Sande, Mike, and myself just returned from the annual Star Power convention.  While we were away, the National Association of Realtors and the Florida Association of Realtors released market statistics for June.  We also had the opportunity to speak with other top agents from across the world about their market, and some of the ideas they’re using to market in these changing market conditions.

As you can see from the SW Florida Real Estate Homes Closed 2005-2007 chart, closed home sales have remained relatively constant, while Southwest Florida inventory levels have dipped only slightly.  Median sale prices have dipped as well, as illustrated by the SW Florida Real Estate Sale Prices 2005-2007 chart.  In fact, median home prices is SW Florida fell 9.80% for single family homes in June.

Here are links to view the entire June 2007 State of Florida Home Sales report and the June 2007 State of Florida Condo Sales report.  Be sure to check out our SW Florida Housing Statistics Page for even more stats and historical data.

Howard Brinton spoke at the conference and said the definition of a seller is those that actually sell.  Unfortunately in this market, not every property on the market is priced properly to actually be considered on the market.  If you’re priced Over the market, you’re not really On the market.  So the question becomes, how many homes are really on the market.  What we can say is that 600 give or take single family homes are on the market each month, because 600 or so are actually selling.  Those 600 sellers are actually pricing their homes where the buyers are, and they don’t need to reduce their price because they’re priced where the market is.

The other 15,000 or so Wanna be’s do need to re-position their homes in the marketplace if they wish to sell.  We have established there is a marketplace to sell homes.  The issue is, most home sellers in SW Florida do not like what that number is, and continue to be Wanna be’s.  I don’t like hearing that the entire market needs to come down in price, because that’s not really the case.  The Wanna be’s do need to adjust, and they just seem like the entire market because there are so many of them.

I spoke with Russell Shaw, a top Realtor in Arizona, about the Phoenix market becuase his market was so similiar to the SW Florida real estate market on the way up.  In fact, I called us sister cities because our appreciation numbers were so similiar in 2004 and 2005.  Phoenix metroploitan area now has about 50,000 single family home listings on the market, and 16,000 new construction homes being built.  It’s no coincidence that Phoenix is struggling similiar to what were seeing.  In fact, AZ agents noticed just recently a speedy drop in home prices as home sellers became more realistic about actually selling.

Patrick Lilly, a Manhattan New York Townhouse specialist, has experienced a similiar market.  He has noticed recently though that Wall Street has taken notice of the stock market’s over valuation and real estate’s under valuation.  In the past few weeks he’s sold several $3 Million + condos to wall street investors who recognize that real estate is better valued now than the stock market, and he thinks this could be the beginning of the top on Wall Street and the bottom on Main Street.