Real Estate Agents here? (Orlando, Fort Myers: transplants, school, compensation)

[twobums]

yachtcare ~ I see much more desperation and fear when out & about Ft Myers and surrounding areas. The retail stores and restaurants are scary quiet. Gulf Coast Town Center seems to lose more stores weekly. Thank goodness for Miller's drink specials. A dollar for a margarita sounds good about now.

[movetoflorida]

Originally Posted by yachtcare

Excellent point. Timing is everything. And I guess we all have to go with our own opinion. Taking many factors into account, both local, and national trends, I think we're still a year, maybe more before we see a bottom in SW Florida. Alot of the investors are gonna get burned. Time will tell.

Just the general mood of the folks I talk to here, gets a little more angry day by day. With rising taxes, police activity, city council shenanigans, etc. etc. etc. I see more people wanting out, than those that want to stay. But, hey, what do I know?

I think you have brought up many good points about the area as well as others on this forum. This forum and a lot of other data I have gathered has influenced my decisions. I am in no hurry but my wife is. My goal is to sell here and buy there no sooner than 2 years. It is one thing for an individual to relocate but a whole nother ball game for me to move the family and business! I have never seen my wife work so hard though. She has completely repainted the inside of the house, cleaned out the attic, made trips to the landfill, put our house up for sale and is now landscaping! I keep telling her to slow down, that there is no hurry! She is tired of being in the woods here and wants waterfront. She also wants to be close to her family for a change. Same waterfront for 300,000 to 400,000 there is 600,000 to 800,000 here. Don't think I will be buying waterfront here.

Ahh, the stress that awaits me. Just hope I can stretch it out and do lots of planning. Welp, have my notebook and trip there planned in Oct. One nervous baby step at a time!

[121804]

Thanks for the answers on the color. It makes sense come to think about it. Unfortunately, it also calls for some very bland and boring looking homes. But I've never been one impressed by the national contractor who builds $150K homes that look like they came out of a cracker jack box...
I much prefer character & history to the home. Unfortunately, many times, that requires a deep pocketbook for the repairs/renov's that are imminent.....

[aidaolympia]

Originally Posted by twobums

There is a possibility that the economy has much further to fall.... the other shoe has NOT dropped when it comes to commercial real estate. The impact from that would be significant.

Commercial foreclosures in Lee County in 2008:

23 warehouses
1 mixed-use bldg.
10 stores
14 restaurants
2 service stations
16 shopping centers
26 office buildings
two night clubs
3 Motels.

In 2009 number of commercial foreclosures tripled compare to 2008!

www.news-press.com, June 29, 2009


" 84% of home sales in the county were short sales or after foreclosure sales in 2008, leading to a drastic drop in property values" , as appraiser Mr. Ken Wilson said in a TV interview.

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=10991439

Cape coral has the lowest median sale price $ 89000 among the 19 Florida metro areas. The median sales price is 43% decrease from July 2008. We have a backlog of 24000 foreclosures.

http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.c...d/509521.html?

New detached Condos of Concord Wilshire Realty were sold from $70 000 with an averaged price of $91,000 in two months 49 units were sold.

http://www.pitchengine.com/larryvers...lopment/21845/

[twobums]

aidaolympia ~ now that is excellent research. THX for sharing!

nhkev.... there is a discussion board attached to the article link you posted earlier. Here it is (scroll down):

Newsvine - Laid-off workers eye the abyss

[justNancy]

Originally Posted by nhkev

NO, Hik I did not know that $275 was the maximum (holy crap) Probably explains why florida was so far down on the list for government assisstance. I don't know how true this is but I have a family member that is unemployed in Mass and my mother claims that he gets $650 a week. That seemed a little off the charts. I didn't realize there was such disparity between states. Good info to know thanks for sharing.

FYI

[URL="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flzunemployment0616sbjun16,0,7968154.story"]Could you live on $275 a week? That's Florida's maximum unemployment benefit -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com[/URL]

Well, this proves something to me. You can't listen to people, even those who say "I know..." Last year, when a neighbor, who worked very hard in construction, was laid off by a builder, someone down the block said she was 100% positive he got $2,000 a month. I know it's none of my business, but I began putting food out for his cats when I noticed their bowls were empty all the time and got angry when I saw him with cigarettes & beer. Now it all make sense to me. He probably couldn't even feed himself!

See? So Hik does know what she's talking about (most of the time!)

[tommy-105]

Thanks Nancy, lots of info in that article. Although people should note that it's over a year old.

[aidaolympia]

Originally Posted by aidaolympia

Commercial foreclosures in Lee County in 2008:

23 warehouses
1 mixed-use bldg.
10 stores
14 restaurants
2 service stations
16 shopping centers
26 office buildings
two night clubs
3 Motels.

In 2009 number of commercial foreclosures tripled compare to 2008!

www.news-press.com, June 29, 2009


" 84% of home sales in the county were short sales or after foreclosure sales in 2008, leading to a drastic drop in property values" , as appraiser Mr. Ken Wilson said in a TV interview.

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=10991439

Cape coral has the lowest median sale price $ 89000 among the 19 Florida metro areas. The median sales price is 43% decrease from July 2008. We have a backlog of 24000 foreclosures.

http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.c...d/509521.html?

New detached Condos of Concord Wilshire Realty were sold from $70 000 with an averaged price of $91,000 in two months 49 units were sold.

http://www.pitchengine.com/larryvers...lopment/21845/

twobums,
I enjoy reading your posts. Thank you.

I could not find exact numbers for:
Bank closings
Storage business fall off


But I have read about them.

Despite all commercial forclosures, we have "elephant" projects coming up:

“ The Community Redevelopment Agency is spending thousands of dollars to have an empty trolley run around Cape Coral. Now they want to expand on a bad idea and contract for $6,000 a week for the next year; that's over $300,000, folks

I'm sure that the police, fire, or parks and recreation would like to have that money in their budget. Or this money could instead help defray the cost of the new RO water plant.

I have been living in Cape Coral for 23 years, and I'm tired of hearing about spending CRA money on "Downtown!" Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and many other cities have a downtown, but Cape Coral has no downtown .”

http://www.news-press.com/article/20...2/1015/opinion

[justNancy]

Originally Posted by tommy-105

Thanks Nancy, lots of info in that article. Although people should note that it's over a year old.

Okay, but nothing's really changed. However, I'll post another one.

Aug 27, 2009 St. Petersburg Times

[URL="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/few-fixes-for-floridas-insolvent-unemployment-benefits-fund/1031323"]Few fixes for Florida's insolvent unemployment benefits fund - St. Petersburg Times[/URL]

Here is a list of benefits by state from December. I don't know how accurate or up-to-date it is, although it's from the U.S. Dept of Labor. I recently read that FL was #3 in the list of the lowest in maximum benefits, but this puts FL at #6.

[URL]http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/106376/Jobless-Benefits,-State-by-State[/URL]

[tommy-105]

Aug. 27th? Is that the best you can do?

Seriously, people considering relocating need to see these numbers. What happens if that new job doesn't work out?