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The News-Press reports that the Lee County Commissioners discussed the possibility of acquiring highly-discounted Lehigh Acres residential lots and bundling them together for industrial and commercial development: Lee County should stock up on cheap lots, a county commissioner suggested. Frank Mann said Thursday the county ought to buy discounted lots in Lehigh Acres, bundle them and sell [...] Bye Bye First Homes An ugly era in the annuls of Southwest Florida real estate history came to an end yesterday when Hovnanian sold the last 1,409 lots it owns in Southwest Florida. Hovnanian sold these remaining lots to a Czech investment group for about $3,000 each, a far cry from the peak value about [...] The St. Petersburg Times covers the early history of Lehigh Acres in an article titled, Lehigh Acres: Florida’s Lesson in Unregulated Growth. This article is a must read for anyone considering an investment in Lehigh Acres. The sad truth is that Lehigh Acres was developed to sell cheap land to Northerners, with little regard for [...] Our Lot: How Real Estate Came To Own Us, a new book by Alyssa Katz, prominently features the Lee County real estate bubble. The Lee County chapter focuses on the flipping that occurred in Lehigh Acres during the height of the market run-up. Anyone who participated in the Lehigh flipping frenzy will certainly want [...] 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 [...] An auction of of 51 REO-owned properties is being held at 7 p.m. August 5, 2008, at the Ambassador Riverfront Hotel located at 2500 Edwards Drive in Fort Myers, Florida. The auctioneer for this event is Rick Levin & Associates, Inc. The properties being auctioned off are primarily single-family homes located in Cape Coral and Lehigh [...] Lee County is getting youngerThe Fort Myers area is undergoing a significant demographic shift with the average age of our residents rapidly dropping. Much of this growth has occurred in Cape Coral and Lehigh as families have been attracted to these communities in large numbers. Since 2000, Lee County has added over 100,000 residents. It is [...] Mayday…..mayday….. Here is a quick May Day look at a key real estate metric, pending to active(p:a) ratio, for the greater Fort Myers real estate market. I like this metric as it provides a macro view of the current market conditions. Fort Myers residential p:a ratio = 8.2% (pending=533 active=6481) Major development pushing eastward The News-Press coverage of the rapidly increasing level of development activity in Alva caused me to pause and think about the future of Lehigh Acres. Each additional step towards the development of the Babcock Ranch also causes me to ponder the future of Lehigh. I recently took the nature tour at the Babcock [...] Westminster area neighbors push for stricter codes The large number of investor owned duplex units in the Westminster area has brought a set new of problems to the area. Many of these duplex units have been constructed without paved driveways and lack any exterior landscaping. Often, the landscaping gets set aside at the end of the project [...] Double up on rental income Pop quiz: What do taxes, traffic, 200+ days of sunshine and duplex rental income have in common? Answer: Sure things in SW Florida. A duplex is a two unit home that can be used in a split manner with one of the units serving as the primary residence and other as a rental [...] Lehigh Acres gated community Lehigh Acres is now attracting developers interested in building gated communities. MW Johnson Construction of Lakeville, Minnesota is developing Shadow Lakes, a gated and deed-restricted community, in Lehigh Acres. The project will include of 112 estate homes and 138 executive homes with two lakes and will be surrounded by a canal. Lehigh Acres [...] Proximity to Ft. Myers & I-75 The western-most neighborhood in Lehigh, bounded by Lee Boulevard, Alvin Avenue and Buckingham Road is a hot sector of the SW Florida real estate market. Location is everything and this neighborhood is less than four miles to I-75 exit 136 via Colonial Boulevard. Shopping is very convenient from West Lehigh, particularly [...] Value increases lead to increased delinquent tax collections Lehigh Acres is one of a kind, 90,000 vacant residential lots and nowhere to build new schools. With 50,000 current residents and capacity for around 300,000 residents when fully built out, Lehigh is expected to need around 25 new schools over the next 20 years. The plan was for [...] 