Cape Coral, FL. (Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, Homestead: real estate, foreclosures, showing)

[V20]

Originally Posted by firemed

Optimism is great! Bernanke will fix this mess, I can't lose money, Real estate can only go up, I'm from Boston and I seen it before,
http://www.city-data.com/city/Cape-Coral-Florida.html

Or how about; Real estate will only go down. When real estate went up it was a mistake. All those tens of thousands of people who have moved to Cape Coral, are moving to Cape Coral, and will continue to move to Cape Coral all absolutely hate it. In fact they are only moving there to prove how much they hate it. Better yet, they are all criminals. No wait they are all illegal immigrants. 50 years from now, houses in Cape Coral will be $20 and property tax will be $1.

[floridamove2]

Originally Posted by V20

Or how about; Real estate will only go down. When real estate went up it was a mistake. All those tens of thousands of people who have moved to Cape Coral, are moving to Cape Coral, and will continue to move to Cape Coral all absolutely hate it. In fact they are only moving there to prove how much they hate it. Better yet, they are all criminals. No wait they are all illegal immigrants. 50 years from now, houses in Cape Coral will be $20 and property tax will be $1.

I live in Cape Coral and it must be all sunshine from your house. In 50 years I will be dead so I don't see your point. I can tell your a flipper just by your denial. I just want to sell to get out of the Cape.

[BP624]

If anyone has questions about Cape Coral, you can e-mail me. I have lived here all of my life and know everything about it here!

[justNancy]

Home is where you make it - plain & simple. The Cape would not be my first choice since I can walk to the beach from my house. The Cape also doesn't have a lot of trees. However, I currently rent since anything in Bonita is too expensive for me to buy. So after years of saying "I'll never buy on the Cape" I'm seriously looking!! Regarding the sewer, just remember that you can think about this when you are negotiating the price of your new home. There are a lot of foreclosures, so you can get a great deal it you are patient. However, taxes and insurance are both very high so you need to determine what you can afford.

As others have suggested, rent a place for a week or 2 to see if you get a good feeling about the area. By the way, I know others have mentioned a small beach on the Cape. By my standards, it's not a "real" beach. I've been there and it's a very pleasant place to take your family. However, there are many gorgeous beaches in Lee County. When I lived in Massachusetts 20 years ago I had to drive an hour to the beach and then pay $15 to park. Those were 1980-something dollars!! Then I'd walk for a mile to get to the sand. So driving 45 minutes to a white sand beach with crystal blue water and paying a few dollars to park is not such a hardship.

[V20]

Originally Posted by floridamove2

I live in Cape Coral and it must be all sunshine from your house. In 50 years I will be dead so I don't see your point. I can tell your a flipper just by your denial. I just want to sell to get out of the Cape.

It depends on what your definition of "flipper" is. I view myself as an investor. I have bought four properties in southwest Florida over the last year (2 of those within the last 6 months and one very recently). Clearly I am not trapped by this market and thus I am not in denial about anything.

On one hand if the market was still roaring my investments would be worth more money - that would be good. On the other hand, were the market still up, I would not be able to think about buying what I can now - that would be bad. So, honestly, I don't know what is better, for me at least.

What will happen to this market over the next year...2 years....I don't know. But neither do you. Nor does anyone else.

As far as selling your house in Cape Coral now - you cannot. Unless you want to give it away.

[V20]

What I don't understand is when one looks at the massive population growth in southwest Florida and particularly in Cape Coral, how can one not think that this will eventually put upward pressure on prices?

Ten thousand plus people a year added to Cape Coral. New construction is at a standstill - no new inventory is being added to the market. From what I am told, existing inventory is slowly starting to shrink. I know that depends on who you talk to, but nevertheless, the inventory which seems daunting now is really not that big when one considers the tens of thousands of new residents moving to Cape Coral over the next few years.

All these people will have to live somewhere, right? It has been said over and over on this forum that such people will rent. And that is true....for the time being. I believe that this is based on the concept "Why would I want to buy now. 2 years ago, a new off-water house in Cape Coral was $300k. A year ago it was $225. And now it is $150k. If I wait another year it may be $100k."

When there is some indication that the market is starting to turn, most people who have been following the above thinking and attempting to "time the market" will jump into the market. Visualize this, if someone moved to Cape Coral and all they saw were news articles indicating "Housing Slump Continues", "Prices Dropping"...why would they buy a house now? However, if they saw that houses were available at $150k and then several months later looked into it and found that anything below $165k was sold immediately - would there not be strong pressure to buy at that time?

I know that many on this forum cite problems that Cape Coral and Florida have; ultility assessments, poor city management, property tax, insurance. But with little new inventory being added and a vast, unending flow of new residents, I feel that, at some point in the not too distant future, the market forces of supply and demand will take over.

[121804]

Originally Posted by V20

What I don't understand is when one looks at the massive population growth in southwest Florida and particularly in Cape Coral, how can one not think that this will eventually put upward pressure on prices?

