[florida1]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

"Sales of existing single-family homes in Lee County were down 42 percent from 993 in May 2006 to 575 last month and the median sales price was down 2 percent to $281,500, according to figures released
Monday by the Florida Associated of Realtors."

"“J. Larry Sorsby, chief financial officer of Hovnanian Enterprises, said Monday at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in New York that Lee County is ‘by far the worst housing market that we’re in and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the worst housing market in the country.’”

Hovnanian Enterprises is doing horrible in SW FL because it bought First Homes. Well there was a huge news story about all the problems SW FL home buyers were having with houses built by First Homes. It's no secret that Hovnanian/First Homes has the worst quality houses in the county. I know because I lived in a First Home built house for a while and it was horrible. It was cheaply built and the customer service to get someone out to fix it was horrible. Lee County is Hovnanian's worst performing market because the county residents finally realized that their houses are pieces of junk! Nobody buys from them anymore!

[LingLing]

Originally Posted by memoriesbre

We sold our home in Deep Creek last November for $275,000. and I did it on my own. Coldwell Banker did nothing for us. We did hire new agents from Remax and they did a great VT for me. I took the VT and put it up on the free Real Estate sites. I had two serious buyers within two weeks of that VT being put on that site. The first buyer came and still needed to sell his home.
The second one came the next week and we signed contracts that same day.
Both buyers were from NJ too!

What does "VT" mean? Sorry, I don't know too much about real estate.

[kort677]

Originally Posted by LingLing

What does "VT" mean? Sorry, I don't know too much about real estate.

vt = video tour

[LingLing]

Originally Posted by kort677

vt = video tour

Thank you very much.

[Audacious]

Sarasota is starting to come back to life but there still are some great deal in south county and Port Charlotte. North Port has tons of houses for sale but be careful of new construction, a whole lot of garbage out there. As to the future. look here

House price appreciation by metro area - MSN Money (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Homebuyingguide/P85333.asp - broken link)

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by MrTudo

Some excellent deals are available in Port Charlotte.

Ours will be one of them, it looks like as we may put an offer in on another house in the next day or two.

Glad to hear you found the right spot for yourselves. Is Port Charlotte quite similar to Sebring because I know you were checking that out.

[hiknapster]

Florida1: I read the article. Interesting that it didn't say that it was the fastest growing area LAST year:

"Population figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday and gathered from April 2000 to July 2006 show Lee County has the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, increasing from 440,888 residents to more than 570,000."

Those are figures from April 2000 to July 2006. That in no way reflects what is going on now.

As far as those condos go, the article says the developer is Levitt and Sons. No matter who built them, it is going to further drive down prices.

And yes, I am aware of First Homes, that is why I never bought from them.

[florida1]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Florida1: I read the article. Interesting that it didn't say that it was the fastest growing area LAST year:

"Population figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday and gathered from April 2000 to July 2006 show Lee County has the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, increasing from 440,888 residents to more than 570,000."

Those are figures from April 2000 to July 2006. That in no way reflects what is going on now.

As far as those condos go, the article says the developer is Levitt and Sons. No matter who built them, it is going to further drive down prices.

And yes, I am aware of First Homes, that is why I never bought from them.

"During the past year alone, Lee County added more residents to its ZIP codes than any other county in Florida, growing by 27,148 people between July 2005 and July 2006."

We may not be fastest in the nation, but fastest in Florida is not bad either. And the numbers definately don't show people leaving the area like Firemed claims.

If you knew about First Home's reputation, why would you use them to portray Ft. Myers' housing industry. It is hurting, that's a fact, but First Homes has been doing horrible in Lee County for a LOOONG time now. Nobody in Lee Co. buys them, and that is why they are hurting. The market could be booming, and Lee County would still be First Home's worst performing market.

[MrTudo]

Originally Posted by Audacious

Sarasota is starting to come back to life but there still are some great deal in south county and Port Charlotte. North Port has tons of houses for sale but be careful of new construction, a whole lot of garbage out there. As to the future. look here

House price appreciation by metro area - MSN Money (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Homebuyingguide/P85333.asp - broken link)

I agree about Port Charlotte. Ours in Port Charlotte will hopefully become one of those deals if we buy what I hope we buy in __________ ( fill in the blank )

[firemed]

Originally Posted by florida1

REALLY? You may want to read this article.

Lee County metro area third fastest growing area

27,000 people added to county between July of 2005 and July of 2006. Just because housing is bad doesn't mean the county is losing population.

This is July 2007, Lets see what the numbers are now. Old numbers are just that OLD. July 2005 was a boom for this area. Thats like Detroit in 1979. But what will all these people do in 2009 ? Don't pull up old numbers, I can do that each week with the lotto. You might want to try a new hook !