Category Archives: Cape Coral

Cape Coral Florida news and information.

Housing Affordability in SW Florida Hits All-Time High

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People are surprised to learn fixed interest rates are at or below 4% for 30 yr mortgages.  Because of this there has been a refinance boom which should throw some disposable income back into the economy.  It did the last time we had a refinance boom.  Not everyone can take advantage of this bonanza though as some are upside down on their mortgage.  Owners might be happy to know there is a government program that allows homeowners to refinance even if their first mortgage is up to 120% of current value, and if you have a second mortgage or equity line it can be subordinated to the 1st.  All good news if your rate is 6% or higher.  It’s possible good news even if your rate is in the 5%+ range depending on the home value.  Check with your lender for details.

Housing Affordability in SW Florida
Fort Myers Cape Coral Year End Sales Prices

Getting back to the main subject of this article, buyers today can now afford more home than ever before.  The reason is simple.  A home’s cost has several elements, and the two primary elements are sales price and financing costs.  As you can see from the year end sales prices our median home values have dropped dramatically and at the end of 2010 year end average prices were approximately even with 1997 prices.

Everyone rushed to buy in 2005 when in fact they should be rushing today.  Prices have moved upward a bit and when year end prices are posted for 2011 they will show an upward trend.  Bottom line is they’re still a far cry from the peak in 2005.

Income Needed To Qualify for $200,000 Loan

Look at the average 30 yr interest rate chart.  Back in October 2006 rates were approximately 6.36%. Today rates are around 4%. That’s a difference of about 2.36%. A $200,000 mortgage this year would be roughly $300 cheaper than it was 5 years ago.  This fact alone makes housing much more affordable.  Combining the lowest rates we’ve seen on record with deep price reductions in our market, it’s no wonder why this is the best time in years to purchase a property. Much thanks to Keith Cloak from Summit Home Mortgage for pointing out these historical rates to me.

The nation’s economy has been stalled for years.  Locally our market was hit first, and hard.  Because of that our market may be poised to recover sooner.  Tourism may get a shot in the arm if the proposed $1 Billion casino is approved at the Forum.  This would put Florida on the map for additional tourism and the all important convention and trade show business.  We would have our gorgeous Sanibel and Fort Myers beaches, year round sunshine, and now convention business attracting tourism to our area.

I spoke to Lee County sheriff Mike Scott the other day about his thoughts on the casino.  Those against bringing gambling to Florida argue it brings crime and detracts from the family atmosphere Florida is known for. Sheriff Scott doesn’t believe a casino would bring crime from a law enforcement standpoint.  Judging from my visits to Las Vegas or a seminar I attended in AZ at a casino on an Indian reservation, I don’t necessarily buy into increased crime either.

I do see this as an opportunity to add $1 Billion in construction at a time when our area desperately needs it.  I also realize we have gambling in Florida at Indian reservations, so I wonder why the state can’t capture some of that revenue too.  Lord knows our state needs the revenue as well.  Primarily I think about what increased tourism, conventions, trade shows, and visitors who might extend their stay a few days because Florida has so much more to offer than Las Vegas.  Vegas has gambling, but we have beaches, Disney, water sports, nature, and so much more.  I can envision vacationers choosing to come here instead of Vegas or Gulf Port MS, or even places like Branson MO.

With housing affordability in SW Florida at all time highs, home prices on the rise which will settle people who may be afraid if now is the time to buy, and a possible economic jolt to our economy, it sure is exciting to live in SW Florida.

Check out what Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island have to offer you.

Realtors Connecting With Customers on Social Media on the Rise

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Social media has been the buzz words the past few years and it seems everyone has tried to capitalize and make money from the latest craze. For those that understand its value and proper use, social media can be very rewarding. For those that make freshmen mistakes, the cost can be lost customers and countless hours of wasted time.

Realtors Connecting With Customers on Social Media

Realtors Connecting With Customers on Social Media
Ellis Team Twitter Page

The benefits are clear. If done properly, consumers may flock to your content, or you may find yourself interacting at deeper levels with your customers and finding out more about them than you ever would have face to face. Social media opens up a new world where people sometimes feel safer sharing inner feelings and facts about themselves than they do in real life.

