Undeveloped property being sold at an up to 90 percent discount
That’s what the market looks like these days for undeveloped property in Southwest Florida – especially if it’s already zoned for development.
So far, it’s mainly investors on the buying end as a glut of unsold or foreclosed-on houses keeps down home prices, said Fort Myers-based [...]

Lennar Homes has identified about 400 homes with Chinese drywall that were delivered in Florida, mainly in its 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, the company announced this afternoon in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That represents 2.1 percent of the homes delivered in Florida and 0.5 percent nationally by the Miami-based builder.
The defective [...]

July 15: The Fed adopts a plan to curb shady mortgage practices. Lax lending standards during the heady days of the housing boom ended up burning the riskiest “sub-prime” borrowers—people with tarnished credit or low incomes—because they got loans they couldn’t afford or didn’t understand.
July 30: President Bush signs into law the Housing and Economic [...]

Foreclosure stripping is a crime, and it has a victim. It’s you.
Neighborhoods are losing more than just neighbors. Homeowners in foreclosure are ripping out bathtubs, wiring, countertops, sinks, windows, garage doors and even the palm trees from the front yard and selling them for cash.
As a result, property values are falling and the tax collections [...]

Southwest Florida’s real estate market is down, but it has been down before and will recover because of the area’s attractive lifestyle.  That was the message from experts at a town hall meeting held this evening by the University of Florida Friends and Alumni of Real Estate at the Islamorada Fish Co. restaurant at the [...]

The sign on the wall in my high school football locker room read, “Failing to Prepare, is Preparing to Fail.” Never has this been truer if you are considering buying a foreclosed property today. There are many pitfalls that can befall the novice foreclosure property buyer. Failing to prepare in this case can cost you [...]

Property tax rates will stay the same for Lee County homeowners next year — at least for those who don’t live in one of the dozens of special taxing districts.  County commissioners voted Monday to establish the same maximum county-wide tax rate. They could vote to lower it at budget hearings in September but cannot [...]

The number of foreclosure lawsuits filed in June in Lee County fell to 1,830 from May’s 1,896 and stayed well below the frantic pace of a year ago when 2,390 were filed in June 2008, according to a report by the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investment Association.
It was the third month in a row that [...]

The bidding wars are on.
Single-family home resales continued their climb in May in the Fort Myers area.
They increased more than 100 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
There were 1,456 existing single-family homes sold, up from 719 a year ago, according to a monthly report by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers [...]

The Lee Building Industry Association held its 23rd annual Parade of Homes Awards Ceremony at the Miromar Lakes Golf Club on Feb. 7. Awards were presented in 21 categories for Superior Home Awards, based on price range. Builders also competed in their respective categories for Best Bath, Best Kitchen, Best Exterior, Best Landscape Design, Best Pool, Best Interior Design, Best Outdoor Living and Best Livability.