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[caption id="attachment_2318" align="alignleft" width="321"] Greg KosinPresident, CEOAccess Title Agency, Florida[/caption] 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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. View the entire report - Click here

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…

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…