Tag Archives: Fort Myers real estate market

Late Season in 2014 For Fort Myers and Cape Coral Real Estate Market

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Season felt like it was good but statistically the numbers weren’t coming in like they usually do in the Fort Myers and Cape Coral real estate market.  February and March sale prices were flat and this is the time of year they usually rise. We reported that was a trend we wanted to keep an eye on.

Cape Coral real estate market homes closed

Other Factors Influencing the Fort Myers and Cape Coral Real Estate Market:

Another trend we were watching was the weather up North. This past winter was frightful in every aspect and many speculated this would be a boom for SW Florida, including us. The numbers weren’t as strong this season as the weather was dreadful, so some were scratching their heads.

At an Ellis Team meeting a few of our buyer specialists were commenting on how many of our buyers were done with living up North, but the weather was so bad they couldn’t leave. They longed for the day for the weather to improve enough so they could plan a trip down to paradise.

Guess what? Many of them did just that and our sales started rising. The last few days of April and the first week of May were particularly strong, and we haven’t slowed down since. Some of these sales were Northern buyers coming down. Others were local buyers making their move.

Fort Myers Sale Prices 2014 Cape Coral

In any event, we’re starting to see the charts move again. It’s too early to tell if this is a trend as closed sales tend to peak in April and May then simmer back down for the rest of the year. The same is true with prices as Northerners snatch up higher priced homes during season.

We are seeing pending sales going up right now on our team.  Countywide inventory is going down, so this may bode well for home sales going into June and July.  Prices may follow suit, and if this holds true, it bolsters the idea that perhaps 2014 is in for a late season.

Years ago summer was the hottest selling months for single family homes.  We might be returning to that model. Of course, years ago the locals freely bought and sold in the summer months when all the tourists went home because they had more time. Many locals work hard during season and things free up a bit when they go home.

For the last 7 years or so locals weren’t able to buy and sell in the summer because they were under water on their home, or their business hadn’t fully recovered yet.  Now more and more are able to sell as they finally have equity due to rising prices and paying down their mortgage. Each year going forward we may see more and more eligible locals in the market.

At the Ellis Team at RE/MAX Realty Group we’ve been listing homes and they’ve been selling quickly.  This could be a good sign. We’ve been excited to show off our new Hi Definition marketing program and we’ve been having trouble keeping our new listings long enough to video them. We do have some videos coming to the market you can check out at www.HomesinHd.TV

We are seeing increased activity from online leads as well.  I just went in and searched our online MLS search site and we had 17 new registrations in the past 2 days, so that’s about 8.5 per day.  That’s a healthy number signing up to view homes in MLS so that may be a sign there’s increased interest in the SW Florida real estate market as well. If you’d like to search the MLS, go to Topagent.com

We hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend, and remember Memorial Day is a day to remember US armed forces who died serving our country.

Good luck and Happy House Hunting!

To search the MLS visit TopAgent.com  To learn more about Hi Def video for your home visit HomesinHD.TV

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SW Florida Real Estate Market Changing? Let’s Analyze

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Is the SW Florida Real Estate Market Changing? Listing inventory rose slightly in Fort Myers and Cape Coral real estate markets in February from 6,192 single family homes on the market in January to 6,271 last month. Listing inventory typically peaks in January and declines slightly in February before Declining rapidly in March due to so many seasonal sales occurring. This year inventory actually rose in February and internal numbers we’re tracking in March show they’ve risen slightly again.

SW Florida real estate market single family home inventory

This may be a sign that sellers have been a little too ambitious pricing their home and buyers have backed off bidding up prices. Prices typically peak in season then level off or decline a little bit the rest of the year. This is because most of the higher priced sales occur when we have the most visitors, but if that trend is peaking it will be interesting to see where the market heads from here. New pending sales in February are down 10.6% from last year. New listings are up 5.4% over last year. So we have increasing inventory and declining pending sales in the height of season. We’ll be tracking March numbers very carefully. It’s still possible March and April could be great as Easter is late this year but the pending numbers we’re looking at don’t bear that out plus we see rising inventory.