Connecting with customers is all about getting to the heart level and learning what’s important to them. You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Treat others as you’d like to be treated.” At the Ellis Team we like to use the Platinum standard which is “Treat others as they’d like to be treated.” We study personality profiles and adapt our communication based upon the way our customers like to communicate. Not every personality profile is the same.

Official SW Florida Real Estate Facebook Fan Page
SW Florida Real Estate Fan Page

Some personalities are bubbly outgoing social beings that have never met a stranger and are certainly the life of every party. Another is the calculated detailed oriented person who must know all the facts before making a decision. There is also the family oriented person that could talk children and family all night, as well as the dominant director type that makes quick decisions and is in charge. Knowing who our customers are helps us to interact with them on their level. The director type turns off with hours of facts and needless chatter, while the engineer, detailed oriented person would never make a decision without studying it from many angles.

Social media helps us to understand our customers and deliver information on many levels. We also engage our customers. We teach our team that if you can get a person to talk about (FORD) Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams you will connect at a deeper level and become friends with everyone you meet. Many of our customers are friends because we care about them as a person, not just a transaction.

Apply FORD to Facebook. In just a few minutes you may find out about someone’s niece or nephew, their child’s soccer game. You might also find out their new relationship status, how happy they are in their job, what they did on vacation, how their sports team is doing, etc. You can hit all 4 FORD items quickly. Social media is an opportunity to engage.

There is no substitute for being face to face with someone and interacting, and many people condemn social media because of that. However, perhaps there is no more efficient way to connect as social media. In real life true communication may mean asking many questions. We call it going 4 or more deep with questions to find out what someone really means. Because people aren’t as inhibited online as real life, true feelings come out much quicker, so in some respects I think social media has improved true communication. Not everyone has the time or skill to go at least 4 deep. However, the downside with social media is you might just learn a whole lot more about someone than you cared to know. LOL

So the next time you jump online and into a social media platform, think about more than just posting random thoughts. Use it as a tool to elicit responses, get people talking, and learning more about others. When you learn and care about others, you become more attractive as a friend or resource, and people will enjoy telling you everything, and maybe even doing a little business with you. And if not, at least you’ll make some true friends.

Good luck and happy communicating. We’ve included a few of our public social media pages in case you’d like to get some ideas. And maybe we’ll become friends too.

 

Useful Social Media Links:

Florida Real Estate Bargains a Victim of Perception

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We’re writing this article this week two days before official numbers are released, so by the time you read this official numbers will have been released. Absent this knowledge, we expect prices in August to be higher than last year and sales to be down from last year, however sales volume may be higher than July.

SW Florida Real Estate Bargains
Year End Median Sale Prices For Single Family Homes SW Florida

We’ve included a chart of average year end sales prices which is really an average of prices for that given year, not the Dec 31 average price. As you can see, prices fell from their peak in 2005 through 2009 where they stabilized and actually rose in 2010. In 2011 we’ve seen more gains over 2010.

We started writing articles and advertising back in 2009 that Florida was on sale and buyers flocked here in droves looking for bargains from all over the world. Buyers have been competing with each other for the best bargains and in fact many of these properties have seen multiple offers. As you can see from the year end chart, prices are still very affordable and are on par with 1996-1997 prices. If you look at the attached chart you’ll notice prices in July were up 14.33% over last year and up 19.1% over 2009 prices.

Median Sale Prices Single Family Homes in SW Florida
SW Florida Real Estate Prices 2009-2011

We are fielding calls from buyers looking for foreclosures, short sales, and otherwise good bargains. They just finished reading on a website or watching an older YouTube video how another buyer bought a $20,000 condo or $30,000 house close to the beach and they want to come here and buy the same thing.

If you ask any agent in this market I’m sure they’d chuckle because they’re answering some of the very same calls. This is where the perception that Florida is on sale, which it is, collides with reality. The days of buying newer homes for $35,000 are over unless the home has serious defective drywall issues or is gutted. We still have some inexpensive condos for sale. For instance we just listed a bank foreclosure 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo in Mystic Gardens for $27,900 which is a bargain. These deals are becoming fewer and farther between.

Unfortunately buyers from all over are calling and expecting homes close to the beach or on the beach for ridiculously low prices. While it is true back in 2009 we had some seriously under-priced homes from some of the banks, prices have gone up considerably since then. We’re still well below replacement cost in most cases and we’re not headed back to 2005 prices anytime soon, however we are still a bargain.

