Northport project dazzles

Plans for former Thomas Ranch unveiled

The Northport City Commissioners were provided with a first glimpse of development plans for the 7,800 acre Thomas Ranch which will eventually be built out to 15,000 new homes.

The property will be divided by owner Fourth Quarter Properties LLC into a series of eight individual villages which will be centered around several hundred acres of retail, offices and parks.

Thomas Ranch village gets 'wow' [Sun-Herald]

Storage on the move

Opportunities in self-storage sector booming

For quite some time I have been fascinated by the self-storage business. I have kicked the tires of a few deals but mostly due to sticker shock have never taken the plunge and acquired a facility. Based on the few deals that I have looked at, it certainly appears to me that the serious upside for an investor is to develop one of these facilities from scratch.

Today, self-storage is a $15 billion business, with more than 38,000 separate facilities, according to the Self Storage Association, a trade group. But the top 10 companies, which include five REIT's, account for less than 11 percent of the market, according to the 2005 Self-Storage Almanac, published by Mini-Storage Messenger, a trade publication.

While many traditional retirees dispose of belongings before moving South to a smaller slab house, the growing number of younger families calling our area home just do not have enough room in the typical house. As I drive around and see the majority of all garages loaded with stuff, it is very believable that there is almost an unlimited demand for these types of facilities throughout SW Florida.

Moving Into the Neighborhood [New York Times]

We have arrived!!

Seattle java nation invading Lee County

We are on the map and we matter!!!! That mythical coffee firm from Seattle has announced plans to invade Lee County in a big way. I know it sounds crazy, but to many the presence of a Starbucks Cafe is a measure of relevancy in our brand-driven luxury-craving society.

The Seattle-based chain plans to open a cafe this fall in the shopping center at the corner of College Parkway and Winkler Road in Fort Myers. The company may also sign a lease for another store in the old Builders Square property at U.S. 41 and Daniels Parkway, across from the Bell Tower, and is seeking a location in Cape Coral.

A question to ponder with this mornings four buck grande low-fat Caramel Macchiato....just what will there be to complain about in SW Florida now that we have arrived?

Starbucks brewing up push into Lee County [News-Press]

Florida price gain

31% median price gain for June -- volume off 3%

A continuing tight supply of homes available for sale, low mortgage rates and high demand impacted Florida's housing market in June, helping to push the statewide median price of existing single-family homes up 31 percent to $248,700; a year ago, it was $189,200, according to the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).

Statewide, resales activity slowed slightly from the blistering pace of recent months, with a total of 25,455 homes sold compared to 26,112 homes a year ago, for a 3 percent drop.

On a national basis, sales of previously owned U.S. houses hit a record pace in June, climbing 2.7 percent as home prices soared 14.7 percent from a year ago, the biggest jump in nearly 25 years, says the National Association of Realtors.

The national median home price rose to $219,000, up from $191,000 a year ago and the strongest increase since November 1980, when annual appreciation was 15.6 percent, the group said.

Florida's Home Median Prices Continue to Rise in June [RIS Media]

Lee prices & volume up

Dramatic gains for single-family resales in June

The median resale price of a single-family home in Lee County was $281,000 in June, a 47 percent leap from a year ago, and the number of sales increased by nearly a third.

Realtors sold 1,297 homes in Lee County in June, up from 1,003 in the same month last year, according to data released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Home resales jump 47 percent [News-Press]

Speculator financing squeeze

Lenders clamping down on quick flip deals

Investors looking to borrow for a quick flip deal are finding fewer options available to them today. Many mortgage originators are refusing to finance quick hit in-out deals. A bank typically breaks even on a loan after it has been in place for 12 months, making quick flip deals often a losing proposition for them.

Locally, we have seen the mortgage financing belt tightening particularly impact out-of-state buyers. Many local originators are turning away investors that are out of region.

With this tightening of financing, the cash investor should have a decided advantage in securing competitively prices properties.

Quick housing flips getting harder to do [Orlando Sentinel]

Agents behaving badly

New listings are not always what they appear to be

A practice that is becoming more common in our market is the cancellation of a stale listing and then re-listing it immediately as a new listing. Another trick that I have seen in use is a very short listing period of a couple days, then after the listing expires re-list at the same terms. What these tactics do is bring the property back into visibility in the "Hotsheet Reports" section of the MLS system.

While some may view these tactics as aggressive marketing, I think that are close to crossing the line and would like to see some MLS system changes to make these practices much more difficult to implement.

