The December 2022 Bonita-Estero Real Estate report comparing December 2022 to December 2021 saw single family listings go up, closed sales go down, and the days on the market increase from 24 days to 38. The average sales price with up 5.9% and the median sales price increase 2.4%. Condo statistics were similar, except there was a more dramatic increas in sales prices. to View the entire report – click here or on the image below.
Happy New Year to All!
The real estate industry in SW FL is moving beyond perceived cyclical headwinds, i.e. rising, interest rates and low inventory, and taking a long-term approach to recovery and rebirth. Some aspects of the industry are normalizing to pre-Covid patterns. Many markets are still devastated from Hurricane Ian and continue to face challenges to attain some sense of normalcy. In spite of the challenges of Mother Nature and economic conditions, the Southwest Florida market continues to be a ‘magnet market’ where people from all over the country are choosing to relocate. The state of Florida and cities in southwest Florida continue to top the list of most desirable places to live because the region has so much to offer to a diverse population. A longtime destination for retirees is now the choice for working households and young adults looking for their slice of The American Dream.
Now that we have entered 2023 and many of us have already set goals for the year, we know the hard work will continue as the real estate industry will remain highly competitive.
Access Title Agency has been working very hard to enhance its competitiveness by setting our goals high, being inspired by hope and the motivation of serving our customers and consumers to our highest standards.
Our core values of being ethical, innovative, reliable and providing an exceptional customer experience results in our understanding the importance of dreaming big and living a life of positivity. These values are instilled in each Access Title Team Member and reflected in everything we do for our valued clients and the communities we serve. We are people helping people. We are here to help make every closing a joyful experience. That is our goal. That is our passion. That is our reason for being.
Access Title has not only grown in size and professionalism, but also in the realization that we are embedded in the fabric of a unique and special community with vibrant, caring and loving people that call SW Florida their home.
We have high expectations for ourselves and the real estate industry over the coming year. It has long been proven that Floridians will do whatever we have to do to keep moving forward. It is this persistence, strength, and resiliency that will get us all to places that we’ve never dreamed possible.
Access Title is #Floridastrong. It is our home and we look forward to moving forward to help you grow, thrive and achieve all your goals in 2023.
Margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach hosted a Topping Off Ceremony in January. The overall message was very positive, and everyone is looking forward to the opening of the new resort, hosting vacationers, and opening up new jobs on the beach.
A highlight of the event was when Jacki Liszak, President of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, took the stage and conveyed how helpful the community has been in rebuilding the city and getting everything back on track.
She spoke about all the fundraising that has aided in reestablishment of infrastructure. Jacki then invited all of the beach business owners to stand behind her, and expressed gratitude for everyone’s participation in all of the rebuilding efforts. The amount of work and dedication to bring the businesses back has been unbelievable, and the support from the community has been phenomenal.
The developers of Margaritaville Resort in Fort Myers Beach placed the last beam on top of the $200 million project. This is a huge milestone and sign of hope to our Fort Myers Beach residents as we move toward the recovery of the destruction of Hurricane Ian.
Access Title Agency works diligently to identify potential fraudulent transactions. Escrow Officer, Marcy McKamey, did just that, and quickly took steps to identify a fraudulent seller:
“When the listing agent sent the executed contract my way she indicated that she did not know the seller and received the request through a lead generation platform to list the property. We asked the seller to provide his driver’s license and requested if he had a preference of us overnighting the closing package to the billing address on the tax bill, or if he wanted mobile notary arrangements to that address. He immediately resisted and requested that we just email the closing package to him and didn’t provide the driver’s license. I again asked him for the driver’s license and acknowledged that emailing the closing package was not an option. He proceeded to provide pushback, asking why we were making this so difficult, but did provide his NJ driver’s license. Our listing agent has family in NJ and asked them to provide us a copy of their driver’s license, since we knew it valid to compare. There were enough discrepancies with the seal & format that drew additional red flags.
“He then proceeded to say that he was an international truck driver and would be at his corporate office in GA to overnight the package there. I then asked what day and time he would be available at his corporate office for us to send a mobile notary, that overnighting to his office would not be acceptable.
