By Aglaia Pikounis

These frigid winter days have me longing for summer days on a sandy beach somewhere far from Boston.  Those feelings intensified when I read a story in the most recent issue of Boston Magazine about the Cape Codder hotel and resort in Hyannis.

The hotel is undergoing an expansion that will add a luxurious spa, an indoor water park, and 15 condos that will be sold in pieces to buyers.

Buyers will pay $159,900 and up for one-tenth share of the condos, according to the article. The owners would be able to stay in these new condos for up to five weeks a year.

Surely, for some buyers the idea of owning a unit with brand-new appliances and furniture at a resort with all sorts of amenities — including access to a spa that offers everything from pedicures to massages — is tempting.

But real estate broker Jamie Regan, president of the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors, raises an interesting point: buyers can find an existing condo on the Cape for less than $200,000. And they don’t have to share it with other people.

In fact, for those who’ve always wanted a vacation home on the Cape this may be an ideal to snap up a bargain. The median price for a condo on the Cape fell to $257,450 in January, the latest month for which statistics are available. That’s a 15 percent discount from two years earlier when the median condo price was $303,000.

And prices for single-family homes have fallen even more. The median price for a single-family home in Barnstable County was down to $276,250 in January, a 27 percent from $380,000 in January 2007.