Naples, FL (June 25, 2021) – Homes in the Naples area were being sold at 99.1% of the list price in May.

A tight inventory and buyer demand continued to push prices upward in May, which resulted in an overall median closed price increase of 29.4% to $433,500 from $335,000 in May 2020, according to the May 2021 Market Report released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®).
Broker analysts reviewing the report predict continued price increases in 2021, but noted monthly showing and sales activity is beginning to show signs of deceleration from the remarkable market experienced during the first quarter of 2021.

Babcock Ranch has reached nearly 1,400 new homes sold and surpassed 1,000 closings...

with home sales at 1,386 and closings at 1,027, Kitson & Partners, who created the community, announced.

The fast-paced sales activity has been fueled by 342 home sales year-to-date in America’s first solar-powered town, located just northeast of Fort Myers on Babcock Ranch Road/State Road 31.
Encompassing 18,000 acres, with 19,500 planned residences and 6,000,000 square feet of commercial space, Babcock Ranch ranked 34th on both RCLCO Real Estate Advisors’ and John Burns Real Estate Consulting’s 2020 list of the country’s 50 top-selling master-planned communities.
Babcock Ranch began marketing new homes in 2017, with the first residents moving into the town in January 2018. Today, Babcock Ranch offers homes from seven homebuilders in seven neighborhoods. 

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Vacation home sales rose 16.4% in 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors.

People especially are picking Lee County to call their home away from home, propelling Fort Myers and Cape Coral to the number one spot in the country for vacation home sales. 

People who want to live in the region are buying homes at a record pace. Homes that used to sell in weeks are gone in days. People are buying permanent homes and vacation homes too. Inventory is moving faster than ever, creating hot competition in the Cape Coral housing market. There are fewer “for sale” signs, and those who want to sell don’t wait long, ©WINK News reports.

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Investors fear inflation and mortgage rates usually rise. But investors appear to believe the Fed when it says the U.S.’s current bout of inflation is only temporary.

NEW YORK – The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.96% for the week ending June 10, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly report – down three basis points from the previous week.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell four basis points to an average of 2.23%. The five-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.55%, down nine basis points from the prior week.

Mortgage rates usually move roughly in tandem with long-term bond yields, including the 10-year Treasury, and the past week was not an exception. However, it’s not common to see inflation rising without stocks falling at the same time.

“The Freddie Mac fixed rate for a 30-year loan dropped along with the 10-year Treasury yield this week, as investors seem to accept the Federal Reserve’s view that the current inflation is temporary, and a patient monetary response continues to be warranted,” says Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale. “Housing bubble and crash worries are common, even showing up in a record-low share of people saying it’s a good time to buy a home.”

Source: MarketWatch (06/10/21) Passy, Jacob

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Homes.com: In the past six months, 82% of listings sold for list price or higher, plus 1 in 10 had no showings before contract signing, and 1 in 4 had 5 showings or less.

NEW YORK – With a low supply of homes for sale, sellers find sales happen quickly and fetch higher and higher offers. In the past six months, 82% of owners who listed their home accepted offers at list price or above, according to a new survey of about 1,600 homeowners conducted by Homes.com.

What’s more, homes are selling faster too:

25% of home sellers said they had five or fewer showings before finding a buyer

26% had between six and 10 showings before selling

Nearly 10% say they had no in-person showings at all and still sold their home due in part to the uptick in virtual tours that have been increased during the pandemic.

In April, almost 9 out of 10 homes sold were on the market for less than a month, according to National Association of Realtors®.

Twenty-seven percent of sellers surveyed say they accepted offers $10,000 or even $20,000 higher than their requested sales price, according to the Homes.com seller survey.

Sellers expect more than just the best price from offers lately. Many sellers in the Homes.com survey said say they refused to consider offers with any contingencies or other strings-attached: 28% required all-cash payments, no contingencies, and 30 days or less to close, and 14% opted to sell their home “as is.”

Source: “How Are Sellers in the Current Market REALLY Doing?” Homes.com (June 8, 2021)

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PBS Contractors has completed the main entrance and common area at the Vanderbilt Towers of Naples, known as Tower 1.

The complete demolition and renovation of the lobby, entertainment room and front entrance began last year, with the final piece of furniture installed earlier this month. “This was the first time the building had been renovated since it was originally built in 1972,” says Guillermo Ruiz, community association manager of Vanderbilt Towers. PBS shares this completion with design partners JMDG Architecture. 

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A new development in Fort Myers could be the key to more business moving to the area.

Plans for a massive three-building complex in Midtown are moving forward. A four-story apartment building, a five-story building with upscale amenities and a six-story parking garage are set to make up what will be called The Montage at Midtown. The developer says the project will create nearly 700 jobs directly and indirectly with a nearly $130 million economic impact for a section of the city that needs a jumpstart, WINK News reports.

The city is hoping this development will inspire other investors to consider the 243-acre Midtown, bordered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the north, Edison Avenue to the south, Cleveland Avenue on the west and Evans Avenue to the east. 

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Naples, FL (MAY 21, 2021) - Sellers Step Up in Attempt to Meet Buyer Demand in April

Buyers eager for more home choices were treated to an increase in new listings during April. 

According to the April 2021 Market Report, released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®),there were 1,460 new listings added to the pool of homes for sale in Naples during April. This was a 106.2% increase in new listings compared to new listings added during April 2020. However, and as broker analysts reviewing the report were quick to point out, evaluating market conditions using month-over-month market data will not produce equitable comparisons for the next few months because the real estate industry, like virtually all businesses, experienced reduced productivity levels as a result of mandatory COVID-19 restrictions.

Since January, the Naples area housing market has enjoyed a 14.3% increase in new listings compared to new listings during the same time period in 2020. “Some buyers who haven’t found their ideal home yet might think, ‘There’s nothing left to see,’” said Brenda Fioretti, Broker Associate at BHHS Florida Realty, “but new listings are hitting the market everyday so they shouldn’t give up searching for a home.”

The pandemic has created many challenges, but it also changed the way we live and work. Some are choosing to make their vacations permanent and move to Southwest Florida full-time to work remotely. CityLab found that most people moving to the state are moving to Southwest Florida. Mapping the percentage of change during the pandemic compared to the year prior, CityLab provided ratios for the number of people moving in divided by the number moving out of areas. The top areas in the region ranked by their percentage of growth include Clewiston (10.8%), Naples/Marco Island (9.7%), Punta Gorda (8.1%), Northport/Sarasota/Bradenton (7.3%) and Cape Coral/Fort Myers (6%). (Source: Gulfshore Business.)

Naples, FL (April 23, 2021) - March Home Sales Volume for Naples Hits Record High

Records were broken in March, but “don’t call Guinness just yet!” say broker analysts reviewing the March 2021 Market Report, released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®), which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island). The analysts are a small contingency of leaders who represent the area’s top real estate brokerage firms and meet monthly at NABOR® to interpret area housing market statistics. The group’s analysis of activity last month confirmed that March broke records; but celebrations to commemorate the month’s record high statistics should be postponed because these broker analysts also agree that our market is probably not done breaking records for the year.

According to the report, March’s historic activity included 1,851 closed sales, $1,582,474,997 in total sales volume, and 60,147 showing appointments. This makes March 2021 the highest performing month on record over the last 13 years (the span of time NABOR® has tracked key metrics reflecting the area’s housing market activity).