Bonita Springs Real Estate Blog

Market Takes Off On Lower Prices

2008-05-08T10:23:00.001-04:00

Naples & Bonita Springs Florida - Pending sales have reached their highest levels since August of 2005, nearly three years ago; while median home prices are at four year low. They have hit month over month highs the last two months, with April sales even outpacing March sales, bucking the normal seasonal trend.

Pending sales in Naples and Bonita Springs showed 853 units in the month of April, compared to 652 a year ago – a 30% increase. “It’s obvious that buyers have determined that real estate prices can’t go much lower. They are jumping back into the market at an extremely healthy rate. The bottom in terms of activity has come and gone” – Joe Ballarino, Amerivest Realty – President & Founder.

Pending Sales Graph

Median price for the area dropped to $300,000 from $399,000 a year ago, a 25% decline – their lowest level since 2004. “The increased activity is due to the severe drop in prices created by the glut of short sales and foreclosures in the market. Buyers are recognizing the opportunity and making buying decisions. Sellers who are pricing their property aggressively are now seeing results as the market is finding the bottom on pricing” - added Joe.

Median Price Graph

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Bonita Springs, FL: Imperial Landing developer backs out

2008-04-19T09:22:00.000-04:00

Antaramian Development Group of Naples has announced it will not build the Imperial Landing project, billed as the key to downtown redevelopment, in Bonita Springs.

While the project is stymied, Bonita officials and business owners remain upbeat about the future of downtown.

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Naples Florida Real Estate Market Turning Around

2008-04-13T11:23:00.001-04:00

With the more affordable prices and lower interest rates, showings and sales for homes priced at $300,000 or less have picked up over the past four or five months in Naples Florida.

"Certainly you can help a lot of people right now," said Michael Sopka, a broker-associate for Amerivest Realty in North Naples, who found a home for DeMinico.

At 31, DeMinico longed to buy his first home and decided the time was right after watching prices fall. Though he's only lived in the area a few years, he knew about the ups and downs of the market because his parents bought a home in Naples in 1989.

His home, which cost him about $207,000, is new and in a gated community with basketball and tennis courts, and a fitness center.

No one else has lived in the home. Like so many others investors, the original buyers purchased it in hopes of turning it around for a quick profit and then got caught with a home they didn't want when the market soured. The home sat on the market for more than a year, DeMinico said.
"I got lucky," he said. "They just wanted to unload it because they wanted to sell it. They couldn't really rent it."

His Realtor also worked with TIB bank to get him a loan that only required a $600 downpayment.

In south Lee County, deals can be found at such upscale golf communities as Bonita Bay and Pelican Landing.

A few weeks ago, Mary Catherine White, a Realtor at Amerivest, had floor duty. She got a call from a couple from Chicago looking to buy a retirement home in the area where they could spend part of the year. She took them out the day they arrived in town, and by the next day they had made an offer after finding a great deal on a two-bedroom condo at the Brooks, a gated community in Estero.

They got more than they wanted and paid $180,000, a price that even seemed to surprise White.

"Nobody can believe that we got something for that price in the Brooks," she said.
The home was once listed at $369,000.

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Posted By Amerivest Realty to Naples Florida Real Estate Blog

Real estate professionals can help when purchasing new homes

2008-04-06T09:56:00.001-04:00

Finding and purchasing a newly constructed home is a completely different experience than looking for a resale home. Here are 10 advantages to using a real estate professional when buying a newly constructed home.

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Signs of Real Estate Market Bottom

2008-03-31T11:15:00.000-04:00

The big question everyone is asking these days is "When will the bottom of the real estate market occur?" The bottom of the market may be closer than you might think.

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The end of the real estate slump may be near

2008-03-25T08:40:00.001-04:00

Unexpected increase of home sales on national, local level gives hope to many

Naples Daily News
By TOM HANSON (Contact)6:20 p.m., Monday, March 24, 2008

Home prices and buyers may have finally met their match.

After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes on a national and local level posted an unexpected increase in February. The National Association of Realtors reported sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units.

In Lee County, existing home sales climbed 32 percent this past month with 445 homes sold in February, according to numbers released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors, compared to January's 338 total. The Naples Board of Realtors reported a slight decrease last week.

The reason for the spike is simple. The prices are falling.

The average price of a home in Lee County dropped dramatically from $234,000 in January to $211,000 in February. It's the lowest median price in Lee County since the $197,000 tag in November of 2004.

"The real estate offices have cracked down and are not willing to take on listings that are not realistic," said Sherry Haas, president of the Bonita-Estero Board of Realtors. "You have it priced to sell. This is all encouraging."

The Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR) saw a similar trend with lower priced homes. Single-family home sales below $300,000 increased to 45 sales this February from 27 last year; condo sales in the same price range increased to 83 sales from 61 last year.

Meanwhile, prices in the lowest Naples Florida bracket dropped: single family-homes sold at a median price of $211,000, down $46,000 from last year, and condos sold at a median price of $200,000, down $30,000 from last year. NABOR reported sales of homes and condos in the Naples were down from 304 to 289 in the past year.

Nationally, the median existing sales price in February fell to $195,900. That was the largest year-over-year drop on records that go back to 1999.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said that prices in some formerly hot markets in California and Florida were seeing significant price declines now as sellers try to attract buyers.

