15-Acre Naples, Florida, Retreat With a Menagerie With Monkeys Lists for $9.5 Million
A 15-acre Florida compound that comes complete with multiple residences, a tennis court and an animal menagerie has come to the market for $9.5 million.
The solar-powered estate, which claims to be “hurricane-proof,” is designed for living off the grid and it “offers a rare opportunity to own a tranquil, sustainable oasis in Naples,” listing agent Priscilla Kellerhouse said in a statement.
A 10,000-square-foot salmon-hued home is the compound’s main residence. The five-bedroom spread has an open floor plan, high ceilings, columns and marble floors.
Real Estate: It’s Still a Lack of Supply, Not a Lack of Demand
One of the major questions real estate experts are asking today is whether prospective homebuyers still believe purchasing a home makes sense. Some claim rapidly rising home prices are impacting demand and, by extension, leading to the recent slowdown in sales activity.
However, demand isn’t the real issue. Instead, it’s the lack of supply (homes available for sale). An article from the Wall Street Journal shows this is true for new home construction: “Home builders have sold more homes than they can build. Now they are limiting their sales in an effort to catch up.”
The article quotes David Auld, CEO of D.R. Horton Inc. (the largest homebuilder by volume in the United States since 2002), explaining how they don’t have enough homes for the number of buyers coming into their models: “Through our history, to have somebody walk into our models and to tell them, ‘We don’t have a house for you to buy today’, is something that is foreign to us.”
Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for realtor.com, also explains that, in the existing home sale market, the slowdown in sales was a supply challenge, not a lack of demand. Responding to a recent uptick in listings coming to market, she notes:“. . . if these changing inventory dynamics continue, we could see a wave of real estate activity heading into the latter part of the year.”
Again, the buyers are there. We just need houses to sell to them. (more…)
Property Insurance Costs Too Much? 7 Ways to Reduce It
When is the lowest-cost insurer not the lowest-cost insurer? When another company actually charges less because you bundled or installed security or did something else.
NEW YORK – The price of homeowners’ insurance is on the rise, and many owners may be looking for ways to reduce their high premiums. While discounts can vary greatly based on location, size, and age of the house, some credits may be available that could reduce some homeowners’ premiums by as much as thousands of dollars per year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The average premium for a homeowner’s insurance policy increased 3.1% to $1,249 in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. Luxury homes tend to be much more costly to insure than standard homes since they’re larger and have more decorative features within.
Here are some ways homeowners may be able to save on their homeowners’ insurance costs:
Bundles: Look into bundling a policy – insuring a home, car or boat all with the same firm. Some homeowners report a 12% reduction in their premiums by doing this. (more…)
Is Your Home (and Home Insurance) Ready for Extreme Weather?
Hurricanes. Heat waves. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. Today’s headlines are awash in extreme weather, and whether you blame climate change or just plain bad luck, the simple truth is that the damage from these disasters is impossible to ignore.
Realtor.com® teamed up with HarrisX to conduct a poll of 3,026 adults on their extreme weather concerns and homeowners insurance know-how—and the results suggest that many Americans may be more vulnerable than we think.
Here are some of the key highlights: (more…)
Prediction: Lots of International Buyers Over the Next Year
NEW YORK – In June, when real estate agent Nitin Gupta took two clients to see a new housing development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a sales representative for the builder told him all the units were gone.
The builder had planned to sell 100 homes to investors out of roughly 1,500 he was planning to build. Investors had come to the site the day before, the rep told Gupta, and another agent had pitched the homes to a group of buyers in China over Zoom.
“He said, ‘The people were saying, I want one, I want two, I want three. Boom, boom, boom,” Gupta recalls. “The agent sold about 50 to 60 homes and the builder had sold 130 homes the first day.”
While the global COVID-19 pandemic has squashed sales of U.S. homes to foreign buyers over the last year, local buyers should be prepared for a rebound in competition from other countries in the next 12 months, economists say.
Texas, Gupta’s state, ranked as the third-most-popular destination for foreign real estate buyers between April 2020 and March 2021, according to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors. Florida and California claim the top two spots, while Arizona, New Jersey and New York follow Texas. (more…)
7 Winning Tips for Buyers
The only one of these I don’t recommend is number 4 – waiving contingencies other than in certain circumstances.
