Canadian buyers are very active in the real estate market here in Southwest Florida. At this time, approximately 7% of our website traffic originates in Canada and over 10% of our transaction in the last year have been with Canadian buyers.
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WGCU hosted a panel of Southwest Florida real estate experts including Dick Hogan from the Fort Myer News-Press. One of the buyer misconceptions about our current Fort Myers area real estate market is that banks will approve ultra-aggressive, low-ball offers on short sales and foreclosures. Approving low-ball offers in Lee County has absolutely not been the operating model for lending institutions during 2009. Throughout much of 2009, the News-Press has been chock full of local Realtors discussing how our Southwest Florida real estate market has reached the bottom……and is headed upward. The Realtor Association of Fort Myers and the Beach released November 2009 home sales numbers which highlight significantly increased levels of activity in our market. These figures reinforce the sentiment of our team which has been extremely busy with second home buyers looking to take advantage of our reduced home prices. Highlights from the November 2009 [...] The November 2009 Credit Suisse Monthly Survey of Realtors confirms what we are currently seeing in the Fort Myers market. Pre-retirement baby-boomers are taking a serious look for a second home in Southwest Florida. Our highly discounted prices are very enticing and the continued strength of the stock market this year are two of the key [...] With the Loonie at parity with the US Dollar and across the board price reductions, many Canadians are now considering an investment in Southwest Florida real estate. The Canadian Press reports that the currency equality is very enticing but shouldn’t be the key driver in your decision to buy real estate in Florida. Some of [...] The Naples News reports that single-family home re-sales in the Fort Myers area are up 120% for the first nine months of 2009 vs. the same period last year. In the January thru September period this year, 12,526 single-family homes were sold, up from 5,727 in the same period of 2008. This dramatic increase in sales [...] Over the past few years, I have been rather critical of the Save Our Homes Amendment as I have historically believed that it placed an unfair burden on the lifeline of Southwest Florida……..second home owners. It has always seemed very unfair to me that second homeowners, who were down here on a seasonal basis and not [...] Lee County home sales soared to 1,705 in June 2009, up from 1,417 in May 2009. Additionally, sales are up 137% from the 719 homes sold in June 2008. The median price of these June sales was $87,900, a slight drop from the May median of $88,500. Distressed properties that were either foreclosures or [...] Maybe they should start using Becky in front of the $1m Gulf Harbour homes that aren’t moving! For those of you considering dipping your toe in the Florida real estate market, Jim Cramer believes that we are at the bottom. The supporting logic behind this proclamation is that builders stopped new construction in Florida two years ago and inventory is being absorbed by our continued low interest rates. Cramer suggests [...] I was just reading a hot debate on Trulia about home price escalation in Cape Coral during 2009. Several individuals tossed out estimates about their view on the percentage that prices have gone up this year in Cape Coral. The fact of the matter is that median home prices in Cape Coral have not materially changed [...] According to figures recently released by Realty Trac, the Cape Coral – Fort Myers area experienced a drop in the number of foreclosure filings in May 2009. There were 1,803 filings in the region in May 2009, down from 1,902 filings in April 2009. With this drop the Lee County area fell from first to [...] According to Preliminary reports by the Lee County Property Appraiser, property values in Lee County have on average dropped by 25% over the last year. The key driver is that over 80% of our arms length transactions have been distressed sales. The latest data released by RealtyTrac and reported by NBC2 reveals that foreclosures in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area were up 31% for the month of April 2009. In April, a staggering one in 57 homes in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area received a notice of foreclosure. This ratio ranks our region 2nd in the [...] With the housing downturn in full force, developer Syd Kitson has announced plans to turn his Babcock Ranch project into the nation’s first solar-powered city. While I applaud Mr. Kitson for his creative thinking and interest in conservation and the green movement, the absolute last thing that we need right now in Southwest [...] One of the greater Fort Myers area real estate statistics that I monitor is the ratio of selling price to listing price. We are currently experiencing very high selling price to listing price ratios, currently at 96% over the last 30 days for residential sales in Lee County. This SP-LP ratio is up [...] Florida Weekly dives into the Southwest Florida real estate market with an article titled, Bipolar Housing. Several local real estate pros are interviewed and give their thoughts and opinions on the roller coaster ride that is our housing market. The nation is taking notice of our low prices, Fort Myers foreclosures and Cape Coral foreclosures [...] According to stats recently released by the Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Board of Realtors, membership was down about 10% in 2009 vs 2008. Hard to argue that a culling of the herd isn’t a good thing when it comes to Lee County Realtor ranks. The New York Times covers the economic challenges facing Southwest Florida, and in particular Lehigh Acres in an article titled In Florida, Despair and Foreclosures. The article details the boom years and what has occurred since the real estate market busted. This article is a must read for anyone that has an interest in [...] What a treat it was for me to pick up the News-Press this morning and read not one, but two upbeat and constructive articles about Southwest Florida. The News-Press story highlighting the benefits of owning a second home in Southwest Florida will certainly strike a chord with anyone up north suffering through the worst winter in [...] Florida Weekly has a light and entertaining article about our gateway to the world, Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW). There is something uplifting about landing at RSW on a flight from up north. Shedding the jacket and long pants, opting for a pair of flip flops and digging through the luggage for the sunglasses. With an [...] Over the past couple of weeks, calls from the Canadian area codes of 289; 416; 418; 450; 514; 519; 613; 647; 705; 807; 819 and 905 have increased dramatically on our phone lines. In fact, more than 1/2 of the international inquires that we receive are from Canadians. With lows of -5°F predicted for this [...] Market stats recently released by the Greater Fort Myers and the Beach MLS substantiate what we are seeing in the trenches. Sales in December 2008 were up a whopping 181 percent over December 2007. In December, 1,034 homes sold, up from 367 a year ago. Buyers are back in a big way and the [...] One of the questions that buyers of a second home in Florida face is whether or not to establish residency in Florida. The Bristol Press covers this issue in a column titled, Should “snowbirds” change state residency? Although this article is written by a Connecticut attorney referring to Connecticut laws, the main themes [...] According to statistics released by Realtor.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors, real estate web searches in the greater Fort Myers area increased by 57% in October 2008 vs. October of last year. We are seeing similar trends on our www.greaterftmyers.com site. Searches with significant consumer interest are for short sale [...] Palo Alto, Cambridge, Ann Arbor, Austin and Reston come to mind when you think of high-tech wired cities, but Cape Coral? Yes, the Cape was recently recognized by the Center For Digital Government as the 8th most wired city in the country for its population category. Outstanding column in Naples Daily News offering buyer advice for navigating through today’s market conditions. The column is authored by Tom Selck, a semi-retired architect and owner of Design Outside the Box. Forbes magazine recently ranked Captiva Island as one of the most expensive zip codes in the US. No argument here from the peanut gallery as it is close to $2M for a decent single-family home on Captiva these days. One bedroom Captiva condos in South Seas developments like Bayside Villas or Tennis Villas start in [...] |
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