a great year for the Village.  In the next week I will publish the Fourth Twenty closings.  Incredible!


BUT!  If you don't know what to buy or want to wait and see if your favorite Village home will come on the market in the next year, you are more than welcome to lease 31 East Elizabeth Street.  It's a Victorian with almost 2,000sf, four bedrooms, two full baths, a detached single car garage, and within easy walking distance of everything - shops, schools, lakefront, parks....The cost is $1,800 per month plus utilities.  Nicely-behaved pets are welcome.  Enjoy the seasons from the warp-around porch at the corner of Elizabeth and State Street, then stroll on down to our office to the left of Doug's Fish Fry and check out our listings.  Not such a bad place to live, work and play.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Summer-Ending Update

The past three weeks is the longest time I've been away from this blog ever, in the five or so years I've been writing it.  But business has never been better!  I start the day before dawn when Charlie gets me up if I'm at home, and then fall into my chair at night around 8:00, content to have a Corona Light and talk about the day, or just sit there.  If I'm at the lake I skip dinner altogether and go straight to a movie and falling asleep in my wicker chair.  "Make hay while the sun shines..."  It's been a bit cloudy over the past few years, not in my business, but in the market as a whole.  August.  Who knew?

So to catch up.  In the listings area there really wasn't much action.  Currently there are 109 active single family homes in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 30 are in the Village and 27 are listed as waterfront.  In the past three weeks only 6 homes have come on the market for the first time.  Each and every one is a Village home!  They range in price from the low $200,000 to almost a million.

There is not a great deal of change in the numbers of the "contingent, under contract" homes - still a hefty 31.  However, 11 of these are new to this category.  Six come from the town, two are waterfront, and three are Village properties.  That's remarkable in that the percentages are similar to the active listings.

Let's think....if there hasn't been a sizable increase in the contracted properties, then where did the others go?  To the CLOSED category!

We now have 76 homes sold and closed this year - so far - in the Skaneateles area.  Eleven are new, with four coming from the Village and five from the town, and two waterfront homes rounding it out.  Soon we'll have the Fourth Twenty homes to publish.  Last year at this time only 46 homes had closed.  In all of 2011 there were 70.  Yes, we are on a roll!

More interestingly, all the newly closed homes were listed this year.  So if they went under contract approximately in late June, then none of them were on the market longer than five and a half months at the very most.  Of course some were refreshed, or changed agencies perhaps, but I can only see one that was listed in 2011.

So this means that it is time to buy.  With this much demand the prices will undoubtedly rise soon - just the nature of the business!  Rates are still low, but as I cautioned someone today they have risen just a bit in the past two weeks.  We are doing well, and only now going into the fall season.

I can't wait!