As a friend goes off to search for a house in another part of the state, I've found that since I can't access the area via the MLS, I must use the sites available on the web. She used Prudential at first, then Realtor.com, but today she discovered REMAX.com. As did I! Another friend had raved about it, saying there were ways to add more criteria than the other sites would allow, especially when looking for land. I agree!
Currently there are 139 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. Twenty-seven of these are in the village. Five (sort of) new ones came on this past week. The one truly new one is in the village in the low $400,000. The other four are either reconfigurations or reductions in price. By reconfigurations I mean listings that add or delete what is offered, or placed in the Skaneateles area when really they are in a different town. These two are waterfront, while the other two are town single family residences.
One new property - waterfront and over a million as listed - was moved to the "continue to show" status. There are four "C" properties in all. Five are solidly under contract - do not show. Another 9 are pended.
Three more(!) were added to the sold column, bringing the number of homes sold this year so far to 29. The three sold were each within striking distance of their list prices - one each in the $100,000 - $300,000 range. Length of time on the market varied, but the two lesser priced homes came on and sold wthin a month. The median price of the listings for the sales year-to-date is $250,000.
Last year at this time there were 39 sales, with the median price $330,000. In 2008 there were only 19 by this time, but the median list price was around$300,000. In 2007, the last year before our mini-bubble burst there were 41 closings and the median price was $330,000. Just to compare, and see where we are in the grand scheme of things....
A friend mentioned that he thought homes were selling for around their assessed values. I chose five closed properties by random to check this theory. In actuality, three of the homes closed about 15% higher than their assessed value, while the other two closed 15% to 30% under it. But it's an interesting comment, because generally we have had in the past huge discrepancies between the assessed value and the sale price. I invite a discussion of what this means!
But in the meantime - go out and buy a new house or refinance! The rates are still incredible, but could go up quickly at any time!