I purchased a Cape Coral canal lot last week under an assignment of contract arrangement that had price changes or had expired and re-listed an unbelievable six times in less than three weeks. Due to my familiarity with the area, I was comfortable that I got a very good deal.

If you are looking at a property that appears to be a new listing, it is a good idea to have your agent pull the listing history for that property as this will show cancellation and re-listing history.

Home won't sell? Some cancel and relist [Boston Globe]

Bye bye Babcock Ranch

91,000 acre property acquired by West Palm Beach Developer

In a major blow to conservation and environmental preservation in SW Florida, the 91,000 acre Babcock Ranch was acquired by West Palm Beach developer Kitson & Partners. While final figures have not been disclosed, it is thought that the deal significantly tops the $455M state offer that was rejected by the Babcock Family. Kitson & Partners was backed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund to complete the transaction.

This deal came about fairly quickly after the rejection of the State bid in April. Based on previous developments of Kitson & Partners, expect a large scale planned golf community for the Babcock area. Kitson & Partners projects include Ibis Golf & Country Club located in West Palm Beach, and Grande Champion, an 1,100-acre residential golf course community located in Daytona Beach.

West Palm Beach developer snaps up historic land [News-Press]

Lee starts up

Ranked 7th in nation for housing start increases

Lee County was ranked seventh in the nation and second in Florida for the largest increase in housing starts according to a new U.S. Census report.

As the report covers the time period of July 1, 2003 through July 1, 2004, Lee County quite possibly could rank even higher with current data. Cape Coral is on target for 7000 new single family permits for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005. This figure is up from the 4300 permits for the period covered in this census report.

Lure of Lee shown in jump in new housing starts [Naples Daily News]

Valuation drops?

A voice of doom in a sea of optimism

Housing prices are due for a correction in Lee County says retired newspaper publisher and Fort Myers resident Rick Diamond. He cites rising interest rates and an over-supply of new construction as key causes for this prediction.

Although, I am not in agreement about price declines, I do see a problem in the area of quality job creation. While unemployment remains very low in Southwest Florida and a significant quantity of new jobs are being created, the quality of these jobs is suspect at best.

One has to ponder what it will take to lure major corporations to the area. Is the new airport and the growing presence of Florida Gulf Coast University enough of a draw to attract the likes of an IBM, GE or Bank of America? Only time will tell, but with 500,000 residents now calling Lee County home, we have reached critical mass as a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and need to attract new businesses to the area.

Home prices due for correction [News-Press]

Florida foreigner friendly

15 percent of Florida buyers are international

A new study conducted by the National Association of Realtors revealed that 15 percent of Florida home sales are to international buyers.

Foreign buyer activity was concentrated in the following markets: Miami-Fort Lauderdale (30.4%); followed by Orlando (22.7%); Naples-Fort Myers (13.7%); Tampa- St. Petersburg (9.9%); Sarasota (9.9%) and West Palm Beach (5.8%). Only 7.6 percent of foreign buyers bought homes elsewhere in the state.

Although international buyers in Florida represented over 100 countries, nearly a third are from the United Kingdom. A third of international buyers were also from South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

In an attempt to attract new buyers from Asia, several new Miami condo projects have Asian names. One such project planned for the "Millionaires Row" on South Beach is Mei, which is named for the mythical Chinese symbol for beauty.

Locally, interest from European buyers remains strong as previously commented by Gulf Returns in March. The pending opening of the new Midfield Terminal at the Southwest Florida International Airport provides significantly more gate space that should prove attractive to international carriers.

Florida Homes Have Increasing International Appeal [RIS Media]
Foreigners big on Sarasota's real estate [Sun-Herald]
House not home: Foreigners buy up American real estate [Christian Science Monitor]

Riskiest housing markets

13 markets most likely to bust

The Kiplinger's August 2005 issue details 13 housing markets most likely to experience a drop in prices. Included in the article are a probability of decline. Boston tops the list with a whopping 53 percent chance of a drop in housing prices in the next two years.

Florida is well represented at the bottom of the list with Ft Lauderdale (19%), Miami (18%) and Tampa-St. Petersburg (14%) all included. No mention of the red-hot SW Florida Sarasota-to-Naples markets.

