A recent sales surge at North Star Yacht Club, a luxury riverfront condominium community in North Fort Myers, is consistent with several trends identified in the newly released 2010 Del Webb Baby Boomer survey that was conducted by Harris Interactive.

The survey found that when baby boomers consider places for retirement or a second home, proximity to shopping, walking trails, public transportation, doctors’ offices and churches loom large while proximity to golf courses was rated last.

The survey also revealed that 42 percent of today’s 50-year-olds plan to move during retirement, and 15 percent of those queried still opt for the Sunshine State which is ranked in the top 10 places to retire in the U.S.

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Sales of existing single-family homes in Lee County got off to a strong start in January, rising 47 percent from a year ago to 1,115.

The median price of homes in Lee, however, fell 4 percent year-over-year to $91,000, according to statistics released Friday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

For condominiums, sales increased 165 percent to 390 while the median price fell 6 percent to $121,400, the report stated.

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Lenders filed 1,420 foreclosure suits in February in Lee County — up 16 percent from January’s 1,228, according to statistics released today by the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investment Association.

February’s filings were down 49 percent from February 2009.

The pace of foreclosures in the county has been trending downward for the past several months.

Foreclosures peaked in October 2008 at 2,665.

Courtesy of the News Press

Contractors pulled permits to build 34 single-family homes in unincorporated Lee County in February — the same as January and up from 25 in February 2009, according to statistics released today by the county Department of Community Development.

Permits were issued for 18 multi-family units, compared to 16 in January and eight in February 2009.

As in January, no permits were issued for new commercial buildings.

However, 35 permits were issued in February for interior commercial remodeling valued at nearly $3.7 million, and a single permit valued at $2.1 million was issued for an addition to a commercial building.

In February 2009, permits for new commercial structures were valued at $10.3 million.

The home permits pulled in February were for a collective $6.5 million.

Thirty-three single-family permits were pulled in Cape Coral, two in Sanibel, one in Fort Myers Beach and 11 in Bonita Springs, according to building department officials in those jurisdictions.

Courtesy of the News Press

While Southwest Florida’s residential real estate market may have hit rock bottom, property owners and agents won’t be seeing the boom times of 2004 and 2005 in the foreseeable future. And the commercial real estate industry may face an even longer climb.

That was the message veteran brokers Denny Grimes and Stan Stouder delivered to more than 700 real estate professionals during Market Watch 2010 in downtown Fort Myers Thursday night.

“Recovering from morbid market obesity is a long process,” Grimes told the gathering at Harborside Convention Center. “Our market had to crash, we were the world’s fattest market.” (more…)

Home sellers and Realtors have a new message for potential buyers: Lowballers need not apply.

They are discouraging mere lookers and some bottom feeders by posting minimum prices on listings on the Multiple Listing Service database of available homes.

Roby Robinson was fed up with cleaning up and vacating his former home for showings that led to offers of half the listed price. Posting a minimum price on his home really helped.

“It stopped all the tire kickers,” Robinson said.

Two Fort Myers Beach agents, including Robinson’s Realtor, Kathi Mackes, took the unusual step of inserting the minimum price warning on several recent MLS listings.

Mackes and fellow Lahaina Realty agent Richard Fairfield were motivated by client complaints about frequent showings invariably drawing unsatisfactory bids.

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A satellite-irrigation system that has reduced water use by half at Mediterra will get four times bigger, according to plans.  An 18-month pilot study at the Naples community showed Toro’s IntelliSense system cut water use in half, compared to equivalent properties with traditional timed systems, according to Dennis Cafaro, general manager of Resource Conservation Systems.

Land Solutions, Inc. has successfully brokered the sale of about 690 undeveloped acres located on Bonita Beach Road formerly known as Bonita Beach Golf Club. The parcel is permitted for residential development. The $8M sale from RC Properties, LLC to BB Road, LLC also included 724 acres of off-site mitigation parcels located in Lee and Hendry counties.

The Land Solutions sales team, Randy Thibaut, Billy Rollins and Janie Hooker, acted as transactional brokers in the deal.

Land Solutions offers their clients “one stop shopping,” being experts in every aspect of the land development process, specializing in current market and valuation issues, acquisition and disposition services, due diligence evaluation, permitting status and compliance, work-out projects, asset management and land zoning and permitting.

Courtesy of Naples News

The financially troubled developer of Fiddler’s Creek has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, hoping to reorganize with the help of a new $25 million loan.

On Tuesday, Fiddler’s Creek LLC and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. They have $160 million in mortgage debt. On top of that they are obligated to pay $66 million to bondholders in two community development districts, which are generally set up by developers to finance roads, utilities and other community needs.

The Chapter 11 filing was made “to preserve the substantial equity that exists in the 4,000-acre luxury residential development,” according to a news announcement.

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Naples Bay Resort is facing foreclosure.

Regions Bank, headquartered in Alabama, has filed to foreclose on a $36 million mortgage for the 20-acre resort development near Tin City in downtown Naples. The action was filed Feb. 18 in Collier County Circuit Court against Basil Street Partners LLC, a partnership that includes well-known Naples developer Jack Antaramian and Fred Pezeshkan, the CEO of Kraft Construction Co. Inc. in Naples.

“It has been expected,” Antaramian said. “We hope to resolve it. But I guess they had no choice but to file the action to bring it to a head.”

The resort community sits off U.S. 41 on Naples Bay. It includes cottages, luxury homes and a condo hotel. The cost to develop the mixed-use project was about $200 million, Antaramian said.

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