Lee County Home Prices Increase

The median price for area homes reached $96,900 in May compared with $88,500 in May 2009 — a 9 percent jump, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Home sales rose 3 percent from 1,417 homes sold in May 2009 to 1,460 homes sold last month.

But sales fell slightly from April’s 1,473 homes sold — 13 more than were sold in May.

The slowdown in home sales was expected with federal tax credit programs such as those for first-time home buyers closing up, said Steve Koffman, a real estate broker with Century 21 Sunbelt in Cape Coral.

But the bounty of foreclosure homes that was available a year ago has already begun to dry up. In May, 847 foreclosure lawsuits were filed in the county: That’s 976 fewer than in the same month a year ago.

“Some of the slowdown that you’re seeing is that $60,000 homes don’t look as good today as they did six months ago,” Koffman said.

Brett Ellis, a real estate agent with Remax Realty Group in Fort Myers, agrees and said he expects to see a drop in foreclosure sales for June.

He said there are fewer bargain homes because there are fewer foreclosures. Foreclosures have dropped partly because banks are more willing to do short sales, Ellis said.

Having fewer foreclosures coming into the market has helped boost the median prices for Lee County homes, Ellis said.

Koffman has started seeing more traditional home listings in the marketplace, where people aren’t selling their home due to a foreclosure or the need for a short sale.

Even with prices ticking up, homes here are a bargain for people looking to live in sunny Florida.

Diana Myers, a Bloomington, Ill., resident, remembers her annual winter vacations to Captiva as a child and has always had a fondness for the area. Now, she and her husband are looking here to buy their first home together.

“When we saw how the housing market was, and saw how it was a buyer’s market, we thought it was a great opportunity and hoped to take advantage of that.”

Myers toured homes in the $150,000 range and saw a blend of traditional homes and foreclosed homes.

And this is the season to buy homes in Lee County. In the past few years, the real estate industry has seen a surge in interest during June and July for buyers looking at property while kids are out of school, while sales for off-water homes remain steady, Koffman said.

Nationally, the median price in May was $179,600, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.

However, last month’s sales fell 2.2 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million.

Existing home sales have climbed 25 percent from the 4.5 million annual rate they hit in January 2009 — the lowest level of the recession. But they’re still down 22 percent from the peak rate of 7.25 million in September 2005.

Federal tax credits of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and up to $6,500 for existing homeowners helped prop up sales in May. The deadline to get a signed sales contract and qualify was April 30. Buyers must close their purchases by June 30.

While median home prices are on the rise, Koffman said Lee County real estate is still experiencing a healing process.

“This is not going to be a simple process,” Koffman said. “Our economy is working its way out of the mess that it’s in and the overbuilding is correcting itself.”

Courtesy of News Press