Last night as I came home from the office I thought I might have left my cell phone there which would not have been good. It wasn't in its cupholder, and as it was dark by then, I had to pull over into Butters Farm. The cell was on the seat, once I turned on the lights, but rather than back up and out I continued up the hill to do the loop back to Jordan Road. I usually go up that way in the daytime to show houses, rarely at night. It was lovely - most of the homes had spectacular lighting, and with the landscaping and fall decorations it was really beautiful. One of those "not taking the straight way home" moments that proved worthwhile.
Currently in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service there are 150 homes listed as active, with 47 of them in the village. These numbers have been fairly constant for a long time now. There are 33 homes considered to be waterfront as well.
Two new listings came on, both in the $300,000 plus range. One is a village home, fairly newly built, and the other a small camp.
There are four properties marked contingent - one is a sweet Village home which I've hoped would sell, as have others I know. I am glad it has a contract on it. The other categories - under contract, do not show, and pended both have five homes listed.
BUT! We have two new closings this past week which should raise the average price of a home in Skaneateles a great deal. One is a waterfront estate that closed close to its asking price of well above one million, and the other is a magnificent country home above half a million dollars. We now have 54 homes that have closed so far this year.
I decided to see what the median price of the closed properties is - and it turned out to be about $300,000. Of these, 13 are Village homes and 11 are waterfront. Three homes closed above one million.
If you add Spafford, then four homes this year in Onondaga County have closed above a million and all of them are Skaneateles properties. The same (4 each!) could be said for 2010 and 2009. In 2008 there were only three by this time of year - and yes, all Skaneateles. Finally going back to 2007 there were 11 homes closing above a million - again, all Skaneateles! It takes five years of records - 2006 - before another town, Dewitt, can claim a million dollar home.
We live in an expensive town - at least in Onondaga County and most probably all of Central New York. The financial problems have touched us, too - the numbers bear that out with the precipitous drop from 2007 to 2008. But the homes are still as lovely, the lake is still as pure. These fall days can still take your breath away!
