Category Archives: Fort Myers Real Estate

News and information relating to Fort Myers real estate market

Florida Homestead Exemption Due Soon

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If you purchased a home in Florida in 2005, you’ll want to file for the Florida Homestead Exemption. Not only will you save approximately $400/yr in taxes, you’ll also cap the amount your taxes can go up each year. If you do not file, there is no cap.To be eligible you must have purchased the home by December 31, 2005 and use the home as your primamry residence. Lee County Florida has a Homestead Exemption Form you can download. Florida is very strict about the property being your primary residence, and they will prosecute you if you cheat. Lee County hires investigators who search for rental listings on the Internet, etc. They even invite the public to tell if they suspect a neighbor is cheating on the exemption, so you only want to fill out this form if you really qualify.

If you purchased in 2006, you’ll have to wait until next year to file. If you purchased prior to 2005 and have not filed yet, you still can. If you qulaify, it’s a wise decision to file. Do not wait as it can cost you much more than the $400/yr because you won’t get the cap.

Florida has two bills pending in the legislature regarding Homestead Exemption Portability. We’ll cover what these bills mean to you in a future post.

 

Real Estate Numbers May Be Inflated By Duplication

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The Ellis Team and NBC-2 broke a story of concern regarding reported housing statistics reported by the Florida Association of Realtors. These numbers have been unintentionally inflated due to multple MLS boards reporting sales on the same home, because the listing agent listed the property into more than one MLS.

Real Estate Numbers May Be Inflated By Duplication

When the Realtor closes out the sale in MLS, each MLS reports a sale up to FAR (Florida Association of Realtors). FAR compiles the data and releases a report and chart for the entire state. The report each MLS sends to FAR is raw data, a compilation of summary totals. There is currently no way for FAR to realize the duplicate reportings, so the end report contains inflated data.

This is important for a few reasons:

#1. Billions of dollars worth of decisions are made in the SWFL real estate market, and these numbers are one of the benchmarks builders, developers, investors, businesses, and the buying and selling public use to make decisions about building shopping centers, businesses, homes, communities, and what product mix and at what price points.

#2. Once the duplication problem is rectified, 2006 may appear to be a much worse market because it won’t appear to stack up against 2005, even though 2005 was artificially higher than it really was.

#3. The general public reads that homes appreciated at a certain pace, so they believe their home is worth a certain amount. All real estate is local, so because the overall market was believed to be at a certain appreciation rate, it never was fair to expect every home appreciated at the exact same rate anyway. However, the entire market may have been accidently exagerated, so sellers shouldn’t draw conclusions about today’s market based upon inaccurate data.

If you’re considering buying or selling in today’s market, it pays to consult a professional. Making a mistake in today’s market can cost you in untold ways. We’ll discuss how in a later article posted on this Blog.

 

State of the Market-Mini Update

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State of the Market-Mini Update

Here is a look at Inventory levels from random past dates and today. Active represents Active listings by date, and Pending represents properties that were under contract for sale at the time. CMI represents our Current Market Index, which accurately predicts where the market is heading. See Below for Commentary.

 

Fort Myers Geo Areas
ACTIVE
PENDING
CMI
6/20/2003 819 378 2.17
8/7/2003 768 337 2.28
10/15/2003 825 303 2.72
12/14/2004 494 295 1.67
4/1/2005 435 428 1.02
7/25/2005 398 350 1.14
9/29/2005 490 267 1.84
10/25/2005 626 200 3.13
1/24/2006 1338 210 6.37
dddd

Cape Coral Geo Areas
ACTIVE
PENDING
CMI
6/20/2003 1575 805 1.95
8/7/2003 1463 733 2
10/15/2003 1593 651 2.45
12/14/2004 886 581 1.52
4/1/2005 1006 894 1.13
7/25/2005 1020 971 1.05
9/29/2005 1653 751 2.2
10/25/2005 2141 605 3.64
1/24/2006 3926 537 7.31

 

 

As you can see, inventory is rising quickly, and the market has swung from a Hot sellers market to a buyers market. The CMI index in October predicted the market would slow, and as you can see, Active listings have swelled while Pending sales have dropped.

