Open House Alert! - Sunday, the 31st - 2 Green Street

The first of the year!  Yes, 2 Green Street in Camillus Village, will be open from 1:00 to 2:00 on Sunday. ONLY 1:00 to 2:00....  Which I will discuss, but first the house.

This gives you a taste of the house....The structure at the end of the lawn is an old carriage house which can be used as a garage or for storage or even for play.  The decking on the side of the house is away from the street and entered through sliding doors from the kitchen.  The greenery hides an old koi pond that could be rejuvenated, I believe.

Inside it's lovely...those hardwoods do gleam!  The top photo is the living room and yes, the wood stove does work and could (possibly) heat the whole house.  It is freshly painted within the past two years, even the white trim.  The windows are newer...as is the boiler and the utility bills prove that it can be heated for under $250 a month, on the budget.

The bottom photo is my favorite.  It is truly a library, but it could also be a first floor bedroom as part of an in-law suite.  The far door opens to a small full bath.  On the right out of the picture is a door to a side porch. Easy access, a large enough room to be both sitting room and bedroom...and still an eat-in kitchen, dining and living rooms on the main floor!

So come and see it - be amazed by the price - $134,900 - but come quickly.  We've chosen to do a one-hour open only because frankly people come in the beginning and towards the end.  This way we have a concentrated time - and the house is large enough to handle crowds.  Upstairs is another bathroom and four legitimate bedrooms and a fifth possible.  Even the laundry is up there!

To see more photos, and learn more about the house, please check out ML#S338420 through REMAX.com or Realtor.com.  Or call or text me for a private showing:  315-447-0441.

See you Sunday!

Investing in Housing

On Sunday there was an article in Syracuse's Post-Standard's Empire section.  It detailed Ken Craig's quest to help people on the East Side of Syracuse find housing at the same time he renovated old homes.

Over the past few years we have gone to Syracuse University basketball games and I have taken "the road less traveled" to find a parking spot in Thornden park by the rose gardens.  I grew up in the area - my home backed onto Thornden and the lilac trees.  I slid down the Big Hill in the winter, swam in the pool in the summer, and - while it seems quite amazing to me now - freely roamed the park with my friends as a kid. We skated at night and walked home - several girls, laughing and playing.  My mother walked her dogs daily until she came to live with us.  It was a different time then.

Now we race through the area, but I like going back.  We noticed all the homes being renovated and pointed out to each other the changes on Beech and East Genesee, East Fayette.  Amazing homes...well-kept up homes too.  Brightly lit, freshly painted.  And now I know who started all that...and I am very appreciative! Thank you, Tim Knauss, for your article!

Twenty-five years ago Ken Craig left The Pyramid Companies and struck out to make changes.  He was still relatively young to leave - only 54 by my calculations - but he wanted to do something positive for the East Side.

He was an entrepreneur, and lived on credit cards and hope to pay his own way.  Now he takes a good salary and is CEO of Housing Visions Unlimited.  That little social entrepreneurship start-up has now raised over $300 million dollars to refurbish/renovate low-income housing.  He maintained control over the homes to keep them looking beautiful, to never let them succumb to the fate of other projects.

They have also rebuilt the Cherry Hill apartments into Maple Heights that you can see from 690 east of the city.  The site of the old Jewish Community Center on East Genesee is now a 50-unit apartment for homeless vets.  (I think this was one reason that Syracuse is one of the few - if the only - city in the nation to have met the challenge by the federal admnistration of seeing no vet homeless.)

So now as I wind my way from the Teall exit to Beech to the park entrance I will know who to thank as we go by these homes.  Thank you, Ken Craig, for taking care of my old stomping grounds!

Skaneateles Real Estate Update - It's Finally Winter!

Hooray!  Over 10 inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming!  Can't wait to snowshoe and ski - but I can wait to drive.  I have to go out this afternoon and it will be the first real test of driving in the snow with the Fiat.  Bob got me great tires for Christmas...we will see.

There are currently only 54 single family homes listed in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 14 are in the Village and 7 are considered Waterfront.  I also checked on listings in the Skaneateles School District:  66 there.  I usually use school districts to find listings for people for whom that matters...quite a difference there!

There were two new listings brought on the market since the first of the year, both in the Town and under $250,000 list price.

