Welcome to the coolest month of the year!
Even in Southwest Florida (where the sun is always shining) the air feels slightly less humid, college and NFL football is ALL some of us think about and carving pumpkins and plans for Halloween are in full swing!
In Naples we rounded out the summer season with strong sales figures that underscores the shift in our real estate market is underway.
The Naples Area Board of Realtors released the following statistics comparing single-family home and condominium sales between August 2011-August 2012.
- The overall median closed price increased 10 percent ( from $ 176,000 to $ 194,000)
- Pending sales increased 16 percent in the $ 500,000 to $ 1million category
- Overall inventory decreased by 13 percent; 6,930 units were for sale in August 2011 as compared to 6,043 units in August 2012.
- Overall pending sales in the Naples coastal areas increased 10 percent and closed sales increased 9 percent since August 2011.
The largest takeaway from the outlined statistics is that the median price of homes has increased. Investors in our area had become accustomed to purchasing property for $ 100,000 immediately following the fallout of the financial crisis. Those days are gone. Renovated waterfront properties are now priced upwards of $ 400,000 and second home buyer have returned to our market in droves as pending sales in our strongest segment ($500,000- 1 million) having increased 16 percent over the past year.
Buyers who require financing to purchase property have begun to reemerge. Lending standards have become stricter and as one of our clients stated; “obtaining financing is like jumping through fiery hoops”. To avoid any unnecessary jumping buyers may need to keep their spending patterns in tight check while buying a home as our latest blog outlines;
I look forward to hearing how you will be celebrating RockTober! I will be pulling out the stops for this year’s Halloween festivities so don’t be shy about sending me your costume suggestions!