18 Reasons to Work With a Realtor
Whether buying or selling you need a Realtor on your team, working for you, putting your interests first. Here are 18 reasons why:
Naples Housing Market Mid-Year 2021 Review
The median price of Single Family homes in the Naples area* sold in the 6 months to June 2021 increased 33% from $435,000 to $580,000, while sales increased 64% from 2,595 to 4,251.
The median price of Condos sold in the 6 months to June 2021 increased 16% from $272,000 to $316,000, while sales more than doubled from 2,491 to 5,163.
Keep reading for charts and more details: (more…)
Whay are people moving to Southwest Florida?
“Both Collier and Lee counties have been among the very strongest population growth markets in the entire nation over the past five years,” said Brian Alford, Florida director of market analytics for CoStar Group, which specializes in worldwide real estate data. “There have also been numerous corporate relocations and expansions over the past decade, including large expansions over the past couple of years by firms such as Gartner and Arthrex, adding even more jobs.” (Naples Daily News)
Some of the workers live in Bonita Springs, about halfway between Naples and Fort Myers. Incorporated only at the start of this century, Bonita for the first time barely edged into the Top 50 of the most populated in Florida, joining Cape Coral, Fort Myers and North Port.
“Demand to move here has always been strong, but lately, low interest rate policy, and coupled with lockdown fatigue up north, increased demand even more, which explains the larger-than-expected increases in population down here,” said economist Christopher Westley, dean of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Lutgert College of Business. (more…)
Naples Area June Market Summary
This is the overall market summary for June published by NABOR:
Comment
While this picture conveys very clearly the strength of the market I do not find the detail particularly helpful as it combines all types of property – from single family to condo.
I will publish detailed reports by sector and by area this coming Saturday. Meanwhile, here are links to the preliminary reports I have already published for June: (more…)
Estero June Housing Market
The 3-month median price for Single Family Homes in Estero has risen only modestly over the last year to $385,000, and has been within the $350-400,000 range for most of the last decade.
The number of SF sales in Estero is quite small, although it has increased somewhat over the last year. (more…)
Why Is the Market White Hot? No, It’s Not the Pandemic
Today’s market problems – a shortage of affordable housing, historically tight inventory of homes for sale and rising prices – weren’t caused by the latest pandemic-caused economic slowdown. It goes back to the Great Recession.
Experts say the U.S. housing market was already being roiled by forces fueling the current housing-price explosion even before the pandemic.
Matthew Murphy at New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy said supply shortages were evident heading into the pandemic, adding that “the context here to this current housing moment is that we were still recovering from the 2008-2009 foreclosure crisis.”
Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors® has been pointing to an “underbuilding gap” of between 5.5 and 6.8 million housing units since 2001. (more…)
Fort Myers June Housing Market Summary
The 3-month median price for Single Family Homes in Fort Myers continued to rise sharply, reaching $368,125 for the April-June quarter, some 25% higher than a year ago, and breaking decisively upwards from the $250-300,000 range of the previous 5 years:
Dramatic price movements often occur when the number of sales is small, but that has not been the case in Fort Myers, where sales have exceeded 1,000 per quarter for the last year:
(more…)
North Naples June Housing Market Summary
The 3-month median price for Single Family Homes in North Naples – the area from Pine Ridge Road to the Lee County boundary just short of Bonita Beach Road (see map below) covering zipcodes 34109,34110 and 34119 – continued to rise sharply, reaching $749,000 for the April-June quarter, some 35% higher than a year ago, and breaking decisively upwards from the $500-550,000 range of the previous 5 years:
Dramatic price movements often occur when the number of sales is small, but that has not been the case in North Naples, which has seen a major increase:
(more…)
Naples Beach June Housing Market Summary
The 3-month median price for Single Family Homes in Naples Beach – the area the area mostly to the East of 41 from Port Royal to Pelican Bay (see map below) covering zipcodes 34102,34103 and 34108 – continued to rise sharply, reaching $2.4 million for the April-June quarter, breaking strongly through the $2 million level:
Dramatic price movements often occur when the number of sales is small, but that has not been the case in the whole Naples area, which has seen a major increase: