“It’s the first time we’ve truly disposed of more out the doors of the courthouse since it (the collapse of the real estate market) started,” said Jeff Tumbarello, director of the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investors Association, which issued a report Thursday on the month’s foreclosures. There were 1,412 properties sold at public auction during the month, according to the report.

“This should have a decent net effect” at reducing the number of foreclosure lawsuits backlogged in the county courts. About 23,000 cases are working their way through the system.

Even with the slowing pace of foreclosures, however, the county’s real estate market is not headed for a dramatic recovery, said real estate broker Denny Grimes, owner of Fort Myers-based Denny Grimes & Co. “There is not going to be a lightning bolt from heaven that will end our misery,” he said, although “There have been some encouraging signs.”

For one thing, he said, in a few areas the price of building a new home is close to being competitive with the cost of buying an existing one, probably a foreclosure.

Tumbarello said the number of foreclosures is clearly on the wane, and noted that last year 64.5 percent of home purchases were cash and 71 percent this year so far. There have been 65,000 foreclosures since the boom ended in January 2006 and there are only 245,000 parcels of land in the county, he said. “At some point we can’t foreclose on the whole county.”

In other real estate news, preliminary statistics released Thursday by the Lee County Department of Community Development showed that permits for 51 single-family homes were pulled in the unincorporated county in March. That’s up from 34 in February and 20 in March 2009, and it’s the most permits issued since there were 56 pulled in June 2008.

In other municipalities in the county, one permit was pulled in Fort Myers Beach, one in Sanibel and 21 in Bonita Springs. Numbers were not available Thursday for the cities of Fort Myers and Cape Coral

Source: News-Press.com

Vacation-home sales recovered in 2009 while investment sales fell sharply, according to the National Association of REALTORS

NAR’s 2010 “Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey,“ covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2009, shows vacation-home sales rose 7.9 percent to 553,000 last year from 513,000 in 2008, while investment-home sales fell 15.9 percent to 940,000 in 2009 from 1.12 million in 2008. Primary residence sales rose 7.1 percent to 4.04 million in 2009 from 3.77 million in 2008.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, “The typical vacation-home buyer is making a lifestyle choice, with nine out of 10 saying they intend to use the property for vacations or as a family retreat. Investment buyers primarily seek rental income, with six in 10 planning to rent to others, although one in five wants a family member, friend, or relative to use the home.”

Half of vacation homes purchased last year were in the South, 21 percent in the West, 17 percent in the Midwest and 12 percent in the Northeast. Seven out of 10 were detached single-family homes.

The distribution of investment sales was fairly close to the distribution of population: 35 percent in the South, 25 percent in the West, 24 percent in the Midwest and 16 percent in the Northeast. There was a higher share of condos in investment sales: 27 percent of investment homes were condos vs. 21 percent of vacation homes.

Here is a breakdown of statistics from the survey:

Vacation-Home Buyers

· Only one in four vacation-home buyers plan to rent their properties to others.

· 26 percent of vacation-home buyers intend to use the property as a primary residence in the future.

· The vacation-home market share rose a percentage point to 10 percent.

· The median transaction price of a vacation home was $169,000 in 2009, compared with $150,000 in 2008.

· Three out of 10 vacation-home buyers in 2009 paid cash for their properties

· The typical vacation-home buyer in 2009 was 46 years old, had a median household income of $87,500, and purchased a property that was a median distance of 348 miles from their primary residence.

Investment-Home Buyers

· One in five investment buyers plan to use their homes for vacations or as a family retreat.

· 8 percent of investment buyers intend to use the property as a primary residence in the future.

· The market share of homes purchased for investment was 17 percent in 2009, down from 21 percent in 2008.

· The total share of second homes declined from 30 percent of sales in 2008 to 27 percent in 2009.

· The median investment property sold for $105,000 last year, down 2.8 percent from $108,000 in 2008.

· Half of investment buyers paid cash.

· Investment-home buyers last year had a median age of 45, earned $87,200, and bought a home that was relatively close to their primary residence – a median distance of 24 miles.

· Roughly one in four investment buyers purchased more than one property in 2009.

Source: NAR

That means this is a good time for investors looking to buy land, experts say.

 “Is land undervalued?” asked Fort Myers-based real estate broker RandyThibaut of Land Solutions. “Yes and no. Land prices for residential development land has bottomed out, it can’t get much lower. But not commercial property.”

Douglas Hannah, a partner in Fort Myers-based Silverleaf Capital Group LLC, which puts together deals for investors, said a lack of demand has caused prices to fall sharply since the boom ended late in 2005.

“Because it was overvalued (in the boom), it’s really swung back,” Hannah said. “We just bought some freshwater lots for 10 grand apiece that would have been 150 grand four years ago. They’re down more than 90 percent. Are they worth 10 grand today? Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but because there’s an oversupply of homes, there’s no market for them here.

There are a lot of local opportunities now, Hannah said. We’re aggressively bullish on real estate in Southwest Florida right now,” he said.

Lee County’s homes, with a median price of $112,800, were selling for 40.5 percent under value in the fourth quarter of 2009, down from being overvalued by 31.5 percent at $236,200 four years earlier, the report by financial consulting company IHS Global Insight states. Las Vegas, Nev., was No. 1, undervalued by 45.3 percent at $123,000 compared to being overvalued by 35.3 percent at $287,000 four years earlier.

 But Michael Timmerman, a Naples-based senior associate with Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based economic consulting firm, said he doesn’t agree that Lee County’s property values are that much out of whack. The Global Insight survey, released Friday, looks at too short a time frame to be accurate, he said. “From the point of view of overall fundamentals, if you look at 1980 to today, we’re probably about where we should be, maybe a little below that,” Timmerman said. “It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”

He was also skeptical about another, contradictory survey released this week by Money Magazine predicting that Cape Coral-Fort Myers home values will fall 5.6 percent in the coming year. The report predicts the Naples area will fall 10 percent. People generally are better off not making decisions based on how they think home values will change, Timmerman said.