Florida Real Estate Bargains

I guess there is a difference between a bargain and a steal. The steals are over, but there are fantastic bargains and opportunities in this market if you’re realistic. If a buyer is unrealistic, they’ll suffer the same fate as an unrealistic seller, which is no transaction. A buyer who fails to buy in this market is just as damaged as a seller who overprices and misses the top. While the bottom may be behind us, we’re still close enough to it that we can see it in our rear view mirror and prices today will look like a bargain years from now.

Remember back in time when someone you know once said “Gosh, I should have bought every piece of property I could get my hands on back when prices were lower?” Well, in the future I’m sure there will be those that say, “Gosh, I should have bought everything I could back in 2010 and 2011. Those were the days when there was little competition from new home builders, interest rates were at their lowest, prices were below replacement cost, and at those prices they actually cash flowed.”

It pays to be an educated consumer, whether you’re on the buying or selling end. Remember, money is always made on the “Buy”, not the sell. Inventory is going down. If you’re truly a buyer, learn the market and step up now. I bet you’ll be glad you did.

It’s kind of funny how humans follow the herd mentality. When everyone else is buying, people feel more comfortable buying at the top, but when things are down, people are scared of overpaying. Back in 2005 you were overpaying, but most felt good about their purchases. Look what prices have done since. The smart money is buying and holding today. Failure to land a property now is a wasted opportunity.

Banks Revving Up For More Short Sales

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Banks Revving Up For More Short Sales

Because Bank of America is the largest servicer of residential loans in the United States, it seems quite reasonable they would have the largest number of foreclosures and for a few years that was true. A few years ago Bank of America announced it was stepping up its efforts to assist homeowners with short sales in hopes of decreasing the amount of foreclosures. It takes time to ramp up, hire, and train enough people to lighten that load, and it used to be said that Bank of America was the worst at processing short sales. That can’t be said any longer as they actually closed more short sales in 2010 than foreclosure sales, and since they automated and moved their short sale process to Equator, an online sales management software tool, the process has become streamlined and much quicker.

No, we didn’t say Ecuador, a country in South America. We said Equator, an online tool qualified agents can become certified in to assist homeowners complete sales transactions. Not every agent will handle a short sale, nor should they. A short sale is a very complex transaction where the bank, or banks, asks for specific documents to help them make a decision on whether to accept less than the full mortgage payoff.

Banks Revving Up For More Short Sales
SW Florida Listing Inventory

This is a very complicated process because there are tax implications for some homeowners and investors, and the banks may sometimes ask for deficiency judgments in others. It gets really complicated when 3rd party liens are placed on the property, like HOA liens or judgments against the creditor. These must all be identified and negotiated as part of the process.

Listing agents are reticent to list these properties as they are more time intensive, and there is no guarantee the bank will agree to a short sale. Further complicating the process, the bank surely won’t agree unless every I is dotted and T crossed to satisfy their guidelines. This generally requires a hardship letter explaining why a short sale should be considered, a letter of authorization authorizing the agent to deal with all the various debtors and lien holders, bank statements, etc. Short sales also take time, as you may be dealing with a primary lender, the investor behind that loan, FNMA, a PMI company, and perhaps a 2nd loan and investor or a home equity line of credit.

Buyer agents are also reticent to show short sales as they’ve discovered some sellers are not a candidate to sell short, or the listing agent isn’t qualified to take the sale to closing. The short sale isn’t a sale to practice on, it must be done by skilled, tireless agents with experience and extensive training with the banks. If you’re a short sale seller, be sure to interview your agent and make sure they are a CDPE (Certified Distressed Property Expert) or similar designation and have lots of experience working with different banks. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Nationstar, BSI Financial Services, ASC, and others use Equator and expect the agent to be qualified on that system. Others, like Aurora, SunTrust, Ocwen, etc. use their own proprietary system to consider a short sale and the agent must know how to reach each and identify what each lender requires. Ideally this information should be obtained at the time of listing, not when a contract is accepted as this will further delay the process. Learning on the job isn’t a great option for buyer or seller, so working with a listing agent who has experience closing these sales helps all.

