Skaneateles Real estate - The Mid-Year Update

I was going to write about the places we've been lately, but then I realized that it had been a long time -  May 25th - since I had written an update. Could be because we've been places....hmmmm...
Anyway, without further ado....

There are currently 77 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 30 are in the Village and 15 are considered waterfront.  Think about that....this whole entire (gorgeous) lake that I can see while sitting here and typing, has only 15 listings?  I haven't heard the usual question about why there are so many "For Sale" signs on East Lake Road.  There aren't any!  It's rather amazing, but goes right along with the low inventory complaint.  Overall, there are 3 homes listed under $100,000 and 10 over a million.  The median is $365,000.

Twelve of the listings are new since the end of May.  Only one is a re-list of a property, which is unusual but indicates that homes are selling, rather than sitting. 

Twenty-five are under contract, waiting to close.  Five of these are under $100,000 and only one is over a million.  The median is $295,000, notably less than the active 365k median.   Six are newly under contract since the last update.

We now have 50 sold and closed single family homes in the Skaneateles area in 2016.  Two are under $100,000 and 5 are over one million.  The median list price is $325,000.  This sold and closed number is just above where we were last year at this time.

Recently I've been working with buyers looking for homes in Skaneateles - waterfront and elsewhere - plus others in Camillus and Marcellus.  I've also sold a home in Auburn.  As we have looked, I have realized that homes are going quickly, but extremely quickly in Camillus especially.  So I checked the statistics today.

Remember, Skaneateles has about a three to one ratio of active to under contract homes (77 to 25).  Turns out that Marcellus is more like two to one (29 active, 14 under contract.)  Auburn is an accelerated market also: 104 active to 67 under contract.  But Camillus!  Oh my!  They have only 86 active listings and 99 under contract!  Wow!  I've never seen anything close to that in Skaneateles. Ever.

Now let's take it a step further.  I checked on the population of these towns.  As you may know, Skaneateles comes in around 7,200.  Marcellus is smaller with 6,200 good souls.  The City of Auburn now has 27,000 or so people.  Camillus, although larger in physical size, has 24,000 people.

So although Camillus is over 3 times larger than Skaneateles, it has close to the same number of active listings and four times as many homes under contract.  Why?  If you have an idea, please write to me at mbrooks@bhhscnyrealty.com. 

Gas & Grass

I love grabbing my readers' attention!

Last weekend an old friend came through Syracuse for a memorial service.  We went to school together way back when and reconnected around our last reunion.  He was from my "hood" and we shared that.  He is also a Realtor in Colorado.

We had lunch at The Sherwood on Sunday.  He'd been away so long he honestly didn't know where it was, except that it was in Skaneateles!  Now he does, and the lunch awakened memories of his mother bringing him and his brother and sister to the Village for a day away from our Westcott Nation neighborhood.  Even back then people loved Skaneateles. 

We talked about this and that, what people were doing, whom we had seen recently.  Then he told me about courses he had taken for continuing education to keep up his license.  One of them was about marijuana, and how to handle the new law in his state and the ramifications of it for real estate.

I had just seen a house that most likely had been used as a "grow" house, at least according to a code enforcement officer.  We smelled something as I turned the key in the lock, and then realized what it was when we saw the lightbulbs.  So how is that disclosed?

In Colorado it should be done, he was told.  It's beyond belief to me that there could possibly be a part of the state disclosures that asks:  "How many plants have been kept in the house?"  "Are there still plants on the property?  If so, what are their locations?"  I am imagining, I don't know.

How does a Realtor handle walking into a house that openly displays plants?  You are allowed - it is legal - to have two producing, mature marijuana plants in your home, and two immature, non-producing (at the time) plants.  There is no reason to hide them.

On his way to an appointment he saw the Gas & Grass station and took the photo I reproduced at the top of this blog, and sent it to me.  It's also hard to believe that grass is still illegal in parts of this country, and that people are fined or even go to jail over it.  As he says, "Colorado is just different than New York."  That it is.

Open House Alert! 3681 Causeway Road

This is a photo I took a few years back of the beach on the south side of the Causeway that runs (used to run, really) across Otisco Lake.  This area is a couple minutes' walk from 3681 Causeway Road, the home I am holding open this Sunday (June 12th).

When the seller bought the cottage a while back we were told there were lake rights.  Many of the homes in the area had them written into their deeds.  Everyone used the beach, cleaned up after themselves, and generally took care of it.  Presumably the original seller had also.  Unfortunately there is nothing written in the deed, but traditionally there are no issues.  It's a small community, and even with written permission from some long ago owner it would not be acceptable to treat the beach poorly.  Isn't it lovely?  Imagine those hills in the fall.  As someone said recently, "Just being near the water is calming."

The cottage is also serene.  As you can see, at some point an old porch was enclosed to create this lovely great room with the vaulted ceiling, supported by those beams.  You are looking at it from the kitchen...a small table on the right side looks out at the lake.  Although the house itself is small, it has three bedrooms. One of them is upstairs and actually has a balcony.

I went back and looked at my notes.  We - the seller and I - first put it on the market in 2007 when she realized that her move was too far to make it a practical commute or even weekend retreat.  When it didn't sell after a couple months, she was approached about renting it.  The people ended up staying for years, they liked it so much!  Since then we've tried to sell it a couple more times, but the home rents easily, the mortgage gets paid, and the tenants treat it kindly.

This time she would like to sell it, so we started early.  The price is $59,000.  "Really?" you ask.  "Yes, really!"  I say.

Let's do the math.  Say you put down 10%...that's $5,900, but let's call it $6,000.  You will then finance $54,000.  Amortized over 30 years, at 4%, your payments will be $257.80 per month.  Taxes are about $3000 per year, so add a monthly $250 escrow.  Insurance too....another $50 per month...Rounding again you owe $550 monthly.  This is without the STAR tax discount, without appealing the assessment, and without taking into account the tax benefits of a mortgage.

Clearly this 3-bedroom home so close to the water is a very good deal.

So come this Sunday between noon and 2:00 and see the home and give it a good thought.  It's in Tully School District....the marina is just around the corner within walking distance....you can get to Syracuse or Auburn within 45 minutes, Cortland in only 30 minutes.  And when you get home, relax on your very own deck!