SW Florida real estate market new pending sales and Cape Coral, Estero, Fort Myers Beach single family

SW Florida Real Estate Market Prices

Prices did rise in February up to a median price of $185,000 from $180,000 in January. Average prices rose from $301,035 in January to $311,536 Has the market peaked? Markets rarely stay constant. It’s possible the market is taking a break until it figures out where it wants to go. Properties in the $250,000 or less range are still flying off the market. Homes priced higher than $400,000 really need to make sure they’re priced competitively in the market as inventory begins to build the higher the price. Interest rates are rising again and it has put pressure on buyers. We just received some good news on flood insurance which will help the SW Florida real estate market compared to what we could have seen had the President not signed HR 3370 into law this week. New buyers will receive the same flood rates as existing homeowners do. Rates may still climb, but there are caps to how much and how fast, and before the new law was signed, there was no grandfather clause when a purchaser bought a property. This should provide some stability to costs for buyers which does affect their purchasing power. We’ve had some excellent weather down here and the weather up North has been dreadful. 2014 might be the year many will vacation down here and put plans into place to move here in the coming months. A few companies are also bringing jobs to SW Florida in the next few years. If the economy improves, our real estate market has more room to grow. If it doesn’t, our market may stagnate and remain at these levels. Like I said, the market rarely stands still. Forces affect the real estate market. Rising interest rates affect it negatively. Jobs and the economy do affect the market as well. We’re not sounding the alarm that we’re at risk of a downturn. We are saying we’re watching the numbers and we have a few things to keep our eye on going forward. The continued trend of rising prices may still occur, or it may subside and take a breather.  If your plans depend on one outcome or the other this is information that may be useful to you. Nobody knows where the market is going exactly, or exactly when it will get there. If you’ve got a property to sell, give us a call and we’ll guide you through the market. If you’re a buyer, it pays to know what areas are hot and where inventory is building. We have the information. Let it work for you. 239-489-4042 or search the MLS at www.swfloridamls.Topagent.com Good luck and Happy Selling/Buying! If you’re considering buying or selling in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero, Ft Myers Beach or anywhere in Lee County Florida, give us a call. 239-489-4042 or visit our website www.Topagent.com Search the MLS View Larger Map Feel free to view our Virtual Tours . Visit our Google+ Business Page  

Closings on the Rise in SW Florida

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Like clockwork closed sales are on the rise starting in August. Last year we closed 896 single family home sales and in August 2013 we closed 1,069 for a 19.31% gain. This is especially interesting considering inventory levels are low. Closings on the Rise in SW Florida.

Closings on the Rise in SW Florida

Higher closed sales and lower inventory levels led to an increase in prices again. Median prices in August 2013 were $165,000 which was up 26.9% over last year’s $130,000 level, and average home prices were up 26.4%.

Single family home listing inventory in SW Florida Fort Myers Cape Coral real estate market

We also like to look at month over month prices and median sale prices increased 1.23% from $163,000 in July to $165,000 in August. Average price gains were only .28% but a gain nonetheless.

As we write this article the government is still shut down and it’s impossible to tell what effect this will have on the economy, financing of mortgages, both conventional and government mortgages, and closings in general.

The consensus is that a prolonged shutdown will affect the economy as we’re taking hundreds of thousands of paychecks out of the economy. The larger affects could be to the confidence of the consumer, so suffice it to say Congress and the President should be talking instead of blaming each other.

Should Washington get its act together we could be in for another good season. 2014 is shaping up to be a better year in many regards and the last thing we need is government getting in the way.

Next week our MLS systems are supposed to merge. I’ve heard Oct 12 is the date and Oct 21. In any event, after the glitches are worked out, using the MLS and gathering data should be much easier for Realtors and consumers. Our website Topagent.com lets you search the entire MLS. Soon the data feeds should contain listings from Naples to Cape Coral. Sanibel and Captiva will be the only area not included in the new MLS although many of the listings end up in the common database anyway as island agents want the extra exposure.

After the MLS merger there will be increased pressure on small MLS’s like Sanibel and Captiva to join. Typically Sanibel and Captiva have resisted as they’ve wanted the island to themselves and have tried to shut out Realtors from off the island, but in this day of technology that may be increasingly harder to do as buyers and sellers with multi-million dollar properties demand more from their agents.

If Naples can join a common database so too can Sanibel and Captiva.

If you’re a seller, now is the time to gear up your home sale for season. Give us a call at 239-489-4042 and find out how we sell our homes fast and for more money. We’ve got a marketing system that works and we’ll be happy to share with you how we do it.

Good luck and happy house hunting!
To search the MLS for properties go to www.TopAgent.com or give us a call at 239-489-4042     Good luck and Happy House Hunting!!!