Median prices in Florida fell 16 percent to $198,900, with the Miami area dropping even further at 20 percent. Unlike on the national level, sales in the state fell 25 percent.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the one-month rise in national sales. Many economists are predicting that the steep slump in housing will not bottom-out until later this year after prices fall further and allow huge levels of unsold inventories to be reduced.

"We're not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the (February) improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing," Yun said.

Haas said in the Bonita-Estero area, the market is picking up with even more pending sales for March. She said she doesn't have a crystal ball to predict the future but she is optimistic the end of the slump is near.

"We see a little shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel," Haas said.
- - -
Staff writer Laura Layden and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Bonita Springs Season Sales Off 5.9%, Prices Down 10.1%

2007-06-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

This morning I pulled year to date Bonita Springs, Florida statistics from Sunshine MLS (the local MLS system) to determine how the 2007 season compared to 2006. I compared numbers from January 1 to May 31 for each year and found the following:

Number of Pending Sales
2006: 766
2007: 721
DOWN 5.9%

Median Price Average:
2006: $432,180
2007: $388,317
DOWN 10.1%

So what does it mean? These numbers are no where near the poor pending numbers when comparing 2006 to 2005, a time where pending sales dropped 53.9%. Even better news is pricing, 2006 to 2005 had seen a gain in median prices by 26%, however we have only given 10.1% back.

This market rewards sellers who price their property correctly and severely penalizes those who don't. With residential inventory over 3,400 units, buyers can find great value if they do their homework.

Of course I recommend hiring a Realtor, our value is really apparent in a normal market like today.

Joe Ballarino
President & Founder
Amerivest Realty

David Cole Named Director of Business Development

2007-05-10T22:17:00.000-04:00

Amerivest Realty is pleased to announce that David Cole has been named Director of Business Development.

David comes to Amerivest Realty after serving for 13 years as Broker/VP of Operations of a 6 office, 230 agent brokerage. "David possesses the experience and talent that Amerivest Realty required in order to continue the strong growth we have been experiencing" said Joe Ballarino, Founder & President.

When asked why he chose Amerivest Realty for the next step in his career, David responded "Amerivest Realty has the most advanced technology services in the market place. The leadership at Amerivest Realty also knows that a successful business must continually strive to improve their products and services and Amerivest Realty has done that year after year".

David started his real estate career in 1983, orginally from Norman, Oklahoma. He moved to Southwest Florida in 1988, working with Re/Max Realty Group as a sales associate, then opened his own Century 21 franchise serving as a Broker/Owner, before spending the last 13 years with VIP Realty Group. He also served as President of the Realtor Association of Greater Ft. Myers and the Beach.

"David's vast experience as a sales associate, broker/owner is ideal for this position. He'll be able to assist our real estate franchise partners in growing their office. David's energy and enthusiam for his new role is also greatly appreciated." - Joe Ballarino.

Bonita Springs MLS Stats for 1st Quarter 2007

2007-05-10T22:02:00.000-04:00

The following graphs are statistics from SunshineMLS for all Bonita areas:

Blog Access/Guidelines

2007-01-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

Access Instructions:
To Request Access, click on the following link that will send an email to:
5 Star Support (5Star@AmerivestRealty.com)
Please include your full name, office location, the name of the blog you want access to and the email address the invitation should be sent to. Within 3 business days, you will receive an email from Blogger.com inviting you to participate in the blog you requested, if appropriate.

You must follow the link in that email to be authorized as an author. It will prompt you to login with your Google account, or create a Google account if you don't have one. As you sign up, blogger will begin assisting you in setting up your own blog, you can just exit this mode if you don't want your own blog.

Guidelines
Posts should be news and information about your local real estate market, especially market conditions, statistics, new developments, etc. Feel free to contain links to more content including links to your website and sign your post with your name and contact information.

Amerivest Realty reserves the right to deny access or edit/delete content at it's sole discretion.

Bonita Springs Communities Updated

2005-12-09T08:26:00.000-05:00

The Amerivest Realty Bonita Springs web site recently update the featured communities on their website. Here are a list of the featured communities:

Bonita Bay
Cedar Creek
Colonial Oaks
Grandezza
Mediterra
Miromar Lakes
Pelican Landing
Quail West
Rookery Pointe
Spanish Wells
The Brooks
West Bay Club
Wildcat Run
Worthington Country Club

Amerivest Realty - Conference Panel Member

2005-09-21T08:51:00.000-04:00

Joe Ballarino, CRB - President/CEO of Amerivest Holdings, Inc. will serve as a panel member at the upcoming Broker Profitability Conference, October 13th at the Orlando Renaissance Airport Hotel, Orlando Florida. The conference, organized by the Florida Association of Realtors, will discuss real estate brokerage trends and business models. Joe Ballarino will be representing Amerivest Realty due to its market uniqueness, providing a full suite of technology tools in a 100% commission model. Amerivest Realty continues to lead the real estate brokerage industry by providing more services for less to its members.

Visit Amerivest Realty - Lucas & Associates - Bonita Springs Florida

Bonita Springs Real Estate Blog Est.

2005-09-13T08:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome home to the Bonita Springs Real Estate Blog. This blog is dedicated to discussing the Bonita Springs market. It will be your source for general information, new listings, community information, and discussion. We hope you find this blog helpful in navigating your real estate needs in Bonita Springs.