Ten thousand plus people a year added to Cape Coral. New construction is at a standstill - no new inventory is being added to the market. From what I am told, existing inventory is slowly starting to shrink. I know that depends on who you talk to, but nevertheless, the inventory which seems daunting now is really not that big when one considers the tens of thousands of new residents moving to Cape Coral over the next few years.

All these people will have to live somewhere, right?

I feel that, at some point in the not too distant future, the market forces of supply and demand will take over.

Question: Where are all these "tens of thousands" going to work? Publix & WalMart? Also, just how many of those moving to the Cape are moving there solely to rent b/c it is so cheap to rent right now? Just how many are buying?

That is one of the biggest issues I see with the area. Lack of any real economy. There is little to any professional employment in Cape Coral & then Fort Myers is based on tourism & construction. The area is also lacking higher education opportunities [FGCU is not doing too well right now]. It is not an area that draws Fortune 500 companies to it.

There is no demand to move to SW FL unless one is going to retire here & live here part time. Other than that, most are probably here based on finding that one job that does pay more than $8/hr or this is all they know.

Crime, illegal immigrants, etc...all status quo for the area. Taxes & HOI...again, depends on what one considers high & low. Water/sewer assessment...just a headache & depends if one wants to deal with that headache.

But, it's a completely stagnant area in terms of economic & professional growth.

Over time, yes, the RE market in Cape Coral will adjust. "Over time" being the key words. It is a risky area to buy in & will be until things start to show any improvement. Since there has been little to no improvement in the past 6 months & as ARMs are set to reset even more...well, we are all going to have to wait & see.

No one knows the correct answer.

[NYBill]

When I lived in NY I saw the housing market adjust itself twice over a 35 year span. It does and will turn around, any wound especially this one will take time to heal. Yes it will take some time and as I stated before the new airport with all the develeponet around it will help provide jobs of all types

Granted the Cape needs some new blood in public office and with the up coming election for 5 seats (out of 7) on the city council will help change things a bit more. There is no one more bitter about the way the local government operates then the residents we have NOW!!!

In the past, at least to me anyway, it was alsways go with the flow for some of the retirees and old timers. Now with the influx of younger people and the growth peole want answeres, not just empty words.

Funny I just was reading the News Press about suggested candiates and there backgrounds, what there goals are going to be and it seems that most are tired of the same old story of expensive government with no results.

There are 22 new candiates for 5 postions, that should say something right there.

[firemed]

Originally Posted by NYBill

When I lived in NY I saw the housing market adjust itself twice over a 35 year span. It does and will turn around, any wound especially this one will take time to heal. Yes it will take some time and as I stated before the new airport with all the develeponet around it will help provide jobs of all types

Granted the Cape needs some new blood in public office and with the up coming election for 5 seats (out of 7) on the city council will help change things a bit more. There is no one more bitter about the way the local government operates then the residents we have NOW!!!

In the past, at least to me anyway, it was alsways go with the flow for some of the retirees and old timers. Now with the influx of younger people and the growth peole want answeres, not just empty words.

Funny I just was reading the News Press about suggested candiates and there backgrounds, what there goals are going to be and it seems that most are tired of the same old story of expensive government with no results.

There are 22 new candiates for 5 postions, that should say something right there.

But Cape Coral and Fort Myers have a lack of jobs now. New York areas around the city had jobs. We are in a mess and crime and drugs sales will go up. I have seen this area go up and down but this is a whole new situation. Infrastructure in this area is not able to handle shipping even with a new airport. I made a ton of money selling my land in 2005 but I did not put that money back into land to try it again. People like me are making more conservative decisions because they’re taking that precautionary posture with every decision.

The News-Press, news-press.com, Business, <font color="#FF1923">THE ECONOMY:</font> Life becomes difficult
The News-Press, news-press.com, Business, Whispers of recession stem from housing slump

[NYBill]

Originally Posted by firemed

But Cape Coral and Fort Myers have a lack of jobs now. New York areas around the city had jobs. We are in a mess and crime and drugs sales will go up. I have seen this area go up and down but this is a whole new situation. Infrastructure in this area is not able to handle shipping even with a new airport. I made a ton of money selling my land in 2005 but I did not put that money back into land to try it again.
The News-Press, news-press.com, Business, <font color="#FF1923">THE ECONOMY:</font> Life becomes difficult
The News-Press, news-press.com, Business, Whispers of recession stem from housing slump

Again if you really knew how an airport can help employment in a area, and I don't mean baggage handlers or rent a car jockeys, you might understand what I mean.
There is one building up ( roughed out) now right by the airport and several others that will develop as time goes on. Convenience of having a business that requires travel by an airport will result in future development and create jobs/

I have seen it a at JFK, LaQuadiia and even McArthur on Long Island, it didn't happen over night, it took some time.

No having the quailfied people is another story.