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 [...]

Courtesy of Tampa Bay Online
Housing prices aren’t likely to fall much further, but mortgage interest ratesare about to start rising, according to well-known Florida economist Hank Fishkind.
Interest rates, which are still in the 4 percent range, could be 8 percent or higher by early 2012, Fishkind said Wednesday during a meeting of the Bay Area Real Estate [...]

Naples News
Cape Coral-Fort Myers ranked ninth in the nation for its foreclosure rate in January.
The metro had one foreclosure-related filing for every 121 households, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac. There were a total of 3,022 filings last month, down more than 33 percent from 4,545 in December 2009.
The monthly report counts default notices, scheduled auctions [...]

Sales of existing homes in Lee County ended the decade with a bang — a record 16,260 were sold with the assistance of a Realtor in 2009, according to statistics released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors.
That shattered the old record of 12,123 set in 2005 at the top of the residential real estate [...]

If your idea of a dream retirement home is a luxury contemporary overlooking a championship golf course in the desert, you better be prepared for some mighty small block parties: When it comes to retirement living, golf courses are out.
And Arizona and Florida aren’t the only retirement-relocation hot spots these days. In fact, South and [...]

Florida property taxes dropped by $2.28 billion, or 7.5 percent, over the past three years because of tax-cutting measures approved by the Legislature and voters as well as falling real estate values, according to figures presented to a legislative panel today.
“I would classify that as dropping like a rock,” said Senate Finance and Taxation Committee [...]

If you have a good job and good credit, the next few months might be a sweet time to go house hunting. Then again, maybe not.  Fence-sitters take the risk that Congress may let a rich tax credit expire, and that interest rates may rise. So, let’s walk through some factors for buyers and sellers [...]

Naples — Builders have gone bust with the collapse of the housing market in Southwest Florida.  Some have closed their doors. Others have retreated from the market or are barely hanging on.  Naples-based London Bay Homes is fighting the odds. While many new home builders are cash-strapped, the builder remains financially strong and has a [...]

The Collier Building Industry Association (CBIA) named Stock Construction the 2009 Builder of the Year. The award was announced Dec. 12 at CBIA’s annual installation banquet. Brian Stock, CEO of Stock Development, the parent company of Stock Construction, accepted the award.
Earlier this year, Stock Development and Stock Construction received 21 Sand Dollar Awards from CBIA [...]

Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2½ years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of what they thought was an expiring tax credit.
Sales nationwide rose nearly 36 percent from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16 percent [...]