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Good News from Real Estate Market, huh??

Finally some good news from the newspaper about the Real estate market. As reported in the Florida Today and the national news agencies, the home sales for September of this year in Brevard County totaled 444 homes compared to 313 in September of 2007. Even condo sales were 103 in September compared to 71 last September. Now of course the median price is much lower and a lot of investors are getting out of stocks and back to Real Estate. We hope this is a trend and not a blip on the radar.


Not much new in our 3 complexes this week.

The 1 bedroom in Windward East on the bottom floor had a price increase from $181,111 to $185,000. This unit has been on the market for about 6 months. I still think for the right price and aggressive property management this unit could be a good buy.

There is a new 2 bedroom 1 bath on the 1st floor in the oceanfront building of The Diplomat that is priced at $324,900.

Associations

I wanted to clarify from last week’s post about our associations. I don’t hear negative things stated about our 3 associations. I think we are very fortunate to live where we do. I know I am biased but I feel we have one of the best associations in Windward East on the beach.

Better days are coming!

Jim Bagwell

"I got sunshine on a cloudy day"

Thanks to the "Temps" from "My girl"

Yes I am back in the swing of things. It is amazing how many neighbors you get to talk to when you clean out your garage. So if you want to make friends then clean your garage.

Not much activity in our three complexes, the only real new one is the 2 bedroom 2 bath unit in Windrush is under contract. This unit was listed for $199,900 and we won’t know what it sold for until it closes. The unit was on the side ground floor with no view but has a 2 car garage. This was a good buy!

In The Diplomat there are now 5 units in the front buildings on the market priced from 149,900 to 169,000. The range of prices have definitely become more realistic to the market.

In Windward East there are still two 1 bedroom units on the market. One on the 7th floor listed at $260,000 and one on the 1st floor at $181,111. There is also a 2 bedroom unit on the 4th floor listed at $399,900 and one on the 2nd floor for $349,000. There is also the same townhome up front on the market but it is listed so over market value that I doubt they get any showings.

In Windrush there is the side unit that is renovated priced at $280,000.

Being a Realtor in the area for some time now, I naturally have dealt with a lot of associations. I think that our 3 complexes should be grateful for the associations we have in place. Recently DBPR recalled an association in Cocoa Beach. This is a rather rare occurrence. It seems the association fired the maintenance man because he let the fire marshall in to inspect. Naturally that is a bit taboo!

Usually if people are friendly and are not on some type of power trip then things work out for the best. I believe power is more addictive than cocaine.

Our complexes look great for low monthlies so we are very fortunate.

Jim Bagwell

Apology

I am sorry to those of you who follow this blog on the neighborhood. In addition to the financial crisis, we experienced the passing of my mother. She was a great lady and was one month short of her 88th.

There are 2 new listings in our complexes.

The first one is one of the front units in The Diplomat. It is a 2 bedroom 1 bath 750 sq ft and priced at $163,000. The lead picture of the listing is the oceanfront building in The Diplomat, you have to be very careful as a listing agent when you use this practice or you end up with a angry buyer when they actually see the property. I have always found that deception will always bite you in the butt.

The next is a 2 bedroom 2 bath in the Windrush. This unit has been remodeled and priced at $280,000. The lead picture for this listing is the actual view from the unit, kudos to the listing agent.

On another note, we have watched what has happened to the property value in Water's Edge in south Cocoa Beach. It is very similar to Windward East and Windrush, the big difference is the 1st floor is actually the 2nd floor because of underground parking. They never trim the sea grapes and now the 2nd floor has no view. A 2 bedroom 2 bath unit has been on the market for over 2 years priced at $229,000. Now the other floors have fallen dramatically because the comparative market analysis for the complex includes all floors. At Windward East we have a beautiful dune line with fantastic sea oats, the problem is you can't see the sea oats because of the sea grapes,cabbage palms and 6' high weeds. The view is one of the most important features in a ocean front complex.

Hope you all have widely diverse investments.

Jim Bagwell

A update at last!

