The long dim shadow of the nation’s economic malaise is lost on Chris Rhinesmith. Acutely aware of the financial crisis, it hasn’t personally impacted him in wrenching ways as it has others. The top producing residential real estate sales broker on Cape Cod in 2008 – with a personal dollar volume in excess of $40 million – is having the year of his life. Rhinesmith, co-owner of Pine Acres Realty, the highest grossing real estate company in Chatham for the last five years, is bullish on the Cape’s high-end real estate market, particularly the Cape’s elegant elbow – and he has the numbers to prove it. Rhinesmith, a former director of investments at Oppenheimer in Boston, took a break from selling to talk to Banker & Tradesman.
Q: How would you assess the high-end residential real estate market on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and Chatham in particular?
A: In the high-end real estate market there are no fire sales, just great buys and solid long-term investments. I’m feeling better now. It doesn’t mean we’re off to the races, but I believe we are in that sloppy bottom phase of a tough market, and that people at the high end – CEOs, retired executives and those in the financial, banking and investment sectors – are starting to look again. There has been much media negativity about the real estate market that tends to feed off itself, but opportunities abound on the Cape and Islands at the high end. You’re not going to get the deal of a century, but you never will here. And if you stall on the sidelines, you could end up paying more. Many suggest high-end prices will drop, but consider the fact that we’ve slogged through the worst economy since the Depression, and prices at the high end in Chatham have remained basically flat. That’s not a bad testimony for the sellers – about half of whom paid cash for these second- and third-home investments, and are feeling no pressure to sell at a discount price.
Q: How do the Cape and Chatham stack up by the numbers?
A: As of November, there had been 6,752 real estate transactions on Cape Cod for ‘08, compared to 7,100 in ’07 and 7,156 in ’06 during this period. There were $3.6 billion in total real estate transactions Capewide in ’07, and ’08 looks to be about $3.1 billion. That’s about a 15 percent decline in dollar volume. There is no panic in this market because the Cape offers some of the finest real estate in America, and as the locals like to say: They ain’t making any more land here!
Q: How have you and your firm, Pine Acres Realty, thrived in a down market?
A: It all has to do with Chatham, an extraordinary family place by the sea, and the fact that successful people still have money and are willing to invest in high-end real estate. How do you put a price, if you have the money to spend, on time with your kids in a setting that is quintessential Cape Cod? That’s often the motivation in this market.
Q: What’s the lesson of this economy? Does it bode well for real estate on Cape Cod and the Islands.?
A: Yes, it does. I think some of the glow is off the brass ring. People who once sought a killing in the stock market, may now look to real estate in the right places, like the Cape and Islands, for some of their future investments – willing to take less profit for a more stable asset. I’m staying put here and in this business. I live and work in a place like Chatham, I meet fascinating people across the board and I sell beautiful homes. Where’s the work?
