The numbers don't show it, but we are suddenly talking about buyers. And that is a very good thing!
There are currently 157 listings in the Skaneateles area in the multiple listing service. There were 9 new ones this week - 2 were really new and 7 were re-lists or reconfigurations. For example, a lot can be sold as a lot or as a "to be built" with pictures of what the home would look like. Several of these new listings are waterfront (across East Lake Road really) luxury mansions.
Two homes sold this week - one in the village and one in the country. It felt good to speak with people who pulled up the listing and say, "Oh, I'm sorry! That one was just marked contingent." It takes only one pebble to start a landslide!
One property also closed - true waterfront, sold over the winter. I went back and looked - the last village closing was March 5th. The mantra is "we can do this, we can sell, we can do this, we can sell....."
Sitting at my open house yesterday on South Street in Elbridge (and what a pretty porch it is to sit on!) I was struck by the number of towns that are selling fewer, much fewer properties than last year. I knew Skaneateles' numbers were lower, but so were other towns. So if the overall effect was only a 5-10% reduction in sales, which town had the sales?
Answer: Camillus, Geddes and Van Buren. Each of these far exceeded the number of sales year-to-date compared with last year. By far I mean, for example, Camillus had 88 sales last year and this year the number is 124! Yow! And yes, the price of the homes went up, too, which makes sense.
Which towns had the greatest increase in price? Pompey and Lafayette's prices each rose about 20%. Onondaga came in a little under 10%. Elbridge has done very well, too - from $110,800 to $131,400. And frankly, Skaneateles is still above last year's sales dollar amount.
I mentioned today that Syracuse is one of the best overall markets in the United States. People still don't know this. While so many parts of the country are floundering under foreclosures, we are still moving homes quite briskly.
Let's start that pebble rolling down the hill here in the village - who will be the one to cast the first stone?
