Gulf Returns

Cramer Optimistic on Florida Real Estate

2009-07-10T08:07:00.002-04:00

For those of you considering dipping your toe in the Florida real estate market, Jim Cramer believes that we are at the bottom. The supporting logic behind this proclamation is that builders stopped new construction in Florida two years ago and inventory is being absorbed by our continued low interest rates. Cramer suggests that Florida will lead the nation out of the housing crisis.

At the present time, there are interesting real estate investment opportunities across the Southwest Florida market in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Estero, Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Sanibel and Captiva.

Cape Coral Utility Assessments

2009-07-09T15:20:00.003-04:00

One of the questions for those currently considering a Cape Coral real estate investment is how much will I be charged for utility assessments.

At this time, both areas Southwest 6/7 and North 1-8 above Pine Island Road are being targeted for utilities. In the Southwest 6/7 area water, wastewater and irrigation are proposed, in the areas North 1-8 area only water is being proposed.

Cape Coral offers three payment options for the currently proposed utility expansions:

a complete upfront payoff
amortized annual payment of interest and principal over a twenty-year term
deferral of principal and interest for 10 years or until a sale, transfer or refinance of property.

The default option is number (2), the amortized annual payment option. With this amortized payment option, the most common scenario is that the outstanding utility assessments are assumed by the buyer.

Here are the estimated figures from Cape Coral for a standard 80 x 120 vacant lot that I own in Southwest 6/7 area:

Although these figures are strictly estimates, they do provide a general scope of expense for those considering a Cape Coral real estate purchase.

Florida Homeowners Insurance Rates Dropping

2009-07-09T10:27:00.003-04:00

Now that we are a few years removed from a major hurricane, the News-Press reports that insurance carriers are taking a renewed interest insuring homes in Southwest Florida.

Homeowners are saving hundreds of dollars on their property insurance thanks to increased coverage options and their own efforts to claim discounts for their homes' storm resistance.

These reductions are great news for anyone shopping for a home in the area. Also, as most condo associations cover the cost of insurance for the entire building, these reductions could also help to lower some of the condo association fees in Southwest Florida.

Top Lee County Home Sales - June 2009

2009-07-07T16:54:00.003-04:00

The most expensive home to sell in Lee County Florida during June 2009 was a Captiva gulf-front single family home located at 16600 Captiva Drive, Captiva. This Gold Coast estate is 13,140 SF and features 6 BR and 8 BA on a 1.12-acre beachfront lot.

The selling price was $7.25M / $551 SF. Congratulations to selling Realtor Lynda Traverso of VIP Group, Inc-Sanibel for closing the most expensive residential property in June 2009.

Honorable mention for 2nd most expensive Lee County home sold in June was a single-family home located at 767 Cal Cove Drive, Fort Myers. This 6,710 SF riverfront home located in the waterfront community of Town and River Estates features a 5 BR and 5 BA.

The selling price was $2.8M / $431 SF. Congratulations to Chad Reedy of Flaherty Realty, P.A. for closing this transaction.

Foreclosure Shoppers : Property Tax Expectations

2009-07-07T15:26:00.005-04:00

Time Magazine covers the topic of property tax expectations for those who have recently purchased foreclosed property in Florida.

In Florida, taxable valuation is based upon average values of homes in a given neighborhood, and not based on individual transaction values. What this means is that although you may have found a screaming deal on a foreclosure in a great neighborhood, your taxable value could be quite a bit higher if other homes in the neighborhood sold for significantly more.

Hopefully, those searching for Fort Myers foreclosures and Estero foreclosures will do their homework on the issue of property taxes and not be hit with a major surprise when that dreaded envelope comes from the Honorable Cathy Curtis, Lee County Tax Collector.

Experts Predict Foreclosure Surge

2009-07-06T16:05:00.003-04:00

The Chicago Tribune reports that experts are predicting a surge in the number of foreclosures due the expiring of government programs instituted by the Obama administration.

Lenders have delayed foreclosure actions to get as many borrows as possible into federally sponsored programs including the Home Affordable Modification Program.

The Obama administration is racing to avert as many foreclosures as possible. So far, more than 240,000 distressed borrowers have been approved on a trial basis under the Home Affordable Modification Program, in which their loans are being reworked so monthly payments are targeted at 31 percent of their gross income, said Seth Wheeler, a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"We're very unlikely to implement another moratorium," Wheeler said but noted that the Treasury will monitor how many foreclosed homes are dumped into the market, suggesting officials could take other steps to prevent a flood of lender-owned properties.

