Neptune Beach, FL

I made this recently for a party, and got rave reviews! One of the women at the party aksed me for the recipe yesterday, hence, how it became today's blog post. The peas are fabulous even before the sauce, just FYI.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed (I prefer fresh over frozen)
• 3 tablespoons garlic flavored olive oil (I subbed EVOO)
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 drops chili oil
• 1/4 teaspoon packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven broiler, and move oven rack into the top position.
2. Place the snap peas onto a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Spread the snap peas out into a single layer.
3. Broil the snap peas in the preheated oven until tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, brown sugar, and sesame seeds in a large bowl. When the snap peas come out of the oven, toss them immediately with the sauce.

Here are the September 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison -

2010

• 4 Homes Sold
• Lowest price: $100,000
• Highest price: $699,900
• Shortest Days on Market: 8
• Longest Days on Market: 170

2009

• 3 homes sold
• Lowest price: $184,900
• Highest price: $615,000
• Shortest Days on Market: 0
• Longest Days on Market: 119

Sales are essentially up 33% year to year, based on the increase of 3 homes sold in 2009 compared with 4 homes sold in 2010.

Pricing year over year does not indicate much positive news, on the lower end, (a decrease of 45% based on the prices listed above) however, there is good news on the increase on the higher end: an increase of 13% which is fabulous news. The lower end is being affected by short sales and foreclosures on the market.

Neptune Beach is the smallest of our beach communities, and therefore has less pricing variation than either Atlantic Beach or Jacksonville Beach.

Properly priced and properly presented properties are STILL selling – currently, the Jacksonville area has about 10 months of inventory (housing supply), and homes can and do sell in very few days on market.

If you are ready to list your home, call me for a comparable market analysis to see what price range you should list in, and to learn more about what sets myself and Prudential Network Realty apart from the competition.

If you or someone you know is considering a short sale, please have them contact me for a no-obligation confidential interview about their current situation and how best for them to move forward. I hold the Certified Distressed Property Expert, and am one of a mere 18,000 who do so – I can help salvage their credit, and their financial future.

This is one of the those stories, that we all love to read about.

I helped a friend of mine, whom I have known for 20 years, purchase his first home this past Wednesday.

This guy had rented from the same landlord for 20 years, worked at a local bar/restaurant, and really thought he would never be able to purchase a home at the beach, or anywhere close to the beach.

Imagine our mutual surprise when the perfect townhome was marketed at a price he could easily afford! A 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom townhome in Neptune Beach for $60,000! It was almost too good to be true, frankly.

Yes, it needs some work, but he's got the assets to handle that, and is on a month to month lease, so he has flexibility to get the repairs and improvements done that he wants to do.

It is one of the fantastic facets to our current real estate market, that the opportunities are there for terrific first time home buyers such as this to take advantage of!

Recently, Amelia Island's very own T-Ray's Burger Station was rated as one of the 51 Great Burger Joints (USA Today feature).

I have not yet been to T-Ray's, may have to make it a very-soon weekend destination to check it out, as I love a good burger.

Other places to get good burgers in the area, listed in no particular order, and according to my preferences (medium rare is my preference):

• The Loop - locations all over the area
• The Sun Dog - Neptune Beach (personal favorite)
• Ted's Montana Grill - you can get Bison burgers here at Town Center & Orange Park
• Five Guys - several area locations, you can order with tons of toppings, more than other places & great greasy fries.

Sometimes, there is nothing than a burger and fries.....

Let me know about your favorite burger joints in your area or that you have found in your travels!

You can read the full USA Today article here: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-09-30-burger-joints_N.htm?csp=tf

One of my favorite all time places is the Sun Dog Diner in Neptune Beach, FL. My friends Jeff, Mary & I had a fabulous brunch here (again!) this morning - being from Jersey, grits took some getting used to, but I actually ordered the grits instead of hash browns this morning, and they were great.

Located in Town Center, the Sun Dog has awesome food, awesome staff, awesome entertainment - you ge the gist.

Their website is here so you can check out upcoming events and their menu: http://www.sundogjax.com/