The prices of homes and new home sales have been steadily increasing in Southwest Florida as of late, especially in Naples and surrounding areas. Many Naples, Florida communities have been seeing more home sales since January than they have in the past 14 months, and experts agree that the improving economy is behind the sudden spike in sales.
The median sales price for Naples homes from December 2013 to March 2014 was $239,950, which is a 26.3% increase over the last 5 years. While things have plateaud a bit over the past several months, there are a couple of specific communities that are seeing even more interested buyers in April than they have since before the recession started, which makes a lot of people in the real estate industry sleep a little better at night.
One of these communities, The Quarry – located in Naples, Florida just off of Immokalee Rd., has been gauging quite a bit of interest. Possibly partly because of it’s convenient location and affordable home pricing. Click here to see some recent listings.
Palm Beach County has seen about a 16% increase in the median price for homes this year, up to $272,000. Since February there have been 1,020 homes sold in Palm Beach County alone, which is up about 1 percent from a year ago.
However many experts believe that we are entering a cool-off phase, where we will see home sales (and prices) level out for a while as the market settles into the new “normal”. This has many real estate investors running for the hills, which, according to some experts could be a good thing. “The old normal is good for housing, and much better for the economy than what we have been living through for seven-plus years.” said Jonathan Smoke, Hanley Wood’s chief economist.
He also added that “no one should fear this is a harbinger of housing deteriorating — it’s actually a reflection of the existing home market getting better.”
Going off of our experiences over the past few years, we’ll take whatever we can get. And with the draw of Florida being as strong as it’s ever been, look for many people to head this way as the economy continues to improve. People always want to come to Florida. Not just because of the beautiful scenery and climate, but because of low taxes – which in this economy can be a huge burden off the shoulders of middle-class Americans.
According to Related Group CEO Jorge Perez, Florida Cities such as Miami also have international appeal to investors outside the United States as well as regular folks who are looking to become U.S. citizens.
“South Florida has become, as opposed to just being fun in the sun, a serious city, a great city,” said Perez in the Miami Herald recently. “In terms of problems in South Florida, we still don’t have the local buyers for our private properties we’re building.”
Whatever the reason, it seems as if things are continuing to look up for the real estate market here in Sunny Florida.