 “Real estate is for use, your home, your office,” he said. “That’s how real estate should be viewed.”

Source:News-Press 3-25-2010

Sales were up 44 percent in February from the previous year while the median price fell 10 percent, the report states.

For condominiums, sales rose from 390 in January to 432 in February.

The median price for condos rose from $121,400 to $130,900.

Condominium sales saw a 94 percent increase in February from last year, while the median price fell 7 percent.

Nationally, sales of existing homes fell for a third straight month in February, pushing sales down to the lowest level since last July.

For February, the inventory of unsold homes nationally jumped by 312,000 to 3.59 million, an unusually large jump that pushed the supply of unsold homes to 8.6 months.

Source: News-Press 3-23-2010

Condominium and home owners associations desperate for money areexperimenting with a tactic called “reverse foreclosure” to force banks to pay association fees.

The process works like this: When a borrower stops paying the mortgage, banks often delay taking the property into foreclosure. When banks delay, neither the former home owner nor the bank is paying association fees.

To remedy this, the association files its own foreclosure notice, taking over the title. The association can’t sell the property because of the bank’s lien on it. So the association goes to court, renounces the property and asks the judge to give the title back to the bank.

When the judge does so, the bank has to pay the fees. Experts say this technique is becoming very popular in parts of the country where there are a lot of foreclosed condos.

Rates on 30-year, fixed loans averaged 4.93 percent, down from 4.97 percent last week and not far off the record low of 4.71 percent.

Interest on 15-year fixed loans, meanwhile, slipped to 4.33 percent from 4.34 percent.
Adjustable-rate mortgages also declined, with the five-year ARM dropping to 4.12 percent from 4.19 percent a week ago and the one-year ARM moving to 4.23 percent from 4.33 percent.

The survey originated from Demographia Inc., which ranked Cape Coral/Fort Myers seventh in the world.

Lee County was behind some of the most economically depressed areas in the nation, including Detroit, Flint and Lansing, Mich.

According to Realtor statistics, the median home price in the greater Lee County area was between $89,000 – $90,000 in December 2009.

A total of 1,340 homes were sold in that month, an improvement of more than 300 homes from December 2008.

Realtors on both sides of the bridge are not surprised by where Cape Coral and Fort Myers ranked on that list.

They say now is the time to buy, especially if you’re someone who’s looking to stay in the new home for three to five years.

“It’s extremely affordable right now,” said Christie Knight, president of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers. “We strongly believe our momentum will increase because of the extended tax credit for first-time home-buyers, and because interest rates are historically low. We feel very confident.”

The inventory of existing homes has decreased year over year, and Realtors are feeling optimistic about 2010.

Most feel the bottom has already been hit, and there isn’t anywhere to go but up, though a new round of foreclosures is expected to hit the market sometime soon.

Paula Hellenbrand of Encore Realty and a former president for the Cape Coral Association of Realtors said the number of foreclosures is deceiving, and that many of those properties are “evaporated” before they ever hit the market.

She added that now is the time for first-time home-buyers to seek out that dream home, as not only has the tax credit been extended, but companies like Fannie May are instituting 15-day waiting periods for owner occupied properties so home-buyers are in direct competition with investors looking to flip properties quickly.

“Our inventory is at a healthy level,” she said.

Source: Cape Coral Daily Breeze

Mortgage applications shot up 21 percent last week compared to the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. On an unadjusted basis, applications rose 23.5 percent.

The unadjusted purchase index increased 17.5 percent compared with the previous week, but was down 11.2 percent from the same week a year ago.

“Mortgage application volume rebounded last week, returning the purchase and refinance indexes to levels from mid-December,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics.

“Rates continue to hover around 5 percent, quite low by historical standards, but are well above the record lows seen in 2009, and hence are not generating substantial refi volume,” Fratantoni said. “We expect that rates will rise over the next few months as the Federal Reserve winds down its MBS purchase program, and this will likely lead to a decline in refinance volume.”

Here are the average contract interest rate changes:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.01 percent from 5.02 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.33 percent from 4.34 percent.
• 1-year ARMs decreased to 6.70 percent from 6.84 percent.
  

“Sixty percent of our buyers are foreign,” said Joe Milton, president and chief executive of J. Milton & Associates in Coral Gables. Milton wants to see more financing options for foreigners, as he predicts that real estate investment will increase even more if this happens.
“International buyers are activating this market and reactivating sales,” said Jenny Huertas, the international sales director for Condo Vultures, a Bal Harbour brokerage and consultancy company.

Buyers from all over the world are being lured to invest in the United States now that prices have reached a level that they can afford; an opportunity that perhaps hasn’t been available in previous years. Gabriela Guinmaraes, a partner with Integra Solutions, a Florida real estate consultancy that works with Brazilian nationals, says, “Investors are aware that assets have never before been so depreciated in a country like America.”

For the first time in 30 years, it is actually cheaper to purchase housing in Florida than it is in some Latin American cities says Walter Defortuna, chairman of Fortune International Realty.

As many areas in Central Florida worth only half of what they once were, property is being acquired rather quickly, with the weak dollar also helping to boost investment.
“The Swiss, Spanish, groups from Italy and England who already own some stuff down here are seeing it as a good time to buy, leveraging the economy and the currency effect,” said Mike Lapointe, vice president of Baybridge Capital Advisors in Miami.

Although the recession has been a global phenomenon, and foreign investors have been dwindling slightly, they are still more active in the sector than domestic buyers.