The picture shown is of Edwards Bay in Cocoa Beach. I don't think it looks like Cocoa Beach. I have lived here all my life and still see new things.
Hope all is well with everyone. Sorry it has been so long between posts. We have been very busy and transactions take much longer to close.

There has been some positive activity in the market but after yesterday we have to see what kind of fallout we will see in the Real Estate market. With a normal downturn in the stock market we used to have an upturn in the Real Estate section. This however has not been a normal downturn especially concerning banks and investment corps. We have had several people who thought their money would be safer in Real Estate than other financial institutions.

In our three complexes the activity has still been steady.

New listings

The only new listing is a 2 bedrooms 1 bath in the front buildings. This is a 750 sq ft and is listed for $179,900.

Sold
Windward East unit on the 6th floor direct view with 1240 sq ft was listed at $374,000 sold for $315,000.

Windward East unit on the 4th floor with a side view and is the bigger 2 bedroom plan with 1450 sq ft was listed at $335,000 and sold for $335,000. This unit had been upgraded and showed very nice.

The Diplomat unit in the front buildings fully furnished 750 sq ft and 2 bedroom 1 bath listed at $168,000 and sold for $156,000. In all this unit was on the market for 1033 days.

Other significant sales

A unit in the Xanadu was a bank approved short sale for $358,000 , it sold for $342,000 since there was a $16,000 assessment that was paid by the buyer. The monthly at Xanadu is $500 and this complex doesn’t allow pets

A brand new unit in Crescent Palms on the river sold for the list price of $342,900. This was a foreclosure and never lived in unit. This same unit sold for $699,000 in 2005.

Have a good one.

Jim Bagwell

Condos

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and our daily rains. I am enjoying the summer but the rain is not helping my golf game.

The only news from our complexes is that the side unit in Windward East is under contract. This unit is on the 4th floor with 2 bedrooms 2 baths and over 1400 sq ft. It has been updated and the agent did a good job on the pictures. Believe it or not there are still agents using cell phone pictures. "Pictures are worth 1000 words" this is very true in Real Estate.

If you read the Sunday morning Real estate section you may have noticed the Broker opinion section, this Broker is very convinced that the condo market is improving according to the MLS research. I sincerely hope she is correct but I have my doubts. The single family home market has seen prices drop to a point where it is at pre 2002 price range. There are also a ton of short sales and foreclosures in that market. When you follow the condo market you will see that a definite increase in activity has occurred this year. The problem with the theory is when you use MLS to see inventory in the condo market is there are a lot of new condos that are not listed and a lot of builders are shopping blocks of these condos to investors. The inventory figure if using MLS is usually incorrect. There are still quite a few complexes that probably contain over 100 units that have not hit the market.

Pricing

The fact is when you are showing condos as we do daily you will notice that prices in general have not fallen as quickly as the single family market. A lot of buyers will turn to canal homes which can now be purchased at the same or below the price of a 2 bedroom condo.

We will all get through this downturn and looking forward to the turn around.

You may email me if you want to know more about the latest housing bill. walkerbagwell@aol.com

Jim Bagwell

4th of July

I hope everyone had a glorious 4th of July weekend. I am in the office today showing some properties but I will never complain about any opportunities.

Not much has happened the past week in our complexes.

We now have 2 of the big unit’s direct ocean in The Diplomat on the market. These are owned by the same person. They are also listed by the same agent. One started at $799,900 and is now at $699,900 after 9 day’s on the market. The other one started at $749,900 and is now at $649,900. When you follow the market rather than lead the market it makes for a weaker position as a seller. The units in the price range of these units are very new, very large and contain all the amenities. We wish them well!

There is a new townhome on the market in Windward east, priced at $245,000 the other townhome is priced at $249,000 and has been on the market for 271 days. Buyers today are much more knowledgeable than ever before and they will look at comps. Agents have to be even more knowledgeable and look at comps before they list. Time wasted is something you will never get back.

In the words of John Lennon “Lets give peace a chance” on this significant occasion.

Jim Bagwell