April: Letter from Palm Beach: You’ll Never Go Hungry
Posted on April 2021Why Won’t You Go Hungry in Palm Beach?
Not because Le Bilboquet is now here. Or La Goulue. Or Sant Ambroeus. Or LoLa 41. Or Henry’s and Buccan and Bricktops or a dozen other great local bistros. No, as any five-year old jokester will tell you, you’ll never go hungry in Palm Beach because of all the sand-which-is there!
And let’s give thanks to the Army Corp of Engineers who just served up a heaping second helping. Not that our beaches were particularly underfed (see before and after pics below) but a little re-nourishment is always welcome before the fall storms make landfall. After a month of dredging up some beautiful deep sea sand and piping it onto our shores, the Corps has delivered a healthy extra 20 yards or so. Just in time for those mama sea turtles to haul themselves out of the surf on the way to our suddenly more distant dunes. Sorry girls.
Market Color: The Closings Conumdrum
Everyone’s talking about the decline in Listings, but there’s been less chatter about the rise in Closings.
As evidenced in the chart above, there’s been no slowdown in the level of activity. Some of that is Buyers’ reluctance to wait– many want a Florida residence now even if the property doesn’t tick every box on their list. But the other factor is the number of homes selling off-market or going to contract pre-listing. If we learn of a nice home that will be coming to market at a fair price, we sometimes find a Buyer before the photos come back from the listing shoot.
A knock-on effect of the fast-paced activity is the rising Percentage of List Price Received (graph below). There may be more inventory than meets the eye, but this is no market for hagglers.
So if you’re in the market for a home, please let us know what you’re looking for!
Our Coming Listing – In Town Style
444 Chilean Avenue: We’ll be Listing this home this week. A 2016 design by famed local architect, Pat Segraves, this in-town beauty with his and her master bath is the epitome of move in ready.
3 bedrooms/4.5 baths, pool and guest suite, all steps from the park at the brand new Town Docks $8.75m
Our Coming Listing – A Charmer in SoSo
6408 Washington Road, West Palm Beach: We’ll be Listing this home this week as well. Fully renovated in 2016 with a very up-to-date open kitchen/family room, modern baths, a new roof and full impact glass.
3 bedrooms/3 baths, enclosed yard and room for a pool. On a quiet corner in family-friendly SoSo. $1.495m
Closed: Our Buyer – Villa Giardino
341 Peruvian Avenue: Okay, yes, we’re pretty proud of this one. In an off-market transaction we brokered one of Palm Beach’s most beloved and iconic properties to new owners who plan to preserve it for the next generation.
Nearly 9,000 sqft on a half acre of gardens, a lob wedge from Worth Avenue. The Palm Beach Daily News thought the sale newsworthy enough to splash the story across their front page.
March: Letter from Palm Beach: Double Shot of My Baby’s Love
How is the Swinging Medallions 1966 smash, Double Shot, not climbing the charts again!?
All anyone in Palm Beach seems to be talking about is whether they’ve had their second shot. Sure, we’re all still wearing masks and it’s the outdoor tables that go first at the restaurants, but you can feel the Covid cloud lifting as vaccination numbers climb. These past few weeks brought so many events that felt like regular old Palm Beach.
There was a changing of the guard at Town Hall as our wonderful longtime mayor, Gail Coniglio, handed the reins to our friend Dani Moore, a non-stop booster of all things Palm Beach and herself the daughter of a longtime mayor. And the Garden Club cut the ribbon on its gift to the town of a new tidal garden at Bradley Park with the goal of showing residents how to literally “go with the flow.” And then there was the mask-clad reception at the oldest house on the island, Duck’s Nest (above). Fellow Chicagoans, Julie and Brian Simmons, spent years joyfully rejuvenating this early settler’s property and the Preservation Foundation wasted no time awarding them the prestigious Ballinger Award for restoring this beloved landmark.
BTW, the al fresco dining genie shows zero interest in climbing back into the bottle. Breakers’ president Paul Leone is leading the charge to keep the expanded outdoor dining– and the sentiment around town seems to be, “heck yes!”
Closing with a final word from the Medallions. Those boys really knew how to dangle a preposition:
“It wasn’t wine that I had too much of
It was a double shot of my baby’s love.”
Market Color: The Peggy Lee Market
Peggy’s anthem, “Is that all there is?” has become the question of the moment
The number of listings continues to drop as anything well-priced and move-in ready, house or condo, will sell quickly. Buyers have fewer choices today than they did even just a few months ago, but we are seeing positive signs for supply. In the chart above, note the 23 unit jump (+64%) in New Listings partially offsetting the 50 unit decline in Active Inventory. And that isn’t even a true indicator of what’s going on, we’ve also been able to find our clients homes off-market and pre-listing. The value of an agent who’s fully engaged and tuned into the market has never been greater.
Our Listing – for Annual or Seasonal Lease
Fresh and New on the Sea Streets
316 Seabreeze Avenue, Palm Beach
$30,000 Per Month for 12 Month Annual Lease
3
Bedrooms
4
Bathrooms
2,470
Sq ft.
Available June 1st 2021 for annual or seasonal lease. 2019 construction in the heart of the Sea Streets. Beautiful kitchen and baths with every feature you could wish for. Sub Zero fridge, Wolf gas range, Paris Ceramics floors, heated towel bars. Three bedrooms: two large bedrooms with ensuite baths in main house, California king in master and queen bed in guest room. Plus upstairs den area with full-sized sleeper sofa. Sonos speakers throughout, fast WiFi and smart TVs. Guest House/Pool Cabana with its own beautiful new bath and living room can be furnished as bedroom or with L-shaped sofa hiding a pullout queen bed.
Rental Terms:
Annual: $30,000 per Month for 12 month lease
Seasonal: $50,000 per Month for 6 month lease
Our Seller – Under Contract – 334 Chilean Avenue
DESIGN YOUR OWN IN-TOWN DREAM
334 Chilean Avenue, Palm Beach
$4,795,000
–
Bedrooms
–
Bathrooms
–
Sq ft.
Land! Absolutely prime location in middle of the 300 block of Chilean. Lot is 9,384 sqft. Zoning will permit a large two-story home covering 30% of the lot. Walk to Worth Avenue, beach and town docks. It’s a dream location. In a market with so little inventory to choose from, why not build and get exactly what you want?