Skaneateles Real Estate - It's Still Cold Out There Update

I am sitting here at my desk freezing because I know it will get up to 60 this afternoon and feel so much better having been so cold this morning.  It's been the longest winter I can remember.  In February I forgave the cold and snow if it promised to be over by mid-month.  Here we are two and a half months later and I am still wearing a turtleneck...  The good news - and there is always good news - is that we probably won't see another winter like this for years, if ever.  And if we got through this, next year will be easy!

That said, the lethargy produced by cold temperatures made selling a challenge.  Everything stopped - including this blog.  It was mind-numbing and blood-chilling.  As one agent said, no one wanted to go outside.  And you really have to in order to buy a house.  Seeing, feeling, listening is so important to the process.  And if your ears are frozen and you wear eternal gloves...it just doesn't happen!

So starting about two weeks ago there was a thaw.  At least the snow for the most part was gone.  People came out in droves for the vacation week.  We all were busy, running from home to home, making appointments, re-making them, seeing houses for second or third times.  And there was real movement in the market.

Because I haven't written since March 13th, this will be a synopsis of what happened rather than a detailed account.  Currently, in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service, there are 75 homes on the market. Of these, 18 are in the Village and 18 are considered waterfront.  These are not including homes that have contracts of some kind on them, even though they are "continue to show."

There were a plethora of new listings and re-listings - 26 in all!  Of these, 10 are in the Village and 5 are waterfront (now that the ice has left the lake).  But you can see there has been movement if that many came on and still there are only 75 active listings!

Surprisingly, there are only 16 total properties with contracts waiting to close.  Not surprisingly, 10 are new. Continuing with the "hot in the Village" trend, 4 are from the Village, 6 in the town, and 2 of those waterfront. They range in list price from $134,000 to 1.5 million (not waterfront, I might add).

The most important number is the sold and closed number.  We have 18 so far this year, of which 6 are recent.  Two of everything - Village, Town and Waterfront.  We are running behind the last few years, but we will catch up.  I doubt we will surpass it because we need more houses to be listed.  Gone are the 150 active listings...welcome to the new world of real estate in Skaneateles!