“With an abundance of red flags at this time, we proceeded to overnight a letter to the billing address listed with the tax collector to advise that we were the title company for a contract on this property, and needed to validate that we were working with the true owner of record. It was the next day that I received a call from the true owner of record’s attorney, that they had not entered into a contract and that this was fraud.”
Access Title is pleased to announce that we have partnered with “Closing Lock” to provide a secure, simple and intuitive way to prevent wire fraud in real estate transactions.
This is just one of the many technology additions Access Title plans to deliver to it’s customers this year to streamline the closing process and provide solutions to rising cyber crimes, etc.
Stay tuned for additional updates. Click the link below for more information on closing lock and reach out to your closer with any additional questions: https://www.inman.com/2020/11/20/closinglock-aims-to-lock-down-wire-fraud/
As an Ambassador for the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, our Vice President, Erin Beasley, joined in helping to create a special Christmas tree for the annual Woman’s Club Christmas Tree Festival.
After the Woman’s Club’s building was damaged beyond repair, it was thought the event would be canceled; however a boutique owner on Anna Maria Island offered a fun idea for us to work with. So the event was restructured for this year.
The FMB Chamber has created a Wine Tree for the past few years, and followed that tradition this year with wine crates, including mini wine bottles for a tree topper. All the donated trees are auctioned off, with proceeds going back to the organization that donated it. The FMB Chamber tree raised $600 from this event.
Sharon Green joined the Access Title Agency family November of 2022. She will manage the Florida offices accounting, escrow, accounts receivable, accounts payable and other financial and compliance services for Access Title Agency.
Sharon is a native Floridian born, raised, and still residing in Fort Myers. She is licensed in multiple states and has over 25 years’ experience in every aspect of the title insurance and real estate business, both locally and nationwide. She has held most every position in the industry and has become proficient in those areas. She prides herself in the delivery of top-notch customer service and setting the precedence for other industry professionals to follow. She views herself as a person who enjoys helping others learn and grow and starts each morning with gratitude and a positive outlook.
When she isn’t working, Sharon enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time with her husband, Terry and their three dogs, Joey, Rudy, Crusoe and 11 chickens.
Due to the Hurricane, home sales fell from November 2021 to November 2022. Days on the market increased for single family homes and Condo Sales. The monthly supply of homes also more than doubled, to 2.2 months on single family homes, and 1.7 months on condos.
Even though prices continued to raise over the same time period. The median sales price for single family homes was $649,500 and the median price for condos is $459,500. There was a difference in average price for single family homes. Single family home average was down 13% to $797,333 while average price for condos was up 30.33% to $622,809.
The Greater Fort Myers Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has surveyed the major universities
as well as the three local Florida county school districts for their “2023 Spring Break” dates.
NAME OF UNIVERSITY DATES_____________
University of Michigan 2/25/23 – 3/5/23
John Carroll University 3/4/23 – 3/12/23
University of Kentucky 3/13/23 – 3/18/23
Florida Gulf Coast University 3/5/23 – 3/11/23
Stetson University 2/27/23 – 3/03/23
Georgia State University 3/13/23 – 3/19/23
Ball State University 3/5/23 – 3/12/23
Indiana State 3/6/23 – 3/10/23
Indiana University 3/11/23 – 3/18/23
Miami University of Ohio 3/20/23 – 3/26/23
Michigan State University 3/06/23-3/10/23
Ohio State 3/13/23 – 3/17/23
Penn State University 3/06/23 – 3/10/23
Purdue University 3/13/23 – 3/18/23
University of Georgia 3/6/23 – 3/10/23
University of Minnesota 3/6/23 – 3/10/23
University of Notre Dame 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
University of North Carolina 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
University of South Carolina 3/5/23 – 3/12/23
Iowa State 3/13/23 – 3/17/23
University of Chicago 3/8/23 – 3/17/23
University of Iowa 3/12/23 – 3/19/23
University of Wisconsin 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
Valdosta 3/13/23 – 3/17/23
University of Florida 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
University of Dayton 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
Here are the spring breaks for Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties.
