Welcome to another week of the update! Tuesday was wild - we made an offer on a small home for over 10% of the list price, cash, no contingencies - and we lost it! There were 7 original offers and we bulled our way through to the second round. Amazing! (The price was under $100,000 - but still! - and in Syracuse - really! - and only a 2 bedroom - no way!) If you know of another one, call me please!
So back to reality. There are currently 122 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. Three are "new," reactivated from last year. Two are priced about the same, but one has been drastically reduced due to its condition. Cash offers, it would like and probably need.
One property "went contingent" this week, less than a week since it came on the market. In the high, high $500,000s and overflowing with extras - everything larger or more than usual. And it sold - go figure!
We now have 14 properties closed for the year. The lake rights, village, home went for above the list price while the waterfront home went for about 28% under. But both sold fairly rapidly.
Last year at the this time there were only 12 sales, hardly significant but a possible trend. I checked out the other areas: Elbridge was about the same, Marcellus has had only 5 sales so far this year compared with 11 last year by this time - and I would think that even with the small number eyebrows are raised. Camillus had 44 sales last year - this year only 24. Spring is coming - the winter was long - we'll see.
I heard from a friend today who was lamenting - well, as a buyer he was not so much lamenting as commenting - on the number of homes on the market in his particular town, a town of about 50,000, not in New York. He said there were 216 homes listed between $200,000 and $300,000. They were mostly in developments, similar models, and one after the other was waiting for a buyer.
I looked into our areas for comparison. Taking Dewitt, Manlius, Onondaga and Camillus together there are about that number in that price range. I certainly would have thought less, especially on the west side of town. Of course many of ours are "to be built" - not as much money hasn't been committed to them yet. Nor do they stand out in developments.
Again, we are in good stead here. I went to the Waterloo Outlet Mall on Sunday and was amazed at the numbers of people in the stores. There were good sales, but not that good! For dinner we went over to Daniel's Grill in Marcellus. Because there were two of us we didn't have to wait, but it was packed (I had the prime rib with a creme brulee chaser - excellent!). As I listen to NPR's dirge each day about the economy, I am glad we haven't experienced what other communities must be going through.
