I've been asked several times today if I'm finding that things have slowed here in Skaneateles. One question came from a woman who would like to enter real estate as a second career, and another from an owner of a listed home. I replied that while the market is stable in Syracuse - I just had an offer accepted - and healthy, Skaneateles appears to have slowed down.
Currently there are 117 homes on the market in Skaneateles. This past week there were 13 new listings, 2 at least re-lists from the past. None sold last week, and there are now 15 closings this year. An old farmhouse on 5 acres was the most recent closing, and because it was priced right it went higher than the list price through a possible bidding war in a matter of days.
I was curious about the market as compared with last year. At this point (4/28/2007) we had had 25 closings with a price range of $75,200 up to two waterfront homes closing at 1.3M. Our range in 2008 is low $100s to $875,000, and again, only 60% of the number of closings as last year.
The average price remains at $546,700.
What does this really mean? Everything has to be priced accurately - the days of putting things on the market and hoping someone from New Jersey will show up without a Realtor are going, going, gone. There are simply too many active comparative listings, even with our unique village homes.
But we are nowhere near the despair that other markets feel around the country. We don't have vacant homes on every block - on any block, probably. We don't have homes built two years ago selling for 75% of value. We still have a wonderful village and town and incredible prices compared with the rest of the country.
