Lee County’s home prices inch up, but sales may level off
BY DON MANLEY • DMANLEY@NEWS-PRESS.COM • AUGUST 22, 2009
Single-family home prices are climbing in Lee County and sales continued at a torrid pace in July, although there was a slight dip from June’s record-setting pace.
Meanwhile, sales across the nation and state are up, but with a drop in the median sales price.
A total of 1,570 single-family homes were sold with the assistance of a Realtor in Lee County in July, according to statistics released today by the Florida Association of Realtors. That’s down from a record-setting 1,705 sales in June, but the July total was staggering compared with the same month in 2008 – a 104 percent increase.
The median sales price for July in Lee County was $89,000, an increase over June’s median sales price of $87,900. For most of the past 31Ú2 years, the sales price has been dropping sharply.
Statewide, there were 115,882 Realtor-assisted sales in July, up 37 percent from July 2008. The median sales price was $147,600, down 24 percent from the July 2008 median price of $193,800.
In a separate report released Friday, the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of previously occupied homes rose for the fourth consecutive month, posting an increase of 7.2 percent – the largest increase in at least 10 years.
Experts say the flood of foreclosed homes that has hit the market is still glutting inventories and depressing prices. But some local experts say the red-hot market is about to cool, at least temporarily.
Fort Myers-based real estate broker Denny Grimes of Denny Grimes & Co. predicts sales numbers for August will show a decline because the pending sales for July (815) are down by 50 percent from June. Not all pending sales close, but pendings feed the number of closed sales.
Grimes cited three possible reasons for a drop in sales: July, August and September are traditionally slow sales months; an “interruption of supply line,” meaning fewer foreclosures hitting the market; or demand has declined, which Grimes said he doubts.
“We’ve had a fantastic year and we’ve had a great month, year over year, but before we go out and buy a bottle of Dom Perignon, July pending sales are down,” Grimes said. “The prudent person is going to keep the champagne on ice, and over a cup of coffee, try to figure out why are sales slowing.”
Banks have been releasing fewer foreclosed homes onto the market of late, perhaps hoping for prices to escalate, said Keith Campbell, a managing partner for Silverleaf Capital Group in Fort Myers. The company sometimes represents large investors who buy available homes in bulk.
Campbell theorized banks are being selective to avoid further depressing prices.
“I think the banks have been been besieged with so many properties that now, they’re ramped up to handle them with asset managers,” Campbell said.
He said investors will continue to be a force in Southwest Florida.
“There’s a lot of money trying to come in from outside the area because of all the press we’ve received,” Campbell said.
That helped feed the uptick in prices. Demand is outpacing supply, said Steve Koffman, a real estate broker with Century 21 Sunbelt in Cape Coral.
“We’re clearly seeing inventory levels drop and that’s because of extraordinarily low prices,” Koffman said.
“The mindset of the buyers today is very much what it was in ‘04 and ‘05, with people wanting to buy before prices get too high. The one major difference is we’re selling houses below replacement cost, and back in ‘04 and ‘05, we were not.”
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