Naples/Cape Coral: Real estate comeback? (Clearwater, Sarasota: for sale, foreclosures, homeowners insurance)

[TootsieWootsie]

I was looking at the Center for Housing Policy study that gives the median housing prices for 2007 and then 2008, and was totally blown away by the shocking drop in home prices in Naples and Cape Coral in this one year, which is something like around $100K. I realize that there was and will be more of a drop in price most likely.
My question is: what are you hearing in Florida regarding Naples and Cape Coral doing a real estate comeback?

(And God bless you folks who bought high and are now in this position...talk about rough...whew!)

[TANaples]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

I was looking at the Center for Housing Policy study that gives the median housing prices for 2007 and then 2008, and was totally blown away by the shocking drop in home prices in Naples and Cape Coral in this one year, which is something like around $100K. I realize that there was and will be more of a drop in price most likely.
My question is: what are you hearing in Florida regarding Naples and Cape Coral doing a real estate comeback?

(And God bless you folks who bought high and are now in this position...talk about rough...whew!)

seem to be the ones selling. The only unit which sold in our condo complex in the past 6 months was a foreclosure at a price of $20,000 over the brand new selling price in 1984. It was toally gutted and rennovated in 2005. It sold for $84,000.

[tallrick]

Let's hope prices stay low or continue to fall. High real estate prices are why Florida is in the mess it is in. Low home prices will stimulate the economy if hyperinflation does not hit for a while. You cannot base a whole area's economy on money created from thin air and have it last.

[TootsieWootsie]

Florida and California seem to have gotten themselves in a real pickle, eh?
Good motto under your name, tallrick "Waiting ot pick up the pieces from the crash."
Guess that's about all most can do.
For someone who might come in (like me) from another State, guess the next couple years is the time to buy in Naples or Sarasota then. Just sad the situation there, tho. I'm sure many, many people have been simply devastated.

[imagardener]

The majority of properties in Naples are second homes or investment properties.

Those people have seen their investment values go down a lot or been foreclosed on when they decided it wasn't worth it to keep paying on something that was upside-down in price to mortgage.

There is a lot of overbuilding in that town that will take many years to sell, keeping values low for anything that isn't "prime", near or on the beach.

I have driven around the Sarasota area and not seen anything near the overbuilding that Naples had.
Real estate WAS the real economy in Naples.

[daytonadewd]

The Florida Gulf Coast from Bonita Springs north to Clearwater has ONLY beachfront property on barrier islands like Sanibel, Ft Myers Beach, Siesta Key, etc. There are now issues with homeowner's insurance on barrier islands in Florida (if you can even get it now, it's a scalping).

Naples is directly on the beach. Not on an island. There is excellent beach access there as well. There is no doubt it will remain desirable, especially given the demographics. Like the Hamptons.

Cape Coral on the other hand has pockets that will always remain attractive, especially those with navigable waterways where you can park your boat in the backyard. The overall problem there is that if every parcel were to be developed as planned/zoned, the roads would have to be 8 lanes to handle all the traffic! Cape Coral doesn't really have a beach (sorry, the Caloosa River isn't a beach per se). They also haven't been good about replanting shade trees/landscaping (after clear-cutting lots). Acres of just grass with boxes on it. Many foreclosures too. Don't know what will happen there overall.

[CapeHouses]

The housing market in Cape Coral is still attractive to buyers. For the last two months more houses are going under contract than are coming up for sale. People are finally seeing that the buying opportunity here is real. You still can't beat the location and weather.

[mytimenow]

My impressions of the Naples area is that the most affected market locally is the condo market, high or low end, prices have dropped quite dramatically -- everything is relative though, that is by Naples standards. I don't think we have reached bottom yet, but that is just my personal opinion, I think the "investors/flippers" inventory has flooded the market, but that the average people who have been hanging on by the skin of their teeth are beginning to think it is futile, and are beginning to consider walking away if they are upside down on their mortgages. Just my impression from the folks I talk to. If you want to invest in a place to retire to or vacation at yes, I think you could do worse than to invest now -- maybe you won't get the very "best" deal, but you will surely get a very good deal, whether we are talking high end or low end. The beaches are beautiful, lots of things for adults to do, the wildlife is incredible. If you are coming here expecting a 100% increase in the value of your home in 2 years --- no.

[hiknapster]

Lot of foreclosures and short sales are selling in the area. Lots of inventory, too, though.

National publicity regarding this area has been phenomenal. It turned out to be one of, or the ground zero of the housing bust.

Lehigh Acres is a mess. It has some of the cheapest prices around, with most houses going for $25,000 to $80,000. However, crime is horrible there. It was the last place to see prices climb so a lot of undesirables ended up there, even before the bust.

San Carlos Park in Fort Myers just took a major drop in prices. Major. It was always an iffy area and it may go the route of Lehigh.

Cape Coral has a lot of people snapping up the shorts, with bidding wars.

However, there is talk of jacking up the taxes by 85 percent, they stopped dredging the canals and plan on shutting off 50 percent of the street lights. And Cape Coral was never well-lit to begin with.

Add in the people shying away due to an abundance of homes that have Chinese Drywall issues, and the turnaround doesn't look so rosy.

Naples may fare better. It is an entirely different ballgame, there. Different demographic. Prices haven't dropped as much either.

No matter what anyone does, please realize that there may be great deals to be had, but these houses are best for retirees or second homes.

Unemployment in the area is at 13 percent. And the area is a service area, anyway. There has always been mostly very low-paying service jobs. Now people can't even get that.

And construction is done for a very long time.

Don't move there looking for a job.

[TANaples]

Originally Posted by daytonadewd

The Florida Gulf Coast from Bonita Springs north to Clearwater has ONLY beachfront property on barrier islands like Sanibel, Ft Myers Beach, Siesta Key, etc. There are now issues with homeowner's insurance on barrier islands in Florida (if you can even get it now, it's a scalping).

Naples is directly on the beach. Not on an island. There is excellent beach access there as well. There is no doubt it will remain desirable, especially given the demographics. Like the Hamptons.

Cape Coral on the other hand has pockets that will always remain attractive, especially those with navigable waterways where you can park your boat in the backyard. The overall problem there is that if every parcel were to be developed as planned/zoned, the roads would have to be 8 lanes to handle all the traffic! Cape Coral doesn't really have a beach (sorry, the Caloosa River isn't a beach per se). They also haven't been good about replanting shade trees/landscaping (after clear-cutting lots). Acres of just grass with boxes on it. Many foreclosures too. Don't know what will happen there overall.

I live 5 miles from the beach. Actually, when we purchased our homeowners insurance, they said we are not even in a flood zone. The condo we have in South Naples isn't any closer to a beach either. It's about 8 miles from Marco.