We are seeing about a 5 to 1 ratio of new listings entering the market each day to number of homes that go pending, which has lead to a dramatic increase in inventory. How much will this build-up affect prices? Stay tuned and we’ll post more Mini-updates on what is happening in SW Florida Real Estate.

Note, we selected certain geographic areas inside our MLS system for same sales comparisons. The Fort Myers and Cape Coral Geo areas do not encompass the Entire Lee County market, there are actually many more listings than what is shown here. We do feel, however, this is an accuratae representation of what is happening all over SW FLorida, regardless of which Geo area homes are located in.

 

To search for homes for sale, feel free to shop at www.LeeCountyonline.com

Home Builders Predict Housing Slowdown

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The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) is meeting this week in Orlando Flrida. They are concerned about markets such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Miami and San Diego where investors accounted for more than 25% of the total sales in those markets. Nationwide, investors accounted for 20% of all sales. Home Builders Predict Housing Slowdown.Particulary troubling could be upscale home and condominuims, according to NAHB. Investors started pulling back in the 4th quarter of 2005.

The fear is investors will choose to sell properties or pull-out of existing contracts, which could lead to over supply and put pressure on prices. Investors have left the real estate market and gone back into other things, like the stock market and commodities.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on what changes if any are in stor for Lee County and the Southwest Florida real estate market.

Loan program Allows you to Build in Repair Costs

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HUD has introduced enhancements to the streamlined 203(k)
program to facilitate the purchase of property that needs only
minor rehab work, including raising the ceiling for repair costs
to $35,000.

Loan program Allows you to Build in Repair Costs

This allows a buyer or investor to purchase a property that needs repair and build in the anticipated costs to the loan. It’s a good way to purchase a property, improve it, and have equity or sell it. Everyone wins as long as you purchase the property up-front at a fair price. The buyer makes some equity, and the neighborhood is improved as the property is improved.

Feel free to call us at 239-489-4042 to take advantage of this program in Lee County, Southwest Florida. Visit our website Topagent.com 

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Annual Cyber Star Conference

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The annual Cyber Star Summit is being held this week in San Antonio Texas. The Cyber Stars are the Top 200 agents nationwide out of more than 1.5 million Realtors. The Cyber Stars are discussing the latest trends in technology, improving communications with buyers and sellers, and evaluating the latests products to better serve the Real Estate community.Brett Ellis is is a Cyber Star and was asked to speak at this years Summit. Not only was it a pleasure speaking to such a powerful group, I also enjoyed learning from some of the brightest minds in the business today. We look forward to bringing some of the latest trends to the Fort Myers, Southwest real estate market. Technology, along with real estate is developing at lightning speed, and those that adapt and change with it will become more efficient and prosper.

Housing Bubble Boom or Bust?

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Real Estate Bubble Ready to Burst? NBC interviews top agent Brett Ellis about the housing bubble boom or bust and where SW Florida market is headed. Complete with video (No longer active).  NBC Nightly News feature on foreclosures in SW Florida  Brett Ellis is known for his statistical analysis of the SWFL real estate market, and his Current Market Index, which accurately predicts where the market is headed. Brett works with his mother Sande Ellis, and together they lea d the market in Southwest Florida. View their website.

Our analysis shows the SW Florida real estate market may be headed for a real estate bubble, and soon. At some point, the what a bigger fool will pay philosophy will have to end.  We don’t have end users for all of this new construction.

See our Innovative Sales Tactics as reported by NBC-2.

Economist: Gradual moderation of real estate market likely (Link no longer active from Naples Daily News) Noted economist Hank Fishkind addresses mortgage rates, retirees, demographics, oil prices, and markets up north to come to his conclusion.