Banks today are even reaching out to agents asking to help with our short sales. Two of the largest banks are sending their customers letters on how they may be able to short sale rather than lose their property to foreclosure and they’re even recommending qualified agents to assist. A short sale is not something a For Sale By Owner can do, nor is the bank looking for that.

As you can see by the graph, approximately 31% of all single family home listings today in Lee County are listed as short sale. Listing inventory is going down, and so is short sale inventory because successful short sale closings are going up.

If you’re on the brink of affording your home or property, talk to a short sale expert. It’s amazing that of the foreclosures, 71% of the homeowners never reached out to anyone for help. Help is available, and a short sale is much better on your credit. With banks today getting better at the short sale process, it pays to ask for help. Call your agent today and ask if they can help. If not, don’t hesitate to call us and we’ll see if we can get you help now so it’s not a crisis tomorrow.

The Ellis Team currently has 3 CDPE’s on staff. A CDPE is a Certified Distressed Property Expert, which requires intensive training and extensive short sale experience to attain. To help gear up for the increased short sale demand, the Ellis Team at RE/MAX recently hired Marisa Morgan who worked many years as a long time banker with Bank of America and also in the title business. For years Realtor clients came to her asking advice on how to properly package short sales so the bank would accept them. She sat down and met with several sellers so they understood the process, so it makes sense to add Marisa’s experience to SW Florida’s premiere team to help sellers sell their short sale properties.

Brett discusses short sale issues with Marisa on this week’s Future of Real Estate show entitled “Banks Gearing Up for More Short Sales in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, SW Florida” Video.

SW Florida Real Estate Sales Rose in June

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Unofficial numbers show SW Florida real estate sales rose in June. Official numbers will be reported July 20, so as we are writing this article early in the week we have to go with internal numbers that show sales rose in June even as inventory numbers fell once again.  We lost another 230 units of single family home inventory as many have been questioning where are the foreclosures banks said were coming.

From the beginning we questioned how many foreclosures would hit SW Florida as the distressed inventory directly impacts our market.  Nobody seems to have a firm answer other than to say more are coming, and we don’t doubt that.  The question is to what degree.

SW Florida Real Estate Sales
SW Florida Single Family Real Estate Sales

While sales rose in June, pending sales are down as we simply don’t have as much inventory to sell. Foreclosure sales in Fort Myers rose by 16 homes while Cape Coral foreclosures fell by 19 homes.  Lehigh Acres foreclosure sales rose by 7.

This past week we were assigned 3 more foreclosure listings, so perhaps this is the beginning of the banks being able to release inventory.  Banks have been hamstrung as legal proceedings have shown many of the banks didn’t follow proper legal procedures to foreclose on certain mortgages in certain states, and it’s caused banks to go back and start many foreclosures over and cancel hearings on others until they sort out where the mistakes were made and correct them.

In light of this legal situation, banks have increasingly been more diligent at handling and agreeing to short sales as it may take much longer for the bank/investor to be paid back partial principal if the home is tied up for months or years in foreclosure.  We feel there is no advantage to holding back inventory and the sooner we sell all distressed inventory the sooner our market can recover.  Others feel by holding back you can prop up prices.  We believe in an attempt to prop up prices you ultimately prolong the recovery and keep prices down for longer than if you just take the medicine and deal with it.

Listing Inventory in Cape Coral, Fort Myers Florida
SW Florida real Estate Single Family Home Inventory

Without naming names, we have seen some entities holding back, but this may also be that they can only show so many losses at a time on the balance sheet..  For the most part, most banks are bringing inventory to the market as quickly as they legally can.

As of today, foreclosure listing inventory is up over last month.  Fort Myers has 35 more units on the market, Cape Coral has 22 more units on the market, and Lehigh Acres has 15 more units.  This could be a sign that banks are releasing.  One month doesn’t make a trend, but it is a reversal in direction and July 2011 could be the beginning of that last wave to hit the market.

We’ve just added a new Cape Coral Real Estate Blog in German for our German readers. Be sure to check back for timely real estate information and videos in German. Sharyl Leifeld is a buyer specialist on the Ellis Team who speaks German and promotes education to German’s about the SW Florida real estate market.