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Appraisals an Issue Once Again

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Real estate agents have been complaining that appraisers have been under-valuing property again. Recently the National Association of Realtors listed the Cape Coral – Fort Myers real estate market as the #3 fastest rising home price markets in the country. Appraisals an Issue Once Again!

Appraisals an Issue Once Again

Appraisals are one person’s opinion of value based upon recent sold data.  The problem is in an upward rising market, past sales are yesterday’s news and today’s values are higher then a few months ago.

In a declining market appraisers are quick to make a time value adjustment as sales from 3-4 months ago would be worth more than today’s market.  Appraisers aren’t as quick in a rising market if you ask many real estate agents, and therein lay the problem.

Buyers and sellers quite often sweat out the appraisal which unfortunately doesn’t always occur right after the contract.  Many sellers are requiring the appraisal number to come in within 15 days of contract acceptance to remove this obstacle.

Typically a buyer gets pre-qualified for a loan and then goes out shopping for a home.  With inventory so limited in SW Florida it’s getting hard to find suitable homes in a buyer’s price range, and when you do find a home for the buyer the buyer isn’t holding all the cards.  The sellers are pretty much able to dictate certain terms as there are several buyers looking at the limited inventory in some price ranges.

The banks usually order the appraisal from an appraisal management company who hires the appraiser.  The management company serves as a middle man to keep the lender from influencing values.  A problem is if the appraiser is not local or is unfamiliar with the area, or simply chooses bad comparables, there isn’t a good way to fix a bad appraisal.  The bank is typically stuck with that number, so the buyer is stuck, unless they’re willing to switch lenders.

We work with one local lender who has access to 3 appraisal management companies, so if we get a bad appraisal from one company they can seek another opinion without being stuck.  This does add time to the process though and isn’t ideal.

This forces sellers to take the best possible buyer, and price isn’t always the most important issue.  True enough, in a tight supply market, all buyers are going to be at a high price, but what really makes a buyer stand out from another buyer are the “Other” terms, like closing date, and amount in escrow.

If you have a buyer putting 20% down but only putting $1,000 in escrow it looks suspicious to a seller.  The escrow money is counted towards the down payment money anyway, and it is refundable if the buyer cannot get their financing assuming the contract is written properly, so sellers ask themselves, “Why isn’t this buyer putting more money down upfront?”

If a seller has 2 or more offers and one has $10,000 in escrow and one only has $1,000 down, which offer sounds better?  Even if there isn’t another offer Yet it still screams weak offer and throws up a red flag.  In a competitive market where a buyer isn’t in competition with the seller but rather with others buyers, it pays to make your offer look strong anyway you can.  If you’re financing there is a limit to how high you can go because it has to appraise.  Do the other things to make your offer stand out.

Listening to your agent will help.  If you don’t make your offer stand out, you’ll be on your 4th or 5th favorite home instead of your 1st, and in this market many times there aren’t more than 3 to choose from.

If you do run into an appraisal problem, there are things you can do.  Perhaps the seller may consider pre-paying the mortgage insurance which might eliminate the need for the property to appraise.  Speak with your agent and lender about these options.  Don’t let a bad appraisal Kill your sale.

Good luck and Happy House Hunting!!!!

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The Bear Went Over the Mountain

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To see what he could see. We’ve all heard this particular children’s song and it’s probably playing in your head right now. I thought this headline was appropriate because our year end sales numbers graph looks like home prices went up the side of a mountain through 2005 then fell off a cliff until 2009 before rebounding the past few years.

SW Florida Real Estate Year End Prices
Year End Prices Fort Myers-Cape Coral Florida Metro Area

Official sales numbers were just released this past week for the state of Florida and the SW Florida real estate market. Year end sale prices were up 14.67% from $93,400 in 2010 to $107,100 in 2011 The year end graph isn’t where prices finished the year but rather an average of what they were all year long. For instance, November median single family home prices in Lee County was $106,300 and December’s was $123,400, a whopping 16.09% jump over the previous month and a 36.05% jump over year ago December figures.

2011 was the 3rd best year on record for numbers of sales. Inventory declined throughout the first 3 quarters of 2011 or we very well could have sold many more. To put things in perspective, 2011 outsold 2005 by almost 2,000 homes. Everyone speaks about 2005 being the height of the market, but it is the 4th best year on record in terms of units sold. 2009, 2010, 2011 respectively were 1-3.

