No slowdown in buyer demand for Bonita and Estero market
According to the Bonita Springs-Estero REALTORS® (BER), buyer interest in February 2021 was robust, leading to multiple offer situations and a very active start to the spring selling season in Bonita Springs and Estero. Along with robust sales, inventory shortages are also a continuation into springtime as well. Most notable was the 76.7 percent drop in available inventory as compared to the same time in 2020. While there are inventory challenges, this should not deter buyers and sellers from entering the market.
Demand for Pools, Hot Tubs Surging Due to COVID-19
New in-ground residential pools saw a 21% uptick in 2020 compared to 2019. States like Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw permits rise by up to 30%, Janay Rickwalder, a spokesperson for the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, an industry research group, told The Escape Home.
“This is historic growth for the industry—the next closest period was in 1983 with 16% growth over a much smaller base,” Rickwalder says. (more…)
Naples market on fire in February
The February 2021 Market Report, released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®), which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island), marks the last month of comparative activity before the pandemic shuttered the global economy in March 2020. That said, overall closed sales of existing homes in Naples for February increased 62 percent to 1,307 closed sales from 807 closed sales in February 2020.
Buyers are scooping up the available inventory of homes in all geographic locations within Naples almost as fast as they come onto the market. Inventory fell 68.8 percent in February to 2,224 homes from 7,127 homes in February 2020. (more…)
Naples market continues strongly upwards in February
Here are the highlights from the Report for the Naples Area for the month of February, showing the same story of a continued increase in sales and median prices, and a continued decrease in inventory.
I will write in more detail when the full report is published on March 24.
Read:
“Party on, dude” says the Federal Reserve
Buyers are overpaying, but are there signs of a bubble (more…)
“Party on, dude” says the Federal Reserve
Former Federal Reserve Chair William McChesney Martin, Jr famously said: “The Federal Reserve…is in the position of the chaperone who has ordered the punch bowl removed just when the party was really warming up.”
This week, current Fed Chair Jerome Powell in effect said “party on, dude.” As the New York Times commented: “The official view of the central bank’s leaders now is that it has been an overly stingy host, taking away the punch bowl so quickly that parties were dreary, disappointing affairs.
The job now is to persuade the world that it really will leave the punch bowl out long enough, and spiked adequately — that it will be a party worth attending. They insist punch bowl removal will be based on actual realized inebriation of the guests, not on forecasts of potential future problematic levels of drunkenness.”
Chairman Powell’s comments
“We will continue to provide the economy the support that it needs for as long as it takes.” (more…)
Buyers are overpaying, but are there signs of a bubble?
As prices continue to soar, Housing Wire asks the question: Are there signs of a bubble?
“The national average of home prices rose 14.4% year-over-year to $336,200 in February – the largest increase since July 2013, according to the latest report from Redfin. As proof of the impact of the country’s low inventory and high cost of building materials, new listings fell 16% – the second-largest decline on record since Redfin’s data began in 2012, only passed by the drop in April 2020. (more…)
Goodbye sub 3% mortgages
It was only last July that the 30-year Fixed Rate Mortgage (FRM) dropped below 3% for the first time and this week it moved back above 3% again, following the direction of the 10-year Treasury Note (10T).
Where have all the sellers gone?
As I read this New York Times article: Where have all the houses gone? my mind went to Yogi Berra’s line of “it’s deja vu all over again” as I checked my files and discovered that this will be my 5th article with this title – and the first was written in 2013.
Let’s look at the what and the why.
First, the what. This chart shows that inventory has plummeted across the country:
The why (more…)
How do prices in Southwest Florida compare with 2007/08?
While the market in Southwest Florida is hot and prices are rising sharply, it is interesting to see how prices compare with the peak from 2006/2008.
Naples
The median Single Family Home price in Naples has only just passed the earlier peak.
Why was this stunning Florida mansion abandoned?
“In the heart of Florida sits this impressive neo-Classical mansion, known as the Money Pit Mansion. Having lain empty for decades, its various owners have been unable to restore it to its former glory due to high costs and substantial damage.” (Read MSN article )
© Abandoned Southeast
The house was built in the early 1900s and is still considered one of the most ornate mansions in the area with its Grecian-style pillars. (more…)
Is Tom Brady staying in Florida?
As we Patriots’ fans find ourselves watching the play-offs this year from a position of curiosity rather than passion, we can I hope root for “Patriots South”, aka the Tampa Bay Bucs, home of Tom Brady and Gronk.
Following on from his “you won’t catch me dead living in the Northeast anymore” comment, Brady and Giselle have made moves in real estate which seem to support this statement. (more…)
Are you thinking of moving to Southwest Florida?
With a nor-‘easter coming this week, is it time to think about moving to the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida? (more…)
It’s 80 degrees in Florida…
In this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan wrote:
“In the past year the owners of great businesses found how much can be done remotely.
They hadn’t known that!
They hadn’t had to find out.
They don’t have to pay that killer rent for office space anymore.
People think it will all snap back when the pandemic is fully over but no, a human habit broke; a new way of operating has begun. People will come back to office life to some degree, maybe a significant one; not everything can be done remotely; people want to gather, make friends, instill a sense of mission; but it will never be what it was.
The Partnership for New York City reports 300,000 residents of high-income neighborhoods have filed change-of-address forms with the U.S. Postal Service. You know where they are going: to lower-tax and no-income-tax states.
A recent report suggested that 850 people per day will move to Florida for the next 5 years as they seek “the weather, lifestyle and tax benefits” offered by Florida. (more…)
Go PATS (South)
While it might be tempting for New England fans to suggest that this Super Bowl should have an asterisk pointing out that the Patriots were not playing, there is the fact that we shall still get to see TB12 and Gronk.
NGSC Sports (more…)
OliverReports.com is now OliverReportsMA.com
With the pending publication of a sister site, www.OliverReportsFL.com, covering the market in Southwest Florida from Naples to Fort Myers, www.OliverReports.com is now OliverReportsMA.com.
During the migration this morning’s post on New Listings disappeared into cyberspace. I shall republish it on the new site.
All being well, if you type in OliverReports.com you will automatically be forwarded to the new site.
Andrew Oliver
Market Analyst | Team Harborside | teamharborside.com
Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
One Essex Street | Marblehead, MA 01945
REALTOR®
www.OliverReportsMA.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Sales Associate | Market Analyst | DomainRealty.com
Naples, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers
Andrew.Oliver@DomainRealtySales.com
m. 617.834.8205
www.OliverReportsFL.com (coming soon)