 

 

Real Estate Agents Using Video to Connect With Clients

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Real estate agents today using video are turning to efficient ways to meet with clients and online video is fast becoming a favorite amongst clients to communicate with their agent.  Online video has been around for years, but it has come a long way recently and has become mainstream as industry giants have adopted the technology and incorporated it into their products.

Recently Facebook added video using the Skype service to its online chat, and Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all have video chat and Instant Messaging.  Video chat is now available on smart phones as iPhone and Android have incorporated video into their handsets.

Real Estate Agents Using Video
Online Video Conference

The picture shown in this article is a video application called QIK that allows smart phones on the Sprint network to place video calls, record and share videos, upload videos to a library that can be shared, or just send a video mail message.  Skype has similar features, as do Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc.  We use video conferencing over cell phones to host quick meetings amongst agents on our team when one of our agents is out in the field or can’t be face to face.

Similarly, clients love to video call as we can talk about contracts and even place items on the whiteboard for each of us to look at and talk about.  Sometimes clients have specific questions about a form or contract and it helps to have it on screen and talk about where to initial or how to sign a document.  Clients can also ask specific questions relating to a contract.

Photos can even be shared so we can talk about inspection items, details about what needs to be done with a repair, and bring all of the issues into proper context and perspective.

Agents can also use the technology to participate in webinars, and learn from other top agents from all around the country.  We’ve done video sessions where we discuss recent short sale trends regarding specific lenders, or shared foreclosure information to assist each agent’s clients obtain the foreclosure.  Agents can now share information regardless of which city they’re in and we find this useful in assisting clients. Clients are not only hiring one agent in a particular town, they’re now getting expertise from all around the country as agents have speedy access to talk to one another about particular issues.

In the old days agents would pick up the phone and call one another, or share information on groups and wait for other agents to respond.  Now agents who belong to powerful networks can video chat with one another instantly in many cases.

Agents can also post timely information up to YouTube.  Our YouTube channel is located at http://www.youtube.com/brettellisfl Many agents these days have YouTube channels in addition to websites and Blogs and are finding video is an important way to educate and communicate.  Today’s sophisticated webcams make joining a service relatively easy, and adds two way communication versus the standard way agents communicated via video on YouTube or websites.

We really believe video will replace much wasteful travel time in the future.  There is no replacement for seeing a home, but once the home is viewed an agent and client cannot always be in the same place at the same time.  For instance, a client make work odd hours, or have to go out of town for awhile and yet they may not want to wasted time waiting to return home.  Now that client can meet with their agent wherever they are in the world if the just have a webcam and an Internet connection, or simply even a smart phone.  Today’s technology is making video chat so easy and it’s free, and one day soon we’ll all look back and wonder how we lived without it for so long.

Don’t be surprised when we hear people say, “Remember the days when people used to call each other on the telephone?  Yeah, how crazy is that?”  I remember the days when fax machines were a novel idea, and people used to ask back in the mid 90’s “What’s the Internet?”  Thank goodness Al Gore invented it.  Young people today just don’t recall what life was like before the Internet, and in a few years people may have a hard time remembering life before video phone calls.

If you haven’t tried it before, the time may be now.  It’s not only a big time saver, but it’s free and fun.  We hope you have as much fun communicating with people online as we do.

 

Entering the Summer Real Estate Market in SW Florida

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Now that the 4th of July has passed, we’re entering the summer real estate market in SW Florida.  Aside from showing properties in the rain, traditionally the summer has been very good with many of the locals moving up, down, or sideways when they have more time after a busy tourist season.

Of course, the past few years the locals haven’t been making nearly as many moves as many are upside down on their current mortgage, or just flat out don’t like today’s prices.  There is no doubt today’s prices are too low, in fact artificially too low, but nonetheless in real estate today is all we have to work with.

Summer Real Estate Market in SW Florida
SW Florida Real Estate Sales Prices

Because foreclosures have dropped dramatically due to a number of legal reasons, there has been less pressure on the lower end of the market, thus raising median prices.  We’ve included another graph to put prices in perspective.

Many times we like to look at velocity of the market and measure the volume, much like Wall Street does with stocks.  Volume has been excellent, and would be much higher if we had more inventory to sell.  Lack of inventory will cut down on the number of transactions, and we’ve already felt it.