Quarterly Home Sales for SW Florida 200-2012
Lee County Quarterly Single Family Home Sales

While prices rise it’s quite natural volume will go down. It’s simple supply and demand. If we had more inventory than our market could handle, our prices would be lower and not rising. It’s always difficult to predict a top or bottom, but hindsight always provides crystal clear clarity. The reason is you can have a false bottom whereby prices bounce back for a few months only to retreat again later. On Wall Street it’s termed a dead cat bounce when the market does that.

With several years in the books it appears we can safely say the market bottomed in 2009. If the market would go lower in the future it would be a new market, not a continuing drop. We don’t see the market going lower year over year going forward; although monthly price swings are not out of the question as closings are dependant on what inventory there is and what’s actually closing in a given month.

We have no problem listing and selling properties. The skill is really getting them closed today. The regulatory and operating environment has never been so tricky as there are so many new regulations pertaining to new mortgages. If the lenders initial disclosure is off by a little bit, it requires by law to re-disclose everything and a new waiting period goes into effect.

Combine new lending rules with negotiations with HOA’s and condo association over fees, title issues, appraisal issues, inspection issues, and challenges with short sales and you can quickly see nobody can guarantee closing dates, and scheduled closings in one month can easily pop over into subsequent months.

All these challenges affect the real estate market and can push high end or low end closings from one month to another, ultimately effecting month end numbers. In the end, these numbers all work out in the wash, so we like to look at year end numbers or a moving average throughout the year. So many people focus on one point in time when the market is always in flux and needs constant attention to understand what’s going on.

That’s what we’re here for, to keep you updated with unbiased information good or bad. We’re in the midst of season, and as predicted season started early and seems to be going well. I guess we’ll know in April or May for sure. In the meantime, stay tuned.

Watch our January 2012 Market Report

 

SW Florida Future of Real Estate Market Report January 2012-New Year\’s Resolutions

Distressed Sales in SW Florida Making a Comeback

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As you can see from the attached chart, the percentages of sales that are distressed are rising once again.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as we believe banks should actively work with sellers to allow short sales rather than going through an arduous and costly foreclosure process that ties the home up for months or years.  If the homeowner simply cannot afford to stay in the home and all other realistic options have been exhausted, banks should assist in allowing current homeowner to sell to someone who can afford and wants to be in the home, and everyone wins including the neighborhood.

Distressed Sales Chart for Greater Fort Myers, Cape Coral Florida
SW Florida Distressed Sales

Official sales numbers will be released after we write this article.  Our internal market research suggests sales will fall in July compared to June by about 216 +/- homes and median prices will fall slightly as well.  This may be a function that foreclosures made up a larger portion of the distressed sale pie than in previous months, signaling short sale percentages declined versus foreclosures.

Banks are beginning to release more foreclosures as they’ve turned a corner in the legal battle when they went back and cleaned up the process to file foreclosures.  We all knew there would be some pent-up foreclosure supply, but nothing along the lines of 2008-2009 foreclosure filings.

Cape Coral saw almost a 5% increase in distressed sale percentages while Lehigh Acres was up about 3%.  Overall sales were down in Lee County, but the breakdown of the sales was leaning more towards distressed sales.  County wide distressed sales equaled 48.82% of all single family home sales in July, up from 44.57% in June.

Contrast this with listing inventory in Lee County and you would think there would be upward price pressure as inventory levels dwindle.  It’s fascinating to watch the economic dynamics in play.  A similar analogy might be predicting hurricane’s forecast trajectory plot and intensity.  A storm can be influenced by dry air, low pressure, ridges anticipating forming at a certain time and point, and so forth.

Single Family Listing Inventory Fort Myers- Cape Coral
SW Florida Listing Inventory

Forecasting the SW Florida housing market has similar variables influencing the market.  We have banks processing foreclosures as fast as they can, banks willingness to accept short sales, traditional sellers moving up, down, or not at all depending on how much they owe and their job security, and the overall job market.  Are jobs moving into the area or out of?  When will the economy improve?  Interest rates and insurance costs also influence affordability and motivation for buyers.

Predicting the housing market would be so much easier if you could accurately predict each individual variable.  Since we cannot, all we can do is monitor local and sometimes world events and report on how they are affecting the real estate market.  In past articles we’ve talked about the effect of United States debt on interest rates.  We’ve talked about the price of oil’s effect on the economy, and housing supply issues.

As we enter an election year, hopefully the focus will be on the economy and jobs, and if Washington gets out of the private sector’s way and allows it to grow, maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a positive influence on several variables that influence our local real estate market.

