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.

Active adult communities are quite popular in Southwest Florida and offer an exciting lifestyle option for many of our residents.

With an extensive schedule of activities, Fort Myers 55+ communities help newcomers quickly acclimate to their new community.  It is easy to quickly meet other residents with similar interests and hobbies.  Social activities, sports and crafts are among the more popular items available in these 55+ communities.

Generally, these communities have deed restrictions that require at least one owner of the property to be at least 55 years of age.  These restriction do not generally preclude a younger spouse or even a child from living with you in the community.

Popular 55+ communities in the greater Fort Myers area include:

• Cascades at Estero – Single-family Homes
• Cascades at River Hall – Single-family Homes
• Cinnamon Cove – Condos, Villas & Single-family Homes
• Heritage Cove – Condos, Villas & Single-family Homes
• Pelican Preserve – Condos, Carriage Homes, Villas & Single-family Homes
• Seven Lakes – Condos & Villas

There are other Fort Myers 55+ active adult communities in the area that our team can assist you with.

One of the most succinct ways to summarize our real estate market in Southwest Florida is that right now it is a good time to be a buyer and a challenging time to be a seller.

A Forbes study ranks the Cape Coral-Fort Myers market at -8% for home-equity-to-home-value, the second worst in the nation.  This current underwater position is a dramatic a shift from the 68% home-equity-to-home-value that Southwest Floridians enjoyed in 2006.

The loss in value has pushed Southwest Florida home prices down to levels of about 8 years ago, well before the bubble run-up.  These significant price drops have made it most challenging for any homeowner who purchased after about 2003 to break even when selling a home.

For buyers, the equation is very different.  Many properties here in Southwest Florida are selling well below the actual cost to build a similar home.  Some of the best deals can be found with bank-owned foreclosures.  Here is a resource to view active Southwest Florida foreclosure listings.  The best priced bank-owned properties are currently in many cases attracting multiple offers and selling at or above asking price.

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.

1. Boating – 400+ miles of navigable canals
2. Weather – average annual temperature of 75 degrees
3. Affordable homes – median sales price of $94,000 in 2009
4. Good schools – part of the respected Lee County System
5. Friendly residents – most people are just really nice
6. Short Commutes  – easy access to commercial and government hubs in Fort Myers
7. Beaches – close to outstanding SW Florida beaches
8. Family and Friends – lots of out of town visitors during winter
9. Diversity – everyone is welcome in Cape Coral
10. Sunsets – my favorite is looking over the Spreader Canal

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.

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.   Particularly for foreclosures, much of the discount on these properties is reflected in the aggressive selling price.

The numbers speak for themselves regarding the ratio of selling price to listing price.  In 2009, 20,480 residential properties were sold in Lee County for a total of $2.7B.  The average listing price was $140,706 and the average selling price was $132,068.  This represents an average selling price to listing price ratio of 94%.  Anyone who tells you that banks are accepting offers at 50% of asking price is just not dealing with reality.

Complete inventories of Estero foreclosure listings, Fort Myers foreclosure listings and Cape Coral foreclosure listings are available on our site.

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.  While this would be great news and cause for celebration, I think it is truly difficult to really make a definitive bottom prediction until you have moved well past the bottom.

A Miami Herald article titled, Real-estate bottom is not when things appear to be better, rang true with me and all these bottom predictions.  The article suggests that despite the uptick in sales and decreasing inventories that we have seen in 2009, we are truly not at the bottom.  The article opines that government intervention is the cause for the apparent market improvement.  Two examples cited include the first time buyers tax credits and court systems that are stalled due to being clogged with foreclosures.

While I don’t think I will truly know the bottom until it hits me over the head, we are continuing to see significant interest in well-priced Fort Myers foreclosures and Estero foreclosures from those looking for a pre-retirement second home.  Tough to argue with a 70 degree day down here when the Northeast is getting slammed with a foot of snow!

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 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 drivers for this class of buyer.  Most of the buyers in this category are paying cash.  This opens the market up to deeply discounted condo projects that are currently not finance-able with conventional mortgages.

Here is an excerpt from the Credit Suisse report:

Here is a resource to view Fort Myers real estate including all the currently available active listings.  There are interesting bargains to be had across all housing types and pricing levels.

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.

Cape Coral has a beautiful new addition with the opening of Tarpon Point’s Resort at MarinaVillage.  This new 19-story resort hotel offers comcierge and spa services along with shops, waterfront dining and a 175 slip marina.  The spectacular views from the MarinaVillage property are include the Caloosahatchee River, San Carlos Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

If you are considering a trip to Southwest Florida this winter to look at property,  the Resort at MarinaVillage offers a luxury alternative to other Southwest Florida resort complexes including Sanibel Harbour Resort and South Seas Island Resort.  Fractional ownership options are available at the MarinaVillage.

Congratulations to the Grosse Point Development Company for completing this beautiful project in our currently challenged market.

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.

The trail of false promises, scammed investors and deceit just never seems to end when it comes to Russ Whitney. His latest venture, Millionaire University is the subject of a class action suit filed by a group of scammed students. Basically, Millionaire University ran late night infomercials designed to lure naive real estate investor wannabees to a free seminar.  At these seminars they convinced students to sign up for costly seminars and eventually over-pay for inferior new construction investments.

Its scam artists like Russ Whitney, Samir Cabrera and others that have made significant contributions to the Southwest Florida real estate foreclosure mess.  With the record sales that have been occurring over the past couple of quarters, we are digging our way out of this hole.  Investors are finding some interesting opportunities with Cape Coral foreclosure properties and Fort Myers foreclosure properties.

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.