600 new homes permitted each month in Lehigh New homes have been rising at a breakneck pace in Lehigh Acres for months, but commercial growth along Lee Boulevard, the area’s main corridor, has been slow to catch up. But with the construction of the Shoppes of Lehigh, a new 25,000-square-foot shopping center at the busy corner of [...] Haunted warehouse on SW 10th St?? Juicee News Daily reports on haunted locations across Florida including an abandoned warehouse in Lehigh Decorating diva hits SW Florida America’s favorite bad girl, Martha Stewart, is partnering with KB Homes and will decorating model homes in SW Florida for Halloween. The KB featured models are located in Deep Creek at 24500 Sandhill Blvd; in Lehigh Acres in the Town Lakes community at 18351 Pine Nut Court and in Cape Coral [...] Apprentice sidekick comments on Cape Coral & Lehigh George Ross, who recently wrote a great book, Trump Strategies for Real Estate: Billionaire Lessons for the Small Investor, hosted an on-line chat on Boston.com. Here is bearish feedback from George to a question about the Cape Coral & Lehigh real estate market: jc: Q: The Florida market, Cape [...] Lots of lots on the block John Bickel has an alternative approach for buyers and sellers of Lehigh land. Every other month he holds a real estate auction featuring Lehigh Acres vacant land. The upcoming auction this Saturday features 70 quarter and half acre parcels. Recent auctions held by other groups have seen property actually selling for [...] What exactly is a strap number? Every parcel of property in Lee County has been assigned a unique identifier called a “STRAP” number. A strap number is a 17 digit identifier in the form of Section – Township – Range – Area – Block – Lot.We use the strap number property identification system as a result [...] Over 100 lots sold over market prices 128 Lehigh Acres lots were auctioned off on Friday at Germain Arena in Estero. The auction company reports the lots sold 10 to 15 percent above market price, on average going for about $50,000 each. Tough to understand why someone would pay over market for a vacant lot in [...] Investor group snaps up local golf courses Lehigh as a golf destination vacation location………if Greentree Investments has their way, it just might happen. This investor group has acquired the Admiral Lehigh Golf Resort and Mirror Lakes Golf Club. The group plans to improve the courses and promote golf tourism. The Admiral course includes a 131-unit resort with [...] Lehigh homeowner sued by county to clean yard If you are investing in Lehigh, stay away from the 600 block of Michael Ave. This block of highly desirable half-acre parcels, located just east of Joel Blvd., is home to Frances Caronna. Mr. Caronna has so much junk in his yard that the Lee County Commissioners have [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] Values up 27 percent across Lee County Property values in Lehigh Acres were up 95 percent in 2004 based on figures released by Lee County. “It’s the strangest, strongest year I’ve ever seen,” said Ken Wilkinson, the county property appraiser who released the numbers Tuesday. “Five or six years ago, you couldn’t give those Lehigh lots away. Now [...] Many property listings are not customer friendlyThe market in Lehigh never ceases to amaze me. Currently property is escalating in price on an almost daily basis and investors are snapping up every well-priced parcel within hours of it hitting the market. A common practice among some many Lehigh realtors is to ask the buyer to [...] Uninformed owners hooked by below market offers Several local firms and individuals are reaching out to lot owners located afar with below market and often misleading purchase offers. With the recent price escalations in Lehigh, vacant lots that were selling for $6000 two years ago are now routinely commanding over $40,000. Many of the original buyers of [...] $577M East-West Connector ProposedAs I find my self spending an ever increasing amount of time stuck in traffic on Colonial Boulevard, the proposed new Veterans-Colonial express lanes would provide welcome relief. The consulting and engineering firm PBS&J has completed a plan to ease the flow of traffic on the critical Veterans-Colonial route. The plan includes intersection [...] Multifamily permits up 236 percent Impressive as Lehigh Acres’ single-family home statistics are, duplexes are even hotter. Multifamily building permits in Lehigh rose 236 percent from 169 permits in 2003 to 567 in 2004, according to the Lee County Community Development Department. Duplexes often represent an outstanding opportunity for real estate investors to quickly create positive cash [...] |
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