 

Distressed Sales Now Less Than Traditional Sales in SW Florida

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For the first time in years distressed sales were less than normal or traditional sales, down to 45.26% of all sales in April 2011.

March 2011 saw 901 distressed sales while April produced 683 distressed sales resulting in a decline of 24.2% We had 51 fewer short sales and 167 fewer foreclosure sales in April versus the previous month. Overall we had 163 fewer transactions. Traditional sales actually rose from 765 in March to 826 in April, so the lower distressed sales are helping the overall market.

Foreclosure and short sales in SW Florida
SW Florida Distressed Sales Breakdown

Perhaps this is why official prices have risen over 15% since January. Next week official numbers will be released and we’ll of course be tracking prices. We can say that pending sales are down 9.97% from March numbers, and this can be attributable to seasonality of home sales and falling inventory levels.

March 2010 was the first month in years with inventory of single family homes below 10,000. March numbers stood at 9,785 and current April numbers stand at 8,718. That’s a drop of over 1,000 units in just one month. We’ve been seeing inventory levels drop since February at a rate of about 500 per month, but April’s drop was the sharpest we’ve seen in awhile. To put these numbers in comparison, we tracked 12,669 active listings back in October 2006.

The Ellis Team SW Florida current market Index now stands at 3.14, which is the lowest since September 2005 when it stood at 2.11. It rose to 3.44 the very next month and was a sure sign of what was to come. This Index accurately predicts the future direction of the real estate market. Back in 2005 it began rising which told us the market was in change. Later on the public and media began to see what the numbers were telling us.

Fast forward to 2011 and we’re seeing similar numbers, but they’ve been heading steadily down, which means the market has been shifting from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market. Now don’t get too confident if you’re a seller as the overall economy is still limiting price increases, but this is good news for a market that bled for years.

SW Florida was long known as the epicenter for the housing crisis along with Phoenix, Las Vegas, and California. Today Fort Myers and Cape Coral is actually faring better than many parts of the country, although better is a relative term as unemployment is still high and many people are struggling.

Our market has been in the healing process, and while there is still more healing to do, it’s nice to report a little positive news after years of misery. In fact, people from all over the world have been contacting us recently asking about our market as they’re beginning to read that SW Florida has bottomed and it may be time to get in on the good deals. Our real estate is certainly affordable, and probably about as inexpensive as it’s ever going to be, so people want in on the deals.

It still strikes me as odd though as people from all over come here to buy and they still offer ridiculously low offers when they know full well we’re experiencing a shortage of certain homes in certain prices, and they’ve read that prices are going up. You just have to wonder what makes them think they can low ball in a rising market.

I think the answer is greed, and unfortunately it is this same emotion that got us into this mess years ago, and it is this same emotion that will prevent certain people from buying in this market as they’ll always be in search of the deal from last year, ignoring what is occurring in today’s market.

I’ve always said, if you wanted to sell in 2005, you had to price it right and actually sell it in 2005, not 2006, 2007, or 2008. And if you want to buy today, you have to step up and get a great deal in 2011. You missed 2010 pricing, and if you’re not careful, you’ll miss 2011 pricing. Today’s pricing is still far below replacement cost and is artificially too low, however it looks like we’ve bottomed and are moving up, and it’s a little late to go for blood when the wound was bandaged months ago.

Foreclosure Moratorium Adversely Affect Real Estate Market

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Last week we reported some preliminary findings on the local SW Florida real estate market pending release of official numbers this week.  Well, it’s official as the numbers are out.

The foreclosure moratorium has taken its effect on closings and prices.  Single family home sales were down 28.10% from last October’s figures, and down 7.8% from last month’s figures.  Median home sales prices were down 1.75% from last October, and down 4.66% from last month’s figure.  Median sale price for October 2010 stands at $90,000, essentially where they were back in 1996.

SW Florida Real Estate Single Family Home Prices Chart
SW Florida Single Family Home sale Prices

The shame of it all is that the temporary freeze isn’t going to cause more delinquent owners to stay in their properties.  If they don’t pay they won’t stay.  We are all in agreement that banks need to follow rules when foreclosing, and especially when evicting people.  As a practical matter prolonging the time a home sits before a bank can sell it hurts the neighborhood, the real estate market, and the economy.

The LA Times recently did a study on the effects of foreclosures on the market, and they compared California and Florida as sister states with closely aligned foreclosure statistics.  The California market is up in price about 20% from the bottom in April of 2009 versus Florida where prices are struggling to find a bottom in many parts.

