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Real Estate Roundup: North Fort Myers real estates sales at a glance

By Staff | Feb 10, 2015

We are bombarded daily with real estate statistics, but they are always on a national or state level- and sometimes tracking activity in Cape Coral or Fort Myers, or Lee County – but no one does North Fort Myers, until now.

At right, this article includes the transactions I’ve tracked from the local Multiple Listing Service records for the entire year 2014 for single family home sales:

Space constraints prevent more detail here, but if you need something specific contact me.

North Fort Myers home sales increased by only .3 percent and condo sales by a mere 4.3 percent compared to 2013.

Countywide, we sold 2.3 percent more than the preceding year and prices increased by 8.6 percent for homes and 10.3 percent for condos. About one half of all sales were for cash, only 4 percent were short sales and 18 percent were foreclosures. Sales of homes and condos under $100,000 declined significantly because of shrinking inventory and rising prices, while sales of 379 homes over one million were an increase of 16.6 percent and 92 condos were an awesome 53.3 percent over the prior year. Only one of those was in North Fort Myers -a gorgeous riverfront home in Riverbend.

Statewide, Florida has recently become the third most populous state, passing New York. About 800 people move to this state each day. Florida’s private sector growth rate was 3.4 percent, second only to Texas among the largest states.

According to Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Jesse Panucci, our labor force is growing over four times faster than the national labor force over the past year, and of the 10 largest states, we are the fastest-growing labor force.

Florida has the fifth best business climate in the nation according to a recent tax comparison study conducted by the Tax Foundation.

Predictions are that home sales will increase about 10 percent in 2015.

Nationally, home sales in December rose above those of November by a significant 14.4 percent and were also 3.9 percent above those of last December. Prices rose 5.9 percent and inventory shrunk 10.7percent. The median sales price of all homes sold in December was $196,000, and the Median Sales Price has now risen for 35 consecutive months!

Overall the outlook for real estate in 2015 is promising-the economy, jobs and stock market are at recent records, consumer confidence in real estate is up, while gas prices tumble, mortgage rates remain low and the government has announced major reductions in mortgage insurance premiums, reducing the cost of home ownership for those utilizing an FHA mortgage.

Down payments of 3 and zero are returning to the market making home ownership feasible for many more.

– Mike Land is a licensed Realtor, living and working in North Fort Myers