Many options are currently available in Southwest Florida for anyone interested in a foreclosure deal. A very popular segment of the distressed property market is Cape Coral gulf access foreclosures. Many homes in this market segment include a dock behind the house for your boat. These waterfront homes offer a truly a great way to enjoy the Florida lifestyle!

Lee County Foreclosure Rocket Docket

2009-07-06T07:57:00.004-04:00

The Lee County Court System created a "Rocket Docket" to expeditiously work through the 30,000 pending foreclosure cases. To date, the court has worked through approximately 6,000 cases and the backlog of foreclosures is now under 24,000 cases.

If you are looking for a deal on a Southwest Florida foreclosure home, here are resources that are updated daily with active foreclosure listings:

Foreclosure options are available in a wide range of housing types, price ranges across most all of our communities. Happy hunting!

Cape Coral Real Estate Sales Brisk

2009-07-03T10:06:00.006-04:00

Buyers are jumping into the Cape Coral market finding foreclosure deals at highly discounted prices.

In June, 644 homes were sold in Cape Coral, up dramatically from previous June sales numbers. Currently comprising over 60% of the sales, Cape Coral foreclosure homes are moving at a brisk pace.

Here is an NBC2 video clip highlighting the current brisk home sales activity in Cape Coral.

Lehigh Acres Featured in Bubble Book

2009-07-01T07:54:00.004-04:00

Our Lot: How Real Estate Came To Own Us, a new book by Alyssa Katz, prominently features the Lee County real estate bubble.

The Lee County chapter focuses on the flipping that occurred in Lehigh Acres during the height of the market run-up. Anyone who participated in the Lehigh flipping frenzy will certainly want to read Katz's take on this crazy period.

Cape Coral Foreclosures

2009-06-23T06:04:00.003-04:00

The foreclosure activity level remains high in Cape Coral with approximately 2/3 of all homes sold falling into the distressed category.

Many are viewing accelerated activity levels as a major positive as we are now well out of the winter season. It has been a three years since real estate activity remained fast-paced after the winter season ended.

It remains a challenge for traditional buyers with financing contingencies to compete against cash buyers for many of these properties. In most instances, the banks are accepting the "sure thing" cash offer rather than a riskier offer involving a first time buyer.

Cape Coral foreclosures are available in across all types of housing including single-family, condos, town homes and income properties. To simplify your search process, here are active Cape Coral foreclosure listings broken out by various housing types:

Cape Coral foreclosure HOMES

Cape Coral foreclosure CONDOS

Cape Coral GULF ACCESS foreclosures

Cape Coral FRESHWATER foreclosures

If you can't find a foreclosure home in Cape Coral that meets your needs, maybe it's time to look at Cape Coral luxury homes.

Cape Coral Home Prices Steady in 2009

2009-06-19T11:42:00.003-04:00

I was just reading a hot debate on Trulia about home price escalation in Cape Coral during 2009. Several individuals tossed out estimates about their view on the percentage that prices have gone up this year in Cape Coral.

The fact of the matter is that median home prices in Cape Coral have not materially changed at all in 2009 with the median price in January within a 1/2 percent of the MTD median price for June.

Miromar Lakes Competes with Ocean Lifestyle

2009-06-19T00:39:00.003-04:00

A recent article in the Naples Daily News compares the lifestyle of Miromar Lakes with that of a ocean-front neighborhood. The pristine sandy beaches of Miromar Lakes, free from crowds, parking challenges and the red tide front 700-acres of sparkling lakes.

After passing through the gates of Miromar Lakes, one enters a place like no other in Southwest Florida. Golfing and water sports are two of the favorite past-times of Miromar Lakes residents. The Mirmar Lakes Beach Club and Blue Water Beach Grille round out the amenities in this fine community.

If you haven't visitied Miromar Lakes in a while, you may have missed the fact that two new neighborhoods have been completed in the last 6 months. Both in a waterfront settings, Costa Amalfi with cottage-style homes and Positano with mid-rise condos are new to Miromar Lakes.

New RE Investing Book: After The Fall

2009-06-18T07:44:00.004-04:00

Real Estate investing guru author Steve Bergsman has a new book out titled "After the Fall, Opportunities and Strategies for Real Estate Investing in the Coming Decade." Bergsman takes a look at the current environment for investing across the various sectors in today's post-fall environment.

Our current market action in Southwest Florida is being heavily influenced by cash-spending foreclosure hunters. Hopefully these investors will take a few hours to read this book and set expectations for a more long-term hold strategy.

Cape Coral's Concordia Back On Track

2009-06-18T06:35:00.002-04:00

The Concordia community of coach homes in Northeast Cape Coral is back on track as it's owner, Florida Community Bank is finishing the build-out. Florida Community bank took back the project after foreclosing on the original developer.

