The latest Brookings Institute State of Metropolitan America Report has some very interesting data regarding the Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).  This area is categorized as a Mid-Sized Magnet with similar characteristics (high growth, low diversity, low education) as cities including: Baton Rouge, LA; Boise, ID; Greenville, SC; Jacksonville, FL; Little Rock, AR and Oklahoma City, OK.

Some of the key indicators about the Cape Coral – Lee County including our ranking out of the top 100 MSAs:

• Total population: 593,136     US Rank: 86

• % change in population 2000-2008: 33.6%      US Rank: 4

• % non-white population% 27.4%      US Rank: 56

• % of population that is foreign-born: 15.1%     US Rank: 27

• % of population age 45 and over 47.3%     US Rank: 3

• Percent seniors (65+) 22.9%     US Rank: 2

• Percent adults with bachelor’s degrees 26.1%     US Rank: 74

• % of households that are married couples with children: 16.2%     US Rank: 97

• Median household income: $51,081     US Rank: 60

The age demographics truly jumped out at me, with our region ranking second nationally for senior citizens and third for baby boomers.  The baby boomer (45+) stats truly correlate with what we are seeing in the trenches.  The overwhelming majority of our customers right now fall into the pre-retirement baby boomer demographic bucket.  Many have lost confidence in the stock market and are looking to reallocate assets away from the stock market and into a piece of Fort Myers real estate.  Key drivers for this demographic group include a move toward urbanism, a growing interest in amenity-rich gated communities and 55+ communities.

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.

Canadians are drawn to the Fort Myers area for our average annual temperatures of 72 F, our year round golfing and our Gulf coastline.  The Southwest Florida market downturn has reduced home prices in many upscale communities to a level of unprecedented affordability. Buying a Fort Myers foreclosure property from a bank is an approach many Canadians are taking to get the absolute best deal.

If you are considering a real estate investment in Southwest Florida, it is important to understand all the costs involved with both the transaction itself as well carry costs after you own the property.  A  Montreal Gazette column titled, Is it time to bottom fish for real estate in the U.S.? discusses these issues and is a must read for any Canadian considering an investment in Southwest Florida.

Zen Gardens Growing in Popularity throughout Southwest Florida

Sanibel Zen Garden

Long popular on the West Coast, creating a zen area in a home or yard is catching on in Southwest Florida.  The Zen movement has Buddhist roots emanating from China and utilizes meditation to attain enlightenment.

With year round temperatures averaging 75 degrees, most Southwest Florida Zen areas have been built outside in the form of a Zen garden.  Zen gardens are often viewed as a living work of art and often feature prominent stone compositions.  The living elements in the Zen garden are carefully pruned to create a near static picture-scape.

Here locally, the South Fort Myers high-rise development of Mastique has a shared Zen garden for its residents.  Also, there are currently a handful of single-family homes on the market with Zen gardens.  An estate home listed for $2.229M in the Fort Myers luxury gated community of Devonwood features an outdoor Zen area with a koi pond.  On Sanibel, in the waterfront sailboat access of Sanibel Isles, a single-family home listed for $2.1M features a wonderfully peaceful Zen garden.

If you are interested in learning more about Zen real estate in Southwest Florida, we are here to assist.

ABC-7 reports that a German shepherd named Snoop is being trained to identify Chinese drywall.  This innovative  approach to identifying toxic drywall is great news for Southwest Florida.  Snoop should be able to find the drywall even if it is just a sheet or two and not prevelant throughout the entire house.

I have another use for Snoop and that is to have him spend some 1 on 1 time with Realtors that are knowingly listing homes with Chinese drywall and not disclosing its presence.  The Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Board of Realtors needs to step up and create and enforce specific rules about listings containing or suspected of containing Chinese drywall.

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 figures released by the Realtor board include:

• An increase in homes sales over November 2008 of 70.5%
• 2009 YTD single-family home sales of 15,336 – up from 8,768 for all of 2008
• November sales included 47.4% bank owned, 18.9% short sales and 33.7% conventional
• MLS inventory of 6,976 homes down from 12,106 in November 2008

It is a great time to be a buyer in Southwest Florida, there are interesting opportunities across all housing types and price ranges.  Use our map tool to start your search of every active listing in the Greater Fort Myers area.

The Bradenton Herald reports that Chinese drywall saga is entering a crucial phase:

Within the next few weeks, officials expect to determine how much of a fire hazard, if any, the contaminated product poses. They’ll also have a better idea of how much the drywall contaminates the air inside affected homes. A federal judge is expected to decide which of the several hundred lawsuits that have been filed over the product will be the first to go to trial.

And the White House will raise the issue for the first time when President Barack Obama visits China this week.

It will be interesting to see if President Obama puts the hammer down on the Chinese to cough up some funding to fix drywall problem.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports on short sale flipping fraud that is becoming more prevalent here in Southwest Florida.

In a nutshell, real estate professionals and investors are teaming up to by undervalued distressed properties from banks and then immediately flipping the property to a new buyer at a hefty increase.  The short sale flippers often cross the legal line with bogus broker price opinions (BPOs) to misrepresent the properties market value to the lender.

It is great to see that the DOJ is going after two real estate agents in Connecticut that have been charged with engaging in short sale mortgage fraud schemes.

The NY Times has an informative article about seller expectations and the consequences of listing a home for sale at an unrealistic price point. In our market, distressed properties are the baseline which are setting the pricing bar across most communities and sectors.