Agents are all too well aware that many properties receive multiple offers.  Buyers on the other hand are skeptical when their agent tells them they need to come in at or over asking price on many properties.  In all markets there will always be some properties that are over priced, and a buyer need not ask over asking price if the property is over priced as chances are another buyer isn’t going to come along and scoop it up, unless it’s a one of a kind property, and even then it may not sell.

All too often agents tell me their buyer isn’t listening to them.  This past week two agents lost out on two of our listings because we had multiple offers and one of the buyers didn’t realize what they needed to do until it was too late.  One of the properties had been on the market a little while so I’m sure the buyer figured their agent was just giving them a song and dance to try and get a sale, but as the listing agent I can assure this was not the case.

Even though this property had been on the market perhaps a few months, the property got hot when all other inventory like it had disappeared and this became the best thing on the market in its location and price range.

All real estate is local, and just because you hear nationally or a particular state is a little slow doesn’t mean everywhere is.  In fact, our market was getting crushed when the rest of the country was still prospering.  While our market isn’t fully healed, we are seeing price increases when much of the rest of the country has just been going into a slump, which is further evidence that all real estate is local.

Over the July 4th weekend we had several showings and several offers come in on our properties, which is encouraging for the balance of the summer.  Again, these past few years have been anything but traditional, but it’s nice to know that local temperatures aren’t the only thing that’s hot right now.  Buyers are here.  What’s lacking has been property to sell, and inventory will probably tell the story going forward for the balance of the year.  We’ll keep watching, and keep reporting.

 

Fort Myers Cape Coral Florida Real Estate Update Video May 2011

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The Ellis Team has just released it’s Fort Myers Cape Coral Florida Real Estate Update Video May 2011 covering the Fort Myers Florida and Cape Coral Florida areas. Prices are up over 15%, inventory is down, pending sales are up, and distressed sales are down. The video includes charts and analysis to bring you up to date on exactly what is happening today in the SW Florida real estate market.

 

Big Changes Coming in Mortgage Market

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On April 17 rates are going up. How do we know the date? We know because that’s the date fees change under guidelines designed to attract private money into the lending system and reduce or eliminate FNMA, GNMA, and Freddie Mac, the three quasi-governmental agencies that insure mortgages and bundle them for securitization. They’re not really governmental, but they might as well be as the government has funded them until now. They are private companies that pay investors profit, but tax payer funded when they lose money, so something had to change.

Big Changes Coming in Mortgage Market

Big Changes Coming in Mortgage Market
Interest Rates Will Rise in April

So what is changing? First off, rates are going up. This will increase yields, which will attract banks, hedge funds, and other large sources of capital into the market. Large companies will actually compete to make more of this money. A lot of money has been bottled up sitting on the sidelines and this may be the conduit to free up that money.

When rates go up, home prices usually go down. Not so fast! In this case, prices could eventually rise. Many ask how this could be. The answer is complicated, but noteworthy, so we’ll do our best to explain.

Under the new guidelines to get the best priced loans, borrowers will have to put more down. The old 20% down will now be 30% down. However, credit scores will also be lowered for qualifying. Imagine many of those people that sold via short sale being told they wouldn’t qualify by FNMA for 5 years. It turns out they may be eligible after just 12 months under certain conditions.

While rates may go from 4 7/8% today to possibly 6.5% in April, more people will qualify. We still have FHA for low down payment options. Some people are predicting another real estate boom coming sooner than later nationwide as pent-up demand for housing intensifies, and more borrowers being eligible to purchase.

Imagine having a 540 credit score and being able to purchase a home. Those days may be coming again, if you can scrape together a down payment. Home prices are artificially too low in SW Florida and are in fact below replacement cost. This has caused multiple bidding situations for prestigious properties in short supply even in the upper price ranges in certain parts. Naples and Bonita have experienced a resurgence in prices, and many feel this is bleeding north up into Estero and Fort Myers. We are currently being driven by 2nd home buyers looking for deals.

As prices get closer to replacement cost, building will begin to pickup, which will bring jobs. As the SW Florida economy grows, the real estate market could gain traction very quickly, especially with Snow Birds and existing residents qualifying sooner than expected for their next mortgage.

Keep in mind 7,000-10,000 people are retiring or entering the social security income stream everyday. Florida stands to gain from the Baby Boom generation relocating or buying 2nd homes.

