Overall Naples Housing Market in May

A tight inventory and buyer demand continued to push prices upward in May, resulting in an overall median closed price increase of 29.4 percent to $433,500 from $335,000 in May 2020. Note that May 2020 was the early stage of the COVID slump, so the size of the increase Year-over-Year is exaggerated.

Cash sales in May accounted for 58.4 percent of the closed sales transactions. Cash buyers continue to create challenges for competing buyers who require financing. It took an average of 90 days for a home to go from list to contract in May 2020, but in May 2021, the average days on the market was reduced to 43 days. Again, the YOY comparison is skewed because of COVID.

The May Market Report showed that overall closed sales increased 164.4 percent to 1,618 from 612 in May 2020 (a month when all the world was in COVID-19 lockdown). For perspective, closed sales increased 36 percent in May 2021 compared to May 2019 (a non-pandemic lockdown month). Nevertheless, closed sales
activity in May 2021 outperformed any other May in the history of NABOR®’s market statistics reports. (At the end of this article are market reports for the different geographic areas of Naples).

Overall inventory fell 79.1 percent in May to 1,290 homes from 6,177 homes in May 2020, but monthly new listings activity continues. May welcomed 1,274 new listings, a 7.6 percent increase from 1,184 in May 2020. New listings that come on the market each month help to temper the drop in overall inventory and provide more opportunities to eager buyers.

The monthly report from the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®) noted “monthly showing and sales activity is beginning to show signs of deceleration from the remarkable market experienced during the first quarter of 2021.”

Historically, the Naples housing market’s activity in the first half of the year is not sustained during the second half of the year. However, since tourism to Florida is expected to increase this summer and buyers from foreign countries may also begin to arrive in the coming months, a return to more normalized buying behavior in the second half of the year remains uncertain.

The following charts give a visual summary of market activity:

Closed Sales

rolling 12-month totals

Median Price

And for the 12-months to May (but beware the comparison because of COVID):

Inventory of Homes for Sale

Comment
While inventory at just 1 month of supply is extremely low, this situation has not been reached because of a reduction in the number of properties being listed, but because sales are taking place much more quickly than pre-COVID.
For the first 5 months of the year sales of Single Family Homes increased 58% compared with the first 5 months of 2019 and the median price increased 37%.Similalry, sales of Condos increased 87% from 2019 levels with the median price increasing 16%.
As for the future what remains true is that “as it’s now possible to work from anywhere in the world, why not live and work in paradise?”

Here are reports on the different areas of the market in Naples:
Naples Beach May Housing Market
North Naples May Housing Market report
East Naples May Housing Market report
South Naples May Housing Market report
Central Naples May Housing Market report

And here is a map showing the different zipcodes included in the above reports:

And read these articles:

Are mortgage rates heading up or down?
Buyers are overpaying, but are there signs of a bubble?
“Party on, dude” says the Federal Reserve
Hello sub 3% mortgages – again
It’s 80 degrees in Florida….

Andrew Oliver
Sales Associate | Market Analyst | DomainRealty.com
REALTOR®

Naples, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers
Andrew.Oliver@DomainRealtySales.com
m. 617.834.8205
www.AndrewOliverRealtor.com
www.OliverReportsFL.com

________________

Market Analyst | Team Harborside | teamharborside.com
Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
One Essex Street | Marblehead, MA 01945

www.OliverReportsMA.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com

Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated

“If you’re interested in Marblehead, you have to visit the blog of Mr. Andrew Oliver, author and curator of OliverReports.com. He’s assembled the most comprehensive analysis of Essex County we know of with market data and trends going back decades. It’s a great starting point for those looking in the towns of Marblehead, Salem, Beverly, Lynn and Swampscott.”