If you are selling in a community that has short sale or foreclosures, these distressed units will generally be the price leaders in the community.  Until these distressed price leaders sell, traditional sellers should expect buyer offers to reflect pricing based on these distressed units.  Getting an offer based upon distressed pricing is a bitter pill to swallow, but unfortunately is what we are dealing with right now.

Our site offers pricing information on over 600 communities in the Greater Fort Myers area.  It is a great resource to stay up to date on asking prices in your community.  If you are considering a sale of your property and looking for an objective opinion of value, please drop us a quick note.

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 drivers that should be considered include lifestyle goals and investment expectations.

An investment by a Canadian in Florida real estate is certainly a decision that should not be rushed into.  It can be most helpful to visit or rent in a community prior to making the decision to buy.  Our team is hearing from many Canadians who have previously taken this approach and are now considering a purchase primarily due to the significant price reductions on much of the real estate inventory in Southwest Florida.  Popular areas for Canadian buyers include Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach and Estero.

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 activity is putting a big dent in our inventory of available homes.  Currently there are 6,809 single-family homes available in the MLS system, down from over 12, 000 in September of 2008.

Bank-owned properties are currently about half of the monthly sales, here is a resource to view available Fort Myers foreclosure listings.

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 using resources like our schools, were being penalized because they didn’t qualify for a homestead exemption.   These second homeowners have had very little power to change this inequity as they are not residents, don’t vote and are not represented in Tallahassee.

With the drastic reduction in home values throughout our region, the Homestead Act is now penalizing homesteaders as their valuation reductions are capped at a maximum of 3%.  It will be interesting to see if these penalized homesteaders can generate enough of a voice to repeal this unfair act and and  bring normalcy to Florida real estate valuations.

NBC-2 reports that 25% of all homes sold in Collier County are to foreigners. Attracting new buyers with exchange-rate goosed dollars to the market is truly the best way for us to pull this housing market up and out of the downturn. Over the past year, the top foreign countries for visitors to my real estate web site are: Canada (7.3%); Germany (1.1%) and United Kingdom (.9%).

Estero, with its location close to Naples and the beautiful Estero Island beaches, is a Southwest Florida community popular with foreign buyers.

Here is the latest news regarding Chinese Drywall which has been found in hundreds of homes and condos in Southwest Florida.  It is good to see the publicly traded builders stepping up and taking responsibility for this problem.

Publicly traded builders are being grilled by analysts about their liability in using defective Chinese drywall.

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has announced that it built about 400 homes between 2006 and 2007 using the foul-smelling, corrosive material. It has set aside $40 million to make repairs and expects to get about half that back in insurance.

Another Florida-based developer WCI communities, which is set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will face an estimated 160 potential cases.

D.R. Horton Inc., Beazer Homes USA Inc., and Ryland Group Inc., all have announced very small numbers of affected homes.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. will report its third-quarter results on Wednesday and is expected to report some drywall exposure as well.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Dawn Wotapka (09/02/2009)

The Star provides a how to guide for Canadians interested in buying distressed Florida real estate.

The Fort Myers area is popular with Canadian buyers.  Right now, Fort Myers foreclosures and Cape Coral foreclosures are selling at highly discounted prices.  With the strong Canadian Dollar, the opportunity to invest in Florida real estate has never been better.

The fall is a great time for Canadians to visit Southwest Florida before the winter tourist season kicks in.  Low airfares and hotel rates provide the perfect environment for finding a place to call your own in Southwest Florida.

The NY Times details the current state the Florida real estate market.  The highlight of the piece for me was comparing the Florida real estate market with Mickey Rouke’s character in the movie The Wrestler.

Change was often discussed during the 2008 election and after the financial meltdown, but Florida these days often resembles the character played by its native son Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler: a broken-down piece of meat, damaged and sincere, but a little too messed up to drop familiar habits.

The good news for our market here in Southwest Florida is that there are an awful lot of bargain hunters panning for gold in the foreclosure space.  As summer fades to fall, we should only have more buyers visiting the area and participating in this sell-off.

According to a recent USA Today article, only 23% of short sale deals actually ever close. This figure came from a February 2009 survey by Campbell Communications of 1,300 Realtors. More than 90% of the agents cited slow responses from the lender as the reason that short sales were lost.

These figures certainly jive with what our team has experienced in the distressed property trenches of Southwest Florida.  It can be challenging trying to convince an eager buyer that the aggresively priced short sale listing has a very low probability of closing.  We are experiencing far higher closing percentages with foreclosure listings.

Here is a free resource that is updated daily to view Southwest Florida foreclosures:

• Bonita Springs foreclosures
• Cape Coral foreclosures
• Estero foreclosures
• Fort Myers foreclosures
• Fort Myers Beach foreclosures
• Pine Island foreclosures

If you do decide to move forward and make an offer on a short sale, please read this blog post about the questions that you need answered prior to submitting the short sale offer.

The economic downturn has left some slips empty at the Cape Coral Yacht Club. If you are looking for a slip in Southwest Florida, now is a good time to jump on these openings.

For those looking for a dock directly behind their home, there are a wide varitey of Cape Coral gulf access homes currently on the market.

The Chinese drywall problems plaguing SW Florida were highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Anyone looking at purchasing a SW Florida homes built in the 2002-2006 timeframe should absolutely have a housing inspection performed by a building inspector with experience with Chinese drywall detection.

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 short sales represented 76% of the June 2009 sales in Lee County. It will be interesting to see how the local rental market holds up as a majority of these sales were to cash buyers that will be renting them out.

Cape Coral foreclosure and Fort Myers foreclosure inventories continue to offer buying opportunities as court system works through the existing backlog of over 20,000 foreclosures.