Currently, the last five buildings at Concordia are under development and the common areas are receiving a much needed infusion of TLC. Plans call for a quick sell-out of the remaining units at bargain basement prices as low as a third of the original selling prices.

Concordia is locaed in the "New Cape Coral" on Kismet Parkway, just east of Del Prado Boulevard.

Daniels Parkway is Red Sox Country

2009-06-16T07:02:00.003-04:00

With the Watermen-Pinnacle site on Daniels Parkway moving forward for the location of the new Red Sox spring training facility, Red Sox fans might be curious to learn more about the area.

Many are already familiar with Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers as it is one of the primary access roads from the airport to much of Lee County. In the old days prior to the airport renovation, it was where you dropped off your rental car and boarded the shuttle bus for the airport.

As the Lee County growth has spread eastward from the gulf, Daniels has emerged as one of the main east-west thoroughfares in the County. Daniels Parkway stretches from US-41 on its western end to SR-82 at its eastern end.

A multitude of fine communities are located in the Daniels Corridor and offer housing options for a wide swath of budgets tastes and lifestyles. Gated and deed restricted communities line both sides of Daniels Parkway and offer a wonderful roster of amenities for both year-round and seasonal residents. The Daniels Corridor also is home to several exclusive country clubs including Fiddlesticks and Renaissance as well as the master-planned Gateway community.

Market Objectivity in Short Supply

2009-06-15T10:19:00.003-04:00

There has recently been a great deal of euphoria regarding the real estate market here in Southwest Florida. A recent News-Press article titled Southwest Florida sees light at the end of housing tunnel cites recent home sales figures to suggest the worst is behind us.

While I agree that the clearing out of inventory at the very low-end of the market should be viewed as a tremendously positive sign, there are a couple of data points worthy of additional consideration. First, according to May 2009 statistics released by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, 66% of the single-family homes sold in May were bank-owned. In April 2009, the figure was 65%.

Yes the banks are unloading distressed assets at fire sale prices, but who is buying them? Again statistics from the Realtor Association of Fort Myers and the Beach for May 2009 indicate that 64% of all single-family home transactions were cash deals. It is unlikely that a statistically significant portion of these cash transactions involved first time buyers truly absorbing our inventory.

As Tom Lindmark points out in a blog post about the Phoenix market, Is the Mini-Boom all about Investors? The rubber meets the road when these investor-owned homes hit the market as rentals. Are there enough quality, rent-paying tenants to insure that all of these purchases are cashflow positive investments? In my mind this is the key question that will be played out in our market over the next couple of quarters.

Yes, there are some interesting investment opportunities out there in the investory of Cape Coral foreclosures and Fort Myers foreclosures, just be cautious of anyone telling you that "the worst is over" or "we have passed the bottom." I think that we need to see true job growth and more industry diversity before we can start making those types of claims about the housing market.

Short Sale Option Loophole Closed

2009-06-13T08:18:00.004-04:00

One of Florida's major title insurance companies, Attorneys Title Insurance, announced that they will no longer insure transactions involving a short sale option contract.

A short sale option contract is a technique being used by opportunists to buy a short sale from a bank at below market value and then flip to a true buyer at a mark-up. These transaction are depriving the property lender of maximizing return on short sale and also raising prices for the ultimate buyer.

Closing this loophole and eliminating middlemen that were not adding any value to a short sale transaction is a positive step in cleaning streamlining short sale transactions. If you are in the market for a Southwest Florida short sale, there are plenty of options in both Cape Coral and Fort Myers.

Cape Coral Foreclosure Filings Down

2009-06-12T11:41:00.004-04:00

According to figures recently released by Realty Trac, the Cape Coral - Fort Myers area experienced a drop in the number of foreclosure filings in May 2009. There were 1,803 filings in the region in May 2009, down from 1,902 filings in April 2009.

With this drop the Lee County area fell from first to sixth nationally in foreclosure as a percentage of total homes. For May, one is 82 Lee County housing units received a foreclosure filing.

If you are in the market for a Cape Coral foreclosure, here are some resources to locate one:

Cape Coral Foreclosures - all active foreclosure residential listings

Cape Coral Foreclosure Condos - all active Cape Coral condo foreclosure listings

Cape Coral Foreclosure Homes - all active Cape Coral single-family homes foreclosure listings

Cape Coral Freshwater Foreclosures - all active Cape Coral freshwater foreclosure listings

Cape Coral Gulf Access Foreclosures - all active Cape Coral gulf access foreclosure listings

Top Lee County Home Sales - May 2009

2009-06-09T10:13:00.002-04:00

The most expensive home to sell in Lee County Florida during May 2009 was a Captiva gulf-front single family home located at 953 S Seas Plantation Rd, Captiva. This South Seas Resort home is 4,530 SF and features 5 BR and 5 BA on a .93-acre beachfront lot.