Boston (53%)
Los Angeles (40%)
San Francisco (40%)
Sacramento (40%)
Providence, RI (39%)
Detroit (38%)
New York (31%)
Minneapolis-St. Paul (25%)
Denver (21%)
Washington, DC (19%)
Ft. Lauderdale, (19%)
Miami, (18%)
Tampa-St. Petersburg, (14%)

The 13 Riskiest Housing Markets [Kiplinger's]

Charlotte values vaulting

Property values up 24 percent in Charlotte County

Despite the damage inflicted by by Hurricane Charley, the assessed value of all real property in Charlotte County increased 24 percent over last year.

Charlotte County Property Appraiser Frank Desguin set the base of taxable property at $16.1 billion. This figure is quite remarkable considering approximately $1 billion of value was removed from the tax rolls due to hurricane damage.

Hurricane or not, land values increase [Sun-Herald]

Punta Gorda top golf city

Rated as 3rd best golf community in nation by Golf Digest

Punta Gorda topped all Florida cities and scored 3rd place in a national survey of golf amenities in the 330 largest metropolitan areas in the country. Punta Gorda trailed only Auburn-Opelika AL and Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA in the report.

Locally, Fort Myers-Cape Coral checked in at No. 75 and Naples at No. 83.

The study was completed for Golf Digest by The Longitudes Group and utilized the following criteria: access to golf 45%; weather 25%; value of golf 15%; and quality of golf 15%.

Metro Golf Rankings - Best in America [Golf Digest]

Problematic pre-approvals

Many pre-approval letters are worthless

Surprise surprise -- a recent national survey of real estate agents revealed that 39 percent of all pre-approval letters issued by Internet based lenders are faulty or invalid. Additionally, nearly 30 percent of all mortgage broker issued pre-approvals are also faulty.

As down payment percentages shrink as more buyers enter the market, the quality of offers is declining. I consistently receive offers on listings with 100 percent financing contingencies. You just have to wonder about the long-term ability of this type of buyer to actually repay a mortgage, particularly one with an upward adjusting rate.

Some 'Preapprovals' Aren't Worth Ink They're Printed With [Washington Post]

Investor demographics

Some real estate investing data to chew on

25 percent of all real estate sales are to investors

The average household income of real estate investors is $78,000

The average investor down payment is 22 percent

The median price for an investor single family home is $148,000 vs. $175,000 median for an owner occupied single family home.

The average distance from an investor's home to an investment property is 18 miles.

Real estate investing: Profitable but risky game [Bankrate.com]

Lehigh sprouting

Lehigh single-family building permits up sharply

A sign that the Lee County real estate market remains healthy is the increase to 1025 single-family building permits in June, up 13 percent over May 2005 and a whopping 53 percent over June 2004.

These figures are for the unincorporated section of Lee County which includes Lehigh, Bonita Springs and Ft. Myers Beach. Lehigh represents 47% of the total. A significant percentage of the activity that I am seeing in Lehigh is from builders snapping up vacant lots throughout Lehigh.

The 711 new single-family permits in Cape Coral was slightly off the May 2005 figure of 724, But up 38 percent from June 2004's 516 permits.

With nearly 1800 new permits issued in June for the combined unincorporated Lee County and Cape Coral, it is tough to be anything but optimistic about our current market conditions.

Building value in '05 almost doubles [News-Press]

Fighting back

Lot owner suing over forged deed

In the ongoing saga of fraudulent deed transfers, A victim has filed suit against Alan B. Mentser of West Palm Beach, the individual that has been accused of illegally taking several vacant lots of the deceased.

Records show Mentser was fined $1,000 in 2001 by the state and had his real estate license suspended for six months for operating without a valid license and acting as a broker when he was only a real estate agent.

The FBI and state attorney's Economic Crimes Unit have said they are investigating the deed scam, but so far no arrests or indictments have been announced.

Woman sues over stolen lots [News-Press]

Lehigh prices double

Vacant land driving rapid escalation

According to figures released by the Lee County Appraisers Office, residential real estate prices in Lehigh were up 99 percent over the last year. It should be noted that this increase figure is highly skewed by the significant number of vacant lots that turned hands in this period.

The market just continues to crank, over the past couple of weeks I have sold lots to builders that were acquiring over 20 lots at a time. The amazing thing about the Lehigh market is that new construction activity is occurring almost everywhere throughout the 102 square mile community. Lehigh is the antithesis of a planned community like Celebration, FL or Reston, VA where construction moves in an orderly fashion according to a master plan.

The current population of Lehigh is approximately 50,000 residents and it is estimated that there are between 85,000-90,000 lots vacant plated lots in the community.

Lehigh's real estate turns red hot [News-Press]