Existing home sales rise in Lee County

Nationally, figures drop in March; median house prices fall

By DICK HOGAN
dhogan@news-press.com

March sales increased while the price stayed about the same for existing single-family homes in Lee County, the Florida Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.

Nationally, sales of existing homes fell in March as a severe slump in housing showed no signs of abating. The median price of a home fell compared with the price a year ago, according to statistics released today by the National Association of Realtors.

In Lee County, sales went up 13 percent from 445 in February to 501 in March while the median price of a home sold with the assistance of a Realtor increased less than 1 percent from $211,900 to $212,500, according to the report.

Data was not available for Collier County because the Naples Area Board of Realtors does not release those statistics publicly although it does provide the information to the state association for the purposes of compiling statewide numbers.

In Charlotte County, the median price increased less than 1 percent from $151,300 to $152,200 while the number of sales rose 33 percent from 201 to 268.

Statewide, the price rose 3 percent from $198,900 to $205,600 while the number of sales increased 10 percent from 8,310 to 9,142.

Local real estate brokers said the pace of buying has picked up markedly this year in Lee County — resulting in the increased closed sales in March.

“I had more people than I could physically talk to at an open house in Gulf Harbour on Sunday, and I can’t tell you how long it’s been since that happened,” said Jo Henrion, owner of Fort Myers-based LifeStyle Realty of SW Florida.

With prices approaching those last seen in 2002, she said, buyers “are finally getting the picture of the value that’s actually here.”

Overbuilt areas such as Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres were harder hit than more established neighborhoods, she said. “In the good neighborhoods, the strong neighborhoods, you don’t have the same numbers.”

Denny Grimes, owner of Denny Grimes & Co. real estate agency in Fort Myers, said “Sellers are finally getting realistic and talking in terms the buyers understand. The sellers are finally meeting the buyers.”

Grimes said he’s sold all but one of the 116 completed but never lived in residences in Coral Lakes in Cape Coral — businessman O.J. Buigas bought the homes in bankruptcy from developer Tousa Inc. a month ago and immediately cut the prices by 40 percent.

The buyers “overwhelmingly are users” who are buying to live there, not as an investment, Grimes said.

Nationally, sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units, the report sates.

The national median price of a home sold last month was $200,700, a decline of 7.7 percent from the median price a year ago. That was the second-biggest year-over-year price decline following a record 8.4 percent drop in February. The records go back to 1999.

It marked the seventh consecutive year-over-year drop in prices, although the March sales price was up slightly from a February median price of $195,600. Economists prefer to compare the prices on a year-over-year basis because, unlike sales, the monthly prices are not adjusted for normal seasonal variations.

The March sales decline, which was in line with expectations, followed a 2.9 percent increase in sales in February. The February rise, which followed six straight monthly declines, had raised hopes that the steep housing correction could be hitting bottom.

However, many private analysts said they do not expect a rebound for a number of months, given the problems weighing on housing from a severe glut of unsold homes to tighter credit standards for prospective buyers and a rising tide of mortgage foreclosures.

Sales were down 19.3 percent compared with a year ago, reflecting the depth of the housing bust, which is coming after sales set records for five consecutive years.

For March, sales were down 6.5 percent in the Midwest and 3.5 percent in the South but increased by 2.2 percent in the Northeast and 2.2 percent in the West.

The Northeast was the country’s only region to experience a rise in median prices, which were up 4.6 percent compared with a year ago. Prices were down in all other regions of the country, dropping by 14.7 percent in the West, 7.1 percent in the South and 5.3 percent in the Midwest.