In the "under contract" category there are 21 single family homes waiting to close.  Three new ones have been placed in this category since the first of the year, one each for Village, Town and Waterfront.

And it's a long way to 129 (our record year last year and in 2012), but there were two closings.  Last year I predicted that with interest rates rising and fewer homes on the market (we started with 76), there would be fewer closings.  Well, I was very wrong!  How wonderful!  Let's do it again....I predict 107.

I was right however about buying houses when you see them...so buy now!

Nighty-night, 2015

Time to let it go.....with statistics and commentary!

There were 129 single family homes sold in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service during 2015.  Of these, 46 were in the Village, 17 were considered Waterfront, and therefore 66 were from the Town.  Two were both Village and Waterfront....so I've included them in the Waterfront stats.

This is unusual...and a continuation of a trend begun a couple years ago.  In the past, about 25% of all sales have been Village and another 25% have been waterfront.  The percentage might go up and down and vary a bit, but it was almost a constant that the two types of homes would be about equal in percentage of sales.  Not any more...Waterfront is way down while Village is way up.  Remember this as I write about the sales prices.

So, calling Villlage now actually 44 houses, the highest list price was $995,000 and the lowest was $100,000.  The median was $295,000.   The median was a bit lower than has been typical in past years.  And yes, a house was listed for $100,000 in the Village!  It sold for that, too.

Looking at Waterfront, the list prices ranged from $269,000 to $6,999.  Five were listed over a million dollars.  The median was $625,000.  Hmmmm....could be why there were so few Waterfront homes sold this year.

Let's compare all this to the category I call "Town" - neither waterfront or Village.  The list price range was $60,000 to $799,000.  The median price was $244,000.  Remember, these are houses that actually sold and closed.

Skaneateles doesn't have many condos.  Only 6 closed in the past year.  The listing price range was $199,000 to $1.145M.  Sale prices were $175,000 to $999,000.  Although taxes are much lower for condos, there is always the dreaded HOA fee.  These ranged from $160 to $500/month.

And we don't have many multi-families, proving once again that there are reasons why rentals are so very hard to find in the Central New York area.  Two closed in the past year:  the one in the Village closed for $215,000 and the one in the town (with acreage) closed for $340,000.

On to lots!  There were a dozen that closed, and only one of these was waterfront.  (Bet you can guess which one!)  Prices ranged from an almost unbelievable $3,900 (list) to 1.1M (also list price).  They each sold for less:  $3,000 and $992,000.  The median for lots was $98,000 (list price and not waterfront).


Hopefully this helps put the past year in perspective.  Skaneateles has so many unique homes, and so many range in condition from the newly constructed luxury homes and incredible lakeside mansions to older, well-loved homes tucked away in cornfields.  There is no guarantee from year to year that a home will come on the market that meets buyer's needs or wishes.  But isn't it wonderful?  No cookie-cutter houses here...and that lake!  The joy of living in the area makes all the costs worthwhile.

The Final Eleven - 2015

Ah well.....I waited it out until today to hope against hope we had beaten the record, but no...we tied! There were a phenomenal 129 closed sales in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service in 2015.

These are the final 11, in no particular order.

1386 Foxfield Drive    Town of Skaneateles   $320,000

12 Kane Avenue         Skaneateles Village      $355,000

1016 Butters Farm      Town of Skaneateles    $375,000

4348 County Line        Town of Skaneateles    $399,000

2504 Wave Way          Town of Skaneateles   $739,000

4700 Amerman             Town of Skaneateles   $1,250,000

870 Franklin St.             Town of Skaneateles   $72,100

43 Fennell St.                Skaneateles Village       $100,000

3859 State St.               Town of Skaneateles    $119,600

4 East Street                  Skaneateles Village      $240,000

7787 County Line          Town of Skaneateles    270,000


And so concludes the lists for 2015!  Analysis will follow on another day....I so enjoy knowing these facts and figures.  Over the weekend I was able to rattle them off to a prospective buyer...and now you can, too!

Changes to the Url

So....right before the New Year, our wonderful broker, Martin Carpenter (aka Realtor of the Year for New York State!) informed me that all these years I have used an "illegal" blog address!

I remember the day in 2007 I started the blog....Karen, who was our receptionist and all-around marketing whiz, and I invented it.  I wanted to keep it simple - simply relate through a "web log" my experiences as a Realtor.  And "sell" people - buyers - on Skaneateles, and all that the Village, Town and Lake have to offer. What could be simpler than Skaneateles Realtor!  Made all the sense in the world to us!

