Naples, Bonita Springs & Estero Real Estate Industry News & Updates

Courtesy of Naples News

Home resales in the Naples area got off to a strong start this year.  In January, sales increased 51 percent, when compared to the same month in 2009.  There were 532 sales last month, up from 353 a year ago, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

“It’s all certainly from our perspective good news,” said Joni Albert, managing broker for Coldwell Banker Residential in Naples.  The report tracks Realtor-assisted sales made through the multiple listing service, or MLS, in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.  Of the total sales last month, 244 were single-family homes and 288 were condos.

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Naples News, Dave Osborne

Thousands of dollars may be too tempting for some Mediterra residents to pass up.

Bonita Bay Group this week offered residents who chose not to join The Club at Mediterra a cash payment of 30 percent of the amount of their membership deposits. Bonita Bay Group, which is fighting to avoid bankruptcy and selling off its clubs, still says it will honor a lottery designation refund program that’s a lengthier process if they decline the new offer.

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View 4th quarter 2009  real estate statistics.  Rising Sales & Declining Inventory.[...] Read More

The buying goes on.  Home resales rose again in November in the Naples market.  There were a total of 511 sales, up from 307 in the same month a year ago, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

The report tracks sales made through the SunshineMLS, or multiple listing service, in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.  The strongest sales continue to be in the under $300,000 market. There were 367 sales made in this category last month, up from 218 a year ago.

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New home construction is picking up in Southwest Florida while demand is down.

A report by Metrostudy, a national housing research firm, shows the pace of move-ins has slowed, while the inventory of homes is growing.

Finished vacant inventory rose from 703 units in the second quarter to 728 in the third quarter of this year in the Naples and Fort Myers markets, according to the study.

“The increase was completely attributable to townhome inventory,” said Brad Hunter, who directs Metrostudy’s market research operations in Southwest Florida.

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Naples News By Tara McLaughlin

Investors have discovered a new market in the latest blow to homeowners and the building industry — houses built with Chinese drywall.

About 30 homes disclosed to contain the noxious drywall sold in Lee County this year.

Experts say the trend is likely to continue as sales close for about half their appraised value.

“There are always investors out there, even during a downturn,” said Bob Knight, vice president of Cape Coral-based Paul Homes.

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Wall Street Journal By Nick Timiraos

New data suggest that foreclosures are rising in more expensive housing markets.

About 30% of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago, according to new data from real-estate Web site Zillow.com. The bottom one-third of housing markets, by home value, now account for 35% of foreclosures, down from 55% in 2006.

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Naples News By LAURA LAYDEN

BONITA SPRINGS — It’s no deal for now for members of the Bonita Bay Club.

David Lucas, chairman of the Bonita Bay Group, has called off talks with a Turnover Committee that has been handling the negotiations for members trying to buy their golf club from the developer.

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News Press By Dick Hogan

Investors also help drive home sales

Mike Lashbrook and his wife, Denise, rented and watched for two years before finally buying a house at today’s bargain prices.
It was well worth it, said Lashbrook, 42, who moved here from Fort Lauderdale to take a job with Gartner Group in Gateway.
He’s one of many first-time buyers who are snapping up homes in Lee County and driving a sales pace close to twice what it was a year ago, experts say.  The Florida Association of Realtors released statistics Thursday showing 1,252 existing single-family homes in the county were sold in August with the help of a Realtor — down from a record 1,570 in July but 83 percent more than the 684 in August 2008.

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Wall Street Journal By William Bulkeley

Bonita Bay Group, once a premier developer of upper-crust golf communities in this upper-crust town, is on the verge of collapse. The company says it will be forced to file for bankruptcy if it has to refund $245 million in golf-club membership fees some homeowners are demanding, in a battle that’s pitting residents against each other and against the company that sold them lavish dream homes during the height of the boom.

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BY NANCI THEORET  Florida Weekly

Realtors and industry experts in Southwest Florida say we may be finally looking in the rear-view mirror as sales numbers rise in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties and prices continue to plummet to a 10-year low.

H. Shelton Weeks, the Lucas Professor of Real Estate in the Lutgert College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University, believes the bottom is near — give or take a few thousand dollars.

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By LAURA LAYDEN Naples News

Summer has been hot for Naples Realtors.

August brought another busy month, with home and condo resales up nearly 40 percent.

A monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors shows 545 total sales in August, up from 395 in the same month a year ago.

The report tracks Realtor sales made through the SunshineMLS, or multiple listing service, in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.

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By LUKE MULLINS US News

As the housing market shows signs of stabilization, home buyers are seeing their leverage over sellers dissipate, according to a new report from Zillow, a real estate information service. The report found that, nationally, buyers paid an average of 3.3 percent—or about $7,000—less than final listing prices in July, which is a substantially smaller bargain than the 4.6 percent—or $10,260—discounts they landed in January. “The strong summer selling season in 2009 has led to a decreasing difference between the last listing price and final sale price,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a news release issued Wednesday. (more…)

By LAURA LAYDEN Naples News

Foreclosure activity slowed in Lee County in August.  In Collier County, it increased a bit.

A report by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows 4,133 foreclosure related filings — or one for every 88 households _ last month in Lee. That was down more than 26 percent from July.

In Collier, there were 1,137 filings, or one for every 169 households. That was up 3.08 percent from July.

The report tracks default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. Default notices are new filings. There were 791 of them in Collier last month and 1,799 in Lee last month, according to RealtyTrac.

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Florida Weekly

Bill and Caryn Schuman requested one thing for their residence in Bay Colony. Sure, they were sold on 18th floor views of the rolling green of Pelican Bay Golf Course to the east and calm waters along the Gulf of Mexico to the west. The 3,500-square-foot-condo was dreamy and spacious.

What grounded the purchase and subsequent build-out, however, was a desire to link with the world beyond Southwest Florida.

“He’s an attorney, and he’s able to be here more because of his wired home office that keeps him in touch with his Chicago office and his clients,” says Jenny Carter, president and principal designer of K2 Design Group.

“One of Caryn’s top priorities was making sure that the study was a fully functional environment for getting down to business,” Ms. Carter adds. “And in the living room, she was as concerned with electronics as she was with décor.”

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