Lazy, Hazy Days

Chatham

The Dog Days have come early this year, along with the cicadas. The beach parking lots fill early, even mid-week. Captain Frosty’s parking lot is at capacity. And the house hunters abound. Not necessarily the buyers, though. The sold column remains a bit scant in the daily tallys, and still the majority in under $ 250,000 purchases, in my observation, although there are exceptions by neighborhood and community. A home on Route 6A in Dennis I have watched go from $ 650,000 just sold for $475,000.00. The forclosures continue as well, I’m sorry to say. So if you can brave the crowds, come on down and do some shopping. In Dennis we have Northside concerts on Monday nights at 7:00 and Southside concerts on Tuesdays. See the blog for details. Stay cool!

The Bargains Continue

What a busy time! It’s so busy on the Cape! The weather has been fantastic, the Cape League baseball is in full swing, and the bargain hunters are out in full force. And the bargains are to be had. Reading the sales report for today, final selling price is nowhere near the original asking price. Sellers: wise up!! Price your property correctly from the start. The Boston Globe had a great article on this on Sunday. Buyers: work with a competent agent who will do the necessary research to bring your offer in at the right place. Don’t just “take a stab at it.” The market “correction” continues and prices are falling, not yet stabilizing. It’s still a great time to buy on Cape Cod.

Idylls

The amazingly warm, ok hot, temps this past week have been extraordinary. The ocean has been so warm, and we’ve been swimming along scooping up sand dollars at Mayflower Beach ( please put back the live ones.) The Village Garden Club of Dennis has planted the various gardens throughout town to beautify our public spaces. It takes the efforts of many volunteers to keep the gardens planted, watered and weeded.

The Boston Globe on Sunday featured a home in Wellfleet along Black Fish Creek. The owner, poet Alan Feldman, spoke about the ways of old houses. “A house should be old enough to have a soul,” he said. He preserved his home’s “escapist novelty,” noting that “We’re always trying to get somewhere in life, and Summer is about getting back. You slip into the same old clothes, take the same walks…It’s a return to cyclical time, as opposed to the linear time in which we live.”

That’s what your Summer home on Cape Cod should be about. Some of us are lucky enough to have endless Summer.

$ 2.675 million cash: a trend?

Previously I wrote: “Yesterday while perusing the sales I saw quite a few cash sales, including a $ 1.4 million sale in Orleans.” Today I saw a $ 2.675m cash sale, again in Orleans. Maybe a trend is indeed building. The recent $ 10 million cash sale in East Dennis I would consider an anomoly. I also saw a FHA sale yesterday. It’s been said that FHA is the new subprime, it will make homeownership available to many with as little as 2% down. I remember my first home was purchased with an FHA loan. I believe in homeownership for all qualified people, but hope that people don’t overextend in a whole new way. I don’t believe that there are a spate of million plus cash buyers, but there seems to be an increase in the $ 200-300,000 range. Will you be financing your home purchase or paying cash?

Roll the Numbers!

This bucolic scene in West Dennis belies what’s ahead. Do you remember Jerry Lewis yelling “Roll the Numbers!” at the Labor Day telethon? Here are the latest figures from The Warren Group, 6/2/2008.
For Barnstable County as a whole: Number of Sales: April 2007 Single Family: 299, April 2008 Single Family 308, an increase of 3.01%. Year to Date (YTD, or January to April) 2007 Single Family: 1,039, YTD 2008 945, a decrease of -9.05%. CONDOS for this same period: April 2007: 97 sold, April 2008: 72 sold, a decrease of -25.77% while YTD 2007 sold 301, YTD 2008 sold 288, a decrease of only -4.32%. Putting this all together all sales, in numbers, are down YTD —9.25%.
What did this mean for prices? In April 2007 the median price for a single family home was $ $377,000. In April 2008 it was $354,350, a decrease of -6.01% (can you see your equity dissolving?) It gets worse, the YTD figures are $375,000 for 2007 and $347,000 for 2008, a -7.47% loss. The median condo price in April 2007 was $247,000. in April 2008 $256,450, an increase of 3.83%. Bravo! But the YTD figures of $252,500 for 2007 and $249,950 for 2008 show a -1.01% loss. Overall, all sales for April 2007 showed a median price of $355,000 in 2007, and $333,250 in 2008, a -6.13% loss. YTD for 2007 it was a median of $355,000, and for 2008 $330,000, a loss of -7.04%. Whew.

Different communities have suffered or gained in disproportionate ways. Looking just at price changes YTD, Barnstable -10.5%, Bourne -15.27%, Brewster -9.32%, Centerville -6.13%, Chatham -13.13%, Cotuit +2.62%, Dennis -9.59%, Eastham -22.80%, Falmouth -4.04%, Harwich -0.42%, Hyannis -31.75%, Marstons Mills -13.51%, Mashpee +8.53%, Orleans +7.53%, Osterville -17.56%, Provincetown -10.06%, Sandwich -8.16%, Truro -14.89%, Wellfleet +6.10%, Yarmouth -12.25%

I welcome your questions and comments. What do you think the future holds for us here?

A Bit of Old Cape Cod

This past weekend we visited the Taylor Bray Farm in Yarmouth Port. They had their big Sheep Festival, with herding by dogs, hayrides, spinning, and more. It’s a great family event in a beautiful spot. We visit often (and are supporting members) to see the animals including Highland cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, and miniature donkeys. In the summer you can pick your own blueberries. In the Fall there is a Harvest Festival and a big pumpkin patch. If you just stick to Route 6A (or gasp! Route 6) you will miss these terrific Cape Cod cultural events. Get off the main drag, taste some honey fresh from the hive, wear a sweater right off the lamb, and experience the countryside by the sea.

Turn the Page: June

The end of the month brought those closings again, as I mentioned before, but yesterday had a phenomenal 44 closings reflected in the Cape and Islands MLS! More pendings and pendings with contingencies, too, that outpaced new listings. Translation: More properties leaving the market than coming in, shrinking inventory. Were that to translate market-wide my Smith College Economics degree tells me that means increasing prices. Let’s watch for a trend.

April Showers on the Housing Market

The Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors reports that both numbers of sales and average sales prices are down against last March. This is no surprise to me as included in those sales numbers are a plethora of bank owned and short sale properties dragging values down. It has been a rather sad Spring, and while 811 properties were sold in the first quarter, 6,352 remain on the market. The opportunity market continues for both buyers and sellers, as people are here and willing to buy, and depending on when the sellers themselves bought it is a good time to extract themselves from a costly propert and downsize or upsize as the case may be. NPR reported today that the Fed will consider yet another rate cut, and while that does not necessarily translate into mortgage rate reductions, it tends to stimulate spending and create consumer optimism. What does this mean for you? If you can, buy. Real estate is still a good LONG TERM investment. They aren’t making any more Cape Cod, quite the opposite. Unique and exquisite properties will always hold their worth. I can show you some that are indeed special. And if you want a place for family and friends to mill about and BBQ after dragging the floats back after a long day riding the waves, I have that too…on sale.

Turkey Dinner

 From the CC Times, J.W. Dick

Scargo Lake’s Princess Beach c. Lisa Morales