The selling price was $4.912M / $1,084 SF. Congratulations to selling Realtor LeAne Suarez of Gulf to Bay Sotheby's International Realty for closing the most expensive residential property in May 2009.

Honorable mention for 2nd most expensive Lee County home sold in May was a single-family home located at 16406 Captiva Dr, Captiva. This 3,252 SF direct gulf estate-zoned property features a 4BR/3BA main house and a 3BR/2BA guest house.

The selling price was $3.6M / $1,107 SF. Congratulations to Les Pendleton of American Realty for closing this transaction.

Cape Cape Foreclosure Frenzy

2009-06-04T07:00:00.004-04:00

The foreclosure feeding frenzy for Cape Coral distressed homes continues as reported by the News-Press. Many Cape Coral REO listings are coming on the market with aggressive asking prices. This is proving to be a sound strategy for the institutional owners as we are seeing multiple above asking price offers on these listings.

Right now, cash paying investors and mortgage dependent first-time buyers are duking it out to get their hands on these Cape Coral foreclosures that are now selling well below replacement cost. It is very important for anyone entering the fray with a mortgage contingency to have a pre-approval in place.

Fort Myers Luxury Real Estate Coupons

2009-05-31T08:46:00.003-04:00

Question: What is the coolest way to announce a 14.3% reduction in the asking price of your $6.995M Fort Myers Riverfront estate home?

Answer: Advertise with a $1M coupon in local and snowbird area newspapers!

The home in question is located at 1210 Gasparilla Drive in the York Manor section of Fort Myers and was featured on Gulf Returns last October as one of our $7M picks.

I am not a coupon user as I still have those painful childhood memories of standing at the checkout register next to all that candy while my mother thumbed through the thick stack of coupons looking for the unexpired Hamburger Helper $.20 off coupon. I wonder if someone actually clips the coupon and tries to use it, do any of our local title companies have coupon scanners?

Here is a resource to begin your search for a Fort Myers luxury home.

Lee County Property Values Drop 25%

2009-05-30T08:12:00.003-04:00

According to Preliminary reports by the Lee County Property Appraiser, property values in Lee County have on average dropped by 25% over the last year. The key driver is that over 80% of our arms length transactions have been distressed sales.

Realtor Prose

2009-05-28T06:22:00.003-04:00

One of the things that often makes me cringe is reading the bios on other Realtor's websites. Especially here in Southwest Florida, many open with "originally from________. It is fine to be from somewhere else, but just don't tell us in your opening sentence. Others tout being a recent graduate of ABC School of Real Estate or better yet, just became a Realtor. There are probably not many customers that are seeking out a new entrant to the field to assist with such a significant transaction.

The New York Times recently profiled Valerie Haboush, the wordsmith to the Manhattan real estate stars. She has written bios, listing descriptions and even graduate school applications for Realtors in the New York market. I suspect Ms. Haboush would shudder if she spent much time reading the property descriptions that are marketing properties in our MLS system. It sure would be interesting to see how she might dress up a foreclosure that is missing appliances and has a mold issue!

Cape Coral Chinese Drywall Scam

2009-05-20T06:28:00.003-04:00

Here is a new scam regarding Chinese drywall. Someone is posting fake notices that an inspection has found Chinese drywall inside of several Cape Coral homes in foreclosure. Most of the homes are due to be auctioned and the theory is that someone is trying to scare off other bidders to get a better deal at the auction. Go figure.

Cape Coral Lot Owners Association

2009-05-18T07:53:00.004-04:00

If there is a silver lining in the SW Florida real estate bust, it is that I no longer get stacks of low-ball mail solicitations for vacant lots that I own in Cape Coral.

Today, a different sort of Cape Coral vacant lot solicitation was sitting in my mailbox. It was an offer from the Cape Coral Lot Owners Association to become a member. According to the letter, up-to-date lot sales information is the major value proposition of membership.

The irony of this value proposition for me is that this information is available for free from multiple different sources. Most Realtors will provide sales comp information at no charge. The Listingbook Service offered for free by Realtors will even allow you to get real-time notification of new listings or sales and not have to wait for a report. Also, the Lee County Property Appraisers site, www.leepa.org has a free report generator that can provde on-demand reports of vacant land sales by municipality or zip code.

With plethora of information currently available on the Internet for free, I am not going to part with $45 to join this association. I think that the model of charging for information that is readily available for free on the web has passed.