Name of County____________________________________________ Dates________
Charlotte 3/11/23-3/19/23
Collier 3/11/23 – 3/19/23
Lee 3/20/23 – 3/24/23
According to the November 2022 Market Report by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®), which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island), there were 552 overall closed sales in November, which is a 41.4 percent decrease from 942 closed sales recorded in November 2021. The post-pandemic home buying surge that took place when mortgage rates were historically low has ended. Housing inventory in Naples is on the rise but remains low at just 2.8 months of inventory reported in November (a balanced market has a six-month supply of inventory). As expected, the limited inventory environment in Naples is restricting sales and increasing prices. Though broker analysts reviewing the report pointed out that cash sales accounted for 62.3 percent of closed sales in November; it is an indication that the Naples housing market remains a solid investment.
While optimistic, Budge Huskey, CEO, Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, said, “Things are moving in the right direction, but it will take time to return to what most would consider normal market conditions.”
Even new legislation passed last week to stabilize the property insurance market, reduce protracted litigation, and speed up the claims process will take time before it is enjoyed by Florida homeowners.
Huskey added, “Inventory in Naples is increasing, but there may be a bifurcation coming as newer homes are more insurable than older ones. This may begin to affect home prices next year because newer homes and their ability to obtain insurance will become more desirable and increase in price; whereas older homes that need attention will struggle to find a willing insurer and may become less desirable and decrease in price.”
The November report showed inventory rose in all price categories except the $300,000 and below category, which decreased 14.2 percent from 127 to 109 properties. Overall inventory in November rose 96.8 percent to 2,478 properties from 1,259 properties in November 2021. Comparatively, in November 2019 there were 5,563 properties in inventory, which was split between 2,771 single-family homes and 2,792 condominiums. Today, the inventory is single-family home heavy, which accounts for 63 percent of all homes for sale in Naples.
November’s overall median closed price increased 20.4 percent to $600,000 from $498,500 in November 2021. But “the season for aspirational pricing is over,” said Jillian Young, President of Premiere Plus Realty. “The economy is very different from where we were during the frenzied buying activity experienced in the year following the pandemic. Sellers can no longer expect multiple offers that are significantly over the listed price. We had less inventory then, which drove prices higher, and mortgage rates were at 2 and 3 percent, which gave buyers more room to make concessions.”
November’s report also showed sellers are more willing to negotiate again as the overall percent of list price received decreased 3.3 percent compared to last November. “A slowdown in sales started to occur during this past summer when COVID restrictions were lifted in foreign countries and people began to travel again,” said Jeff Jones, Broker at Keller Williams Naples. “The opportunity to travel safely means homeowners aren’t here to sell their homes.”
The NABOR® November 2022 Market Report provides comparisons of single-family home and condominium sales (via the Southwest Florida MLS), price ranges, and geographic segmentation and includes an overall market summary. NABOR® sales statistics are presented in chart format, including these overall (single-family and condominium) findings for 2022:
As to whether Hurricane Ian impacted the Naples housing market, Mike Hughes, Vice President and General Manager for Downing-Frye Realty, Inc., said, “There’s a considerable number of homeowners tied up in insurance disputes right now. Once they are resolved, we may see a slight increase in new listings.” Young added that, “Many homeowners are still displaced from the storm as they weigh their options.” Huskey responded by adding, “There’s also a percentage of homeowners that don’t want to go through the renovation process, especially west of 41, and instead are selling their damaged homes to builders who are eager to buy and tear down a $2 million home to build a $6 million home.” Jones quipped, “Despite whether a homeowner spends the money to renovate or sells to a builder, the average list price of a home for sale in a desirable neighborhood west of 41 is likely to increase.”
If you are considering selling your home, look to a Naples REALTOR® who has the ability to provide an accurate market comparison and give you expert advice on how to capitalize on today’s market conditions. A REALTOR® can ensure your next purchase or sale in the Naples area is a success. Search for your dream home and find a Naples REALTOR® on Naplesarea.com.
