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October 24, 2009 - Home prices stay about the same in September in Lee County
October 24, 2009
Source: News-Press by DICK HOGAN
Home prices stayed almost the same in September in Lee County while the pace of sales picked up, according to statistics released Friday by the Florida Association of Realtors.
The median price of a single-family-home resale in September in Lee County was $89,700 — less than half a percent up from August’s $89,300. Meanwhile, the number of homes sold increased 5.5 percent to 1,321 from 1,252 in August.
The median price means half the homes sold are above that price and half are below it.
Both sales and price figures were dramatically different from last year. The price was 37 percent off the $141,400 from September 2008 and the number of sales was up 77 percent from 746 in the same time period.
In a separate report also issued Friday, the National Association of Realtors said U.S. home sales rose 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million in September, from a downwardly revised pace of 5.1 million in August.
“There’s a mini-boom going on in the housing market,” said Thomas Popik, who conducts a monthly survey of real estate agents for Campbell Communications, a research firm.
That’s also the case in Lee County, where buyers have to offer more than the asking price to have a shot at the most sought-after properties, said Paula Hellenbrand of Encore Realty, who’s also president of the Cape Coral Association of Realtors.
“You can’t assume the listing price is the price you’re going to get it for,” she said — that’s especially true of homes on saltwater canals in Cape Coral with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico.
On the other hand, Hellenbrand said, many sellers are shocked at how little their homes will bring.
“I listed a house in east Fort Myers for $34,900,” she said. “The owner bought it 22 years ago for more than that, and he’d put in air conditioning” and remodeled the home.
Nationwide, the median sales price last month was $174,900, down almost 9 percent from $191,200 a year earlier, and slightly lower than August’s median of $177,300.
The inventory of unsold homes in the country fell about 7 percent to 3.63 million. That’s a 7.8 month supply at the current sales pace, and the lowest level since March 2007.
Nationwide sales are up nearly 24 percent from their bottom in January, but are still down 23 percent from four years ago.
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