The study concludes that California is more efficient and less complicated making it easier for banks to seize and resell homes when homeowners don’t pay.  Florida is one of 22 states that require repossessions to be approved by a judge, which adds time and tasks to the foreclosure process.  By extending the process, they’re extending the rebound time.

The LA Times article also looks at the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index which also shows prices up in many cities in California while down in the major cities of Florida.

We can’t change Florida’s law, so we’re stuck with the process of slowly bringing foreclosures to the market over time.  What we’re not in favor of is arbitrarily adding to that time.  We were especially critical of Obama’s foreclosure moratorium which slowed the recovery process back in 2009 by slowing down the process even further.

The government’s intention was to somehow provide retention for struggling homeowners, and while it was a noble cause it was a flawed scheme that wasn’t well thought out and did more harm than good.  If a homeowner lost their job, tacking on extra interest and increasing payments later on wasn’t going to make the home more affordable if the homeowner already couldn’t afford it.  Raising the payment later wasn’t going to help any struggling homeowner who was in trouble, and it certainly wasn’t going to help the market.

Real estate is 32% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which means it would ultimately hurt the economy as well.  The government finally got the message and laid off on the popular with voters but largely ineffective moratorium on foreclosures, and along came the bank issue failing to properly follow procedures on some foreclosures in those 22 states.

We are seeing the effects of that now which is prolonging the recovery.  Last week we predicted sales would be off 8.45% from last month’s numbers and official numbers indicate they were down 7.8%, so we were pretty close.  We do see some pent-up demand and an increase in pending sales activity which could bode well going forward.

We are going to keep a close eye on inventory levels, both distressed sales and non-distressed sales and pending sales.  We’ll track these against actual closings and monitor for any changes in the market.  So far since the moratoriums began Oct 1 for occupied properties, we’ve seen an impact, but there are signs this will be made up in coming months.  With season upon us we’d hate to miss any sales opportunities as buyers are buying sooner this year.  The sooner we get these properties to the market and sold, the sooner our real estate market can heal like California is doing and the sooner our economy can improve, which I think everyone can agree on would make for better times in SW Florida and across our nation.

The good news is the signs are there.  All we need now is time, action, and results, and with a little luck we’ll be on our way and 2005-2010 will be in our rear-view mirror.

Video Coverage of State of the Market Report

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The Ellis Team at RE/MAX Realty Group in Fort Myers released the Annual SW Florida State of the Market Report in February.  Local TV stations covered the release and here are some of the stories.

WINK News 6PM Coverage of State of the Market Report 

WINK News 10 PM Coverage-Home Prices Back to 1999 Prices

WINK News 11 PM-Housing Prices and New Construction

FOX 4 News Coverage of State of market Report Release

Download the State of the Market Report  In this report we detail the Fort Myers real estate market, along with updates on the Cape Coral real estate market, Lehigh Acres home sales, Bonita Springs and Estero real estate updates, Sanibel and Captiva, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, and all of Lee County Florida.

We also detailed bank foreclosure information, and short sales statistics, distressed property information, and we talked about the CDPE (Certified Distressed Property Expert) designation to help owners keep their homes or sell their homes to protect their credit

We’ll be uploading more video in the coming days, so stay tuned.

Fort Myers Florida Real Estate Video Update

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OK, who knew the video updates would be so popular?  This week’s video updates are in, and instead of doing our traditional in office video update, we decided to post some of the news stories we did last week on the local news.  This idea started out last year as a fun experiment, and what we’ve discovered is people like it and expect it.  This past week we received several e-mails and comments asking where the video updates are.

On January 6, 2009 we did an interview on WINK News 6 PM regarding Hank Fishkind’s recently released report and how he expects the SW Florida real estate market to go in the next 3 years.  We talked about affordability being back in the Fort Myers real estate market and how northern buyers are here this season and buying due to the low prices.

We also did an interview for WINK News at 5 PM and we talked again about Hank Fishkind’s stagnant growth prediction, northern buyers, and making money in real estate on the Buy Vs. the sell.  We disagreed with Hank Fishkind’s report to some extent on the SW Florida condo market.

You can let us know whether you like the TV News format better, or the simple video update like we did on September 15 in our office.  Just leave your comments to this post.

We also did news stories on NBC Today Show last September and also NBC NIghtly News with Brian Williams on October 8, 2008.

If you’d like to search for your bank owned bargain, or foreclosures in Fort Myers and Cape Coral Florida, visit out Free Search MLS website.