Ah, but there were rules I didn't know about (and I do know that ignorance is no excuse....)  The noun Realtor must never be modified, it turns out.  Can't be....And after all this time it was noted to Martin that I had done so in my blog.

We met Tuesday at the office and I made the change.  All praise to blogspot for making it so easy - It is now http://SkaneatelesRealEstateNews.blogspot.com.  But you already know that because you found it!

This makes sense too.  The blog has moved to the more general in the past few years.  I do the updates about sales in the area, talk about trends and compare and contrast with other years.  It's less about me.  As really it should be.

I'll change my cards and my signatures on my e-mails.....always MBrooks@remax.net will reach me.  Sarah, who takes care of all my social media got to work early yesterday on changes to all her websites....thank you, Sarah!  Could never do this without you!  Also a grateful word goes out to Jason in our Skaneateles office and Ashley in Fayetteville....they'll keep me on the straight and narrow.  And of course to Martin, who understood and was able to instill calm in me in the face of what could have been utter chaos!

I just don't want to lose my readers, you who have been with me from the start or who have found me through the blog when moving here.  I've made new friends through this blog...I don't want to lose that opportunity.

So please pass on to others the new name...the more consistent name, as it turns out.  Crisis is always opportunity!  And thank you for reading!

Skaneateles Real Estate Update - The End (of the Year)

Sort of the end of the year....I am sure houses will have closed that have not yet been entered into the system.  (At least I hope so.)  And this is not the analysis of data I like to do....but it is a last update blog for 2015.

As of the end of the year, there were 57 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. Of these, 16 were in the Village and 9 were waterfront.  This is such a low number!  That bodes well for the coming year...I certainly know that over the holidays there were several buyers who came to town to look at houses, and they had to buy because of relocation.

There were not surprisingly only 2 houses that came on the market during the last 11 days of the year.  One was new construction and the other was a remodeling of an old house, so basically two "new" houses.

In the under contract section, at the end of the year (as of today, January 5th) 19 homes were waiting to close.

But what everyone is waiting for.....there are now 129 officially sold and closed homes in the Skaneateles area.  If that number rings a bell - that is exactly the same number of closings in our record year of 2012. Four new closings occurred in the last 11 days; with one more not recorded as yet we may break that record.  So hang on - and check in.

And remember, I can always be reached through my e-mail: mbrooks@remax.net and cell phone: 315-447-0441.  Now go out and buy a lovely home in Skaneateles in 2016!

The Sixth Twenty (Actually Eighteen)

Welcome to the New Year!  I hope it finds you safe and warm, secure and happy.  I wish you all sorts of good cheer!

Many closings happen at the end of the month, and this year there were 3 Skaneateles area closings at the end of November.  Because - alas - we won't see a "Seventh Twenty" I decided to wait and add the three to the end of the year list.  That will be published once the dust (not snow!) has cleared and it is safe to assume all closings have been posted.

This time I am going to change it up a bit and list the single family homes by area.  It might give a better picture of the difference between the Village and the Town.

The following are all homes in the Village of Skaneateles:

46 East Elizabeth Street - $242,000

76 Fennell Street - $225,000

43 West Elizabeth Street - $130,000

78 Fennell Street - $149,500

5 East Lake Street - $295,000

9 East Elizabeth Street - $255,000

17 Onondaga Street - $217,000


The following homes are not in the Village:

201 Hemlock Hollow      Town of Niles       $393,000

1269 Oak Bluff               Skaneateles           $1,450,000

2708 E. Lake Rd.           Skaneateles           $340,000

1117 Hencoop Rd.         Skaneateles           $250,000

1006 Mistletoe Dr.          Skaneateles           $245,000

796 Franklin St.              Skaneateles            $162,500

4549 Vinegar Hill           Skaneateles             $245,000

1539 Tracy Drive           Skaneateles             $410,000

968 Mottville Rd.     Hamlet of Mottville        $159,000

2935 W. Lake Rd.         Skaneateles             $247,500

2125 Terrace Lane S     Skaneateles             $292,000


As the year changes into 2016, I will note that there may be changes to this blog in the near future.  Please look for them and it!