Collier County RE future (Naples: fit in, for sale, real estate)

[Worldkiss]

Nearly 20% of Florida homes are vacant - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-20-of-Florida-homes-cnnm-2507768369.html - broken link)

A rather depressing article for investors I think. Obviously times have changed and supposedly values will come back but according to this article, not in my life time. Oddly enough, almost daily I speak to people making offers on properties only to be told after waiting, to submit their highest and best offers by some such time. Many buyers have called BS on this tactic. I have my own suspicions that as often as not, no price increase is offered.

I'm glad I'm not in the market for a home and I still enjoy Naples. My heirs seem to be taking a beating on my investments though.

[JudiPatooti]

I never thought of it like that, your "heirs" comment. Funny, but true. :-)

[Beckford]

This article is a bit misleading. The census counts a property as vacant if it is owned be someone with a primary residence elsewhere. Many properties here are owned by snowbirds that keep their main residency up north. I added to the statistical increase myself by purchasing a house in Naples to rent out as a weekly vacation rental. We did fill out the census form with a "no one lives here permanently."

[Worldkiss]

I agree with Beckford as to the misleading part and now wonder how the author arrived at the figures. On my own street, only two houses are clearly vacant and not being maintained based on grass needing to be mowed and lack of traffic in the driveway. Total number of houses on this one section is 39.

I did a quick records search to see how many homes were owned by Fannie Mae (near 400) and Deutsche Bank (near 100). That's for all of Collier County and includes condos. Did a little more research, non scientific, on foreclosures and current selling prices. Homes can now be bought for about 40% of the amount owed on them at time of foreclosure. That's quite a discount or beating depending on which side of the transaction you're on.

But is it really a good time to buy? Not in my opinion if you goal it as an investment. Half off of something priced twice too high is still no deal.

Reminds me of when I shared my financial insight to my grandson, aged 13. I bought some stock about ten years ago in a company that missed earnings and was cut by 30%. I thought to myself this has to be a deal because the company is fairly solid and will come back. After all, how low can it go? Well, I can tell you from experience (the best teacher) that it can go lower. Turns out it can go to zero. Live and learn.

[motordavid]

Originally Posted by Beckford

This article is a bit misleading. The census counts a property as vacant if it is owned be someone with a primary residence elsewhere. Many properties here are owned by snowbirds that keep their main residency up north. I added to the statistical increase myself by purchasing a house in Naples to rent out as a weekly vacation rental. We did fill out the census form with a "no one lives here permanently."

I agree...
Don't have a dawg in this fight, but the 'headlines'/media are not necessarily the balanced word, these days.

From Monday's NDN, I like this quote from the Census bureaucrat:

But a top Census official, former Census supervisors in Southwest Florida and a leader in the Naples real estate industry all raised questions about some of the conclusions being reached in media reports.

U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves wrote in a February blog that the data was being used out-of-context by some in the news media.

“We delivered counts of total housing units and counts of vacant housing units,’’ he wrote. “However, the total vacant count includes units intended for rent or for sale, units intended for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, units for migratory workers (a small number), and other vacant units that did not fit into these categories” because they are held off the market for personal reasons of the owner.

Groves wrote that using the count of the number of vacancies, which includes seasonal, recreational or occasional-use vacant units, can mislead a person who wants to measure the effects of the housing crisis on an area.

Census leader, workers say vacancy rates don