The Ellis Team SW Florida Current Market Index actually worsened slightly, as the holidays typically cut into December sales.  This phenomenon occurs every year and shouldn’t be looked upon as anything spectacular. Inventory levels for both single family homes and condos in SW Florida are down, which helps offest the drop in pending sales, which is a good sign.

Buyer activity is increasing as there is renewed interest in SW Florida due to lower prices and favorable exchange rates from foreign buyers. 

If you’d like to attend our next free SW Florida short sale seminar, please call our office to register.  We teach first time home buyers. move-up buyers, and investors how to consistently buy properties at or below today’s fair market value, and educate consumers about the local SW Florida real estate market.

The higher the CMI Index, the more supply we have relative to demand.

This weeks show, "The Future of Real Estate" will feature guests Lieutenant Governor of Florida Jeff Kottkamp and Lee County Budget Director Dinah Lewis for the entire hour.  We’ll discuss the Florida constitutional ammendment on the ballot January 29 as well as fiscal and economic issues here in SW Florida. 

We’ll talk about the current state of the economy and the impacts that has on budgeting here in SW Florida, as well as the implications if Ammendment 1 passes.  We have two top experts who are very knowledgeable and break down in easy to understand terms what’s at stake in this election.

You won’t want to miss this weeks show hosted by The Ellis Team as this topic directly relates to taxes, the real estate market, the economy, and the recovery of Florida.  It can be heard on WINK AM 1240 Saturday at 11:00 as well as online at our website www.Topagent.com

30 year interest rates have dropped to the lowest levels in a very long time. We are now below 6%. There is one program that Countrywide now has that is at 5.125%! WOW, With interest rates that low it is sure to induce purchases within the SW Florida market.

Most would agree that the people purchasing in our SW Florida market are the ones that need a place to live, looking to buy at heavily discounted prices or looking for a second home.

Within the past several weeks I have been working with various groups of people that are back in the market for another purpose. Long term Real Estate Investors are back in the South West Florida market again. They are buying and buying in qty.

Last weekend i spent an entire day with an investor from the UK showing him the canal systems prior to his South West Florida waterfront purchases. He owns 51 corporations (mostly RE Related) and has 146 Million US dollars that he is now pouring into the Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Naples market for investment purposes. He says there is an ENORMOUS SALE in SW Florida and I am taking advantage of it! Where else in the world can you buy at such a reduction price? Where else can you buy where this sale is going on and people are still moving into the community?

These investors are back in the market and are the people that have the confidence and have taken the time to do the due diligence for the investment that they are making. They enter a transaction without any emotion, but with pure confidence based on the numbers.

The real estate investors are definitely coming back into the market!

In the midst of negative reporting regarding the Florida real estate market, silently investors and foreigners are coming into Florida scooping up bargains.  Why, because Florida is on sale.

Home sale prices in Florida are down roughly 30-40% across the board.  Add to that the favorable exchange rates foreigners enjoy now, and foreign buyers are able to buy much more in Florida than they can back home.  The dollar is down against many currencies, making real estate a bargain over here in the US.

In fact, US investors who started coming back into the SW Florida real estate market in the past few months are now competing with foreign investors for the best bargains.  And home buyers are sitting on the sidelines oblivious to it all becuase they read the newspapers and fear the market is going lower.

The Ellis Team at RE/MAX is working with buyers from England, Russia, Canada, and Israel just to name a few.  We’ve heard from a Sarasota agent who is working with multiple investors from UK, and another FOrt Myers broker who is working with a UK investor looking to place $150 million into the Florida market for long-term investing.

Investors usually pop back into the market first because they study numbers, whereas first-time home buyers and move up buyers buy more on emotion, so they tend to wait for the all clear fearing prices could still come down more.

We expect foreclosures to peak in 2008.  Builders are no longer putting downward pressure on prices as they’ve already cleared out most all of their unsold inventory, and they’re not building new construction below cost, like they did with the unsold inventory.

Credit markets are beginning to loosen as more programs are trickling back.  Property taxes will go down in 2008 as a result of 2007 price declines, and legislative action.  We’ve seen significant improvement in insurance rates as well.  Most all signs point to a recovering housing market in 2008.  We would like to see inventory numbers fall, and employment rise.  The real estate impact has had a toll on employment numbers.

The Ellis Team SW Florida Current Market Index improved slightly for single family homes this past month, which is a good sign heading into season. The condo index fell slightly.  Listing inventory increased in both single family homes and condos in southwest florida, as did pending  sales for single family homes, which caused the index to improve..  In fact, pending sales climbed at  greater rate than what we’ve been seeing in past months.

Buyer activity has increased, and demand for our Southwest Florida short sale seminar is growing as well.  If you’d like to attend our next free SW Florida short sale seminar, please call our office to register.  We teach first time home buyers. move-up buyers, and investors how to consistently buy properties at or below today’s fair market value, and educate consumers about the local SW Florida real estate market.

The CMI Index actually fell in Cape Coral Florida where most people believe the worst of the inventory crisis is.  The CMI illustrates that while inventory has grown in Cape COral, pending sales have kept up and are holding their own.   In fact, the CMI Index in Cape Coral is only 14.63  In Fort Myers, the Index is 19.83

The higher the CMI Index, the more supply we have relative to demand.

The SW Florida real estate market posted a 23.85% gain in sales over the previous month, and a 3.32% gain in median price over the previous month, according to latest sales statistics reported by the Florida Association of Realtors.  Single family home sales in Fort Myers and Cape Coral were down compared to October of 2006, but that was last year’s market.  We’re more interested in how the market is changing now, not what happened last year.

Many of last years sales were a result of sales in 2005.  Closings today are more closely associated with sales recently as the backlog of builder inventory has been absorbed.  In fact, most builders have sold off most all of their unsold inventory, and are now working on sales for new construction now.  This is alleviating some of the downward pricing pressure on resales, which is a positive sign moving forward.

As you can see from the SW Florida Real Estate Homes Closed Graph, 2007 closed sales have rebounded and headed upward again. The same is true with 2007 prices, as evidenced by the SW Florida Real Estate Sales Prices 2005-2007 graph.  If the trend continues it is possible we could catch 2006 numbers on both the sales price numbers and the closed sales numbers soon.

It appears that foreclosures will peak 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2008, which could be the final leg in the market correction.  If true, 2008 should be a year of bouncing along the bottom with mild fluctuations up and down.  The buyers buying window of opportunity looks like it may be greatest now through the next 6 months or so, then the pendulum will slowly swing back towards equlibrium.  This swing will take some time, and because interest rates have recently swung lower, now may be the best time for the buyers.

The US  currency is also making the US real estate market attractive to foreigners who also will be competing to buy some of these properties.