Many on Wall Street are anxious to cash in on the looming change to the capital markets coming in April. In fact, Wall St is waiting like a tiger to pounce. Some are predicting a feeding frenzy for housing and rapid price gains.

Some people believe the change to FNMA and Freddie Mac will damage the markets by increasing borrowing costs and raising down payment requirements. Others believe borrowing was next to impossible anyway the last few years and banks only lent to those who really didn’t need it. I don’t know who is right, but I will say if we open the door for more people to buy, the market could recover quicker than most expect.

2011 could really be a year to watch and keep an eye on the financing markets. If Wall Street gets greedy like last time, it could be a boom for real estate. The difference is, FNMA and Freddie Mac, and the US taxpayer won’t bail out bad loans, only systemic losses due to financial meltdowns. Hopefully we’ll enjoy the next boom with no meltdown, and higher down payments will help with that. If our markets stabilize like we think they will, even low down payments won’t affect the market because the market won’t be in freefall, and we’ll be adding jobs to the economy versus losing 8 million like we’ve done the past 3 years.

Bottom line, keep an eye out for sunny days ahead in the real estate market and we just might see them sooner rather than later. And mark your calendars for April 17. This will be the beginning of something. Time will judge the ending.

It’s in the Bag

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No, we’re not talking about Santa’s bag here.  We thought this week we’d do a mailbag of topics, and invite questions for future articles.  If you have a question or topic you’d like covered, simply e-mail me at Brett@Topagent.com and we’ll do our best.

Interest Rates

Yes, they’ve been on the move, and the move has been upward.  Rates have risen about .625% in the past 1-2 weeks.  For every 1% rise in rates, it takes away about 9% of a purchasers buying power, so buyers have just lost about 5% buying power in the past 2 weeks.  This is why the media and Wall St. talk about rates so much and where they are today versus historically.  Now, they are still historically low, but they have been moving up.  With prices this low, and rates still fairly low, buying power is still great even though it may not be what it was 2 weeks ago.

SW Florida Real Estate Market Update
It's in the Bag

Foreclosure Listings

Foreclosure listings for single family homes active on the market in Lee County stood at 768 in November Versus 1,107 today.  That’s a 32.42% increase in just one month, and we can attribute this to banks placing properties on the market after the foreclosure moratorium because of the robo-signing issues.  Most banks feel confident going forward, especially for their non-occupied properties.  We see this as a good sign.  The quicker we get all inventory out and to the market the faster the market can heal and move forward.

Pending Sales

Pending sales rose again in November which indicates buyers are ready, willing, and able to buy and they’re making every attempt.  This is another reason we’d like to see all available inventory on the market as the buyers are definitely biting.  All areas of Lee County are seeing a rise in pending sales.  Cape Coral saw a rise of 60 pending sales over last month, Fort Myers saw a rise of 69 sales and Lehigh Acres experienced a rise of 32 pending sales.  Season is upon us and we’ve notice an uptick in buying activity from buyers up North sooner than we did last year, which could mean we’ll be in for another good season this year.

Current Market Index

Each month the Ellis Team produces a current market index which accurately predicts forward activity in the SW Florida real estate market.  This month the index dropped to 4.22, down from 4.62 last month.  The lower the number the hotter the real estate market is.  A higher number indicates a buyers market. We wouldn’t say it’s a buyers market.  We’d characterize it as a sellers market if the property is priced correctly.  Buyers are competing against each other with multiple offers on properties that are priced correctly, and bypassing over-priced listings.  The market speaks.  Sometimes it’s as easy as slowing down and listening to what it’s saying, and if a property isn’t receiving offers, then there’s a good chance it’s the price.  The market is hot, but it’s not forgiving.

Closed Sales Flat

November closed sales were relatively flat Versus October.  In fact, our research shows they’re down slightly, but official numbers won’t be released until next week.  Last November sales rose, so when official numbers come out we could see a transaction drop from last year.

This is the last article before Christmas believe it or not, so next week we’ll either answer your questions or provide updated analysis once official numbers are released.  We hope Santa is good to you and brings you good tides and good cheer, and no matter how big the bag is this year, always look for opportunities to lift somebody else’s spirits this Holiday season and into the new year.