The last blog I wrote turned out to be the 500th published blog. Five hundred. I would bet that the largest portion was the update - whether weekly, bi-monthly, the Wedding Edition. I have enjoyed the process but like most writers I know the "sitting down to it" is the hardest part. But 500 times I did.
And what that has gained me is an insight into the Skaneateles market that comes readily when asked. I was at a conference the past two days on Long Island and most of the Realtors I spoke with had never heard of Skaneateles. Amazing to me. But I remember when Rachel and Alex wanted a destination wedding and they chose Skaneateles and the Sherwood Inn, a vast majority of her downstate family and friends had no clue where the Finger Lakes were, much less Skaneateles. But the agents politely asked me about the market - sales, average prices, trends....and the words came swimmingly off my tongue. Of course the conference was in part about knowing me and my trends and stats and I was much more challenged. That will change, that will change.
First we have business to attend to. There are currently 122 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service, of which 30 are in the Village and 30 more are considered waterfront. The numbers are creeping up again. Last month we had only 106 active listings.
Three new ones came on the market in the past week. One is an extremely lovely waterfront home priced well under a million dollars. Another is a large village home with a good deal of bathrooms, which can be a rarity with our homes. The last is a home in the town (so we cover all categories) with acreage. The three re-lists are all Village homes which have been reduced quite dramatically.
Nothing new in the contingent categories or pending. We have 37 just itching to close, I am sure.
But this is the statistic that matters - 36 sold and closed single family homes year-to-date. Two of these are waterfront, and the third is a small Village home. All three were sold under their listing price - but not given away, as the phrase goes.
Another statistic that came up today....I went through my hotsheet and found 32 new listings in the areas I watch most closely. There were also 48 reductions in price. People are getting anxious - and they should. If rates increase, their potential buyers will be able to buy less house. An example given at the conference was a home selling at $450,000 with 3.6% interest rate. If the rates went up to 6%, the pool of buyers would drop; a current buyer would only be able to afford a $325,000 house.
So the good news is that there are homes for sale in our area. Some Realtors said they "have no inventory"! Others asked about working into the night because homes were selling so fast you had to show them the day they came on the market. Not here - not yet. Buy now - avoid the rush!
