2010 Synopsis for Cape Coral
2010 was a great year for sales in Cape Coral. A total of 5908 closed sales were listed through the MLS which is a pretty remarkable number especially since we started the year with 4301 listings and ended with 3787. At first it sounds like we sold more than we had for sale! This says a lot about the state of our market. Our inventory went down 514 homes because while 5908 closed 5394 came onto the market. The attached chart shows our trends.
We had significant things occur in our market in 2010.
- The large number of foreclosed and preforeclosure homes remained dominant with new homes continuing to flow into the market. The “shadow inventory”, homes somewhere in foreclosure process but not yet on market, still exists and it is difficult to establish exactly how big that number is. Indications are that the foreclosure peaks may be declining.
- Tax incentives for first time buyers caused the number of spring sales to jump from March through June and we felt a buyer drop when those incentives expired. A lot of existing buyers got pulled ahead.
- Historically low prices and interest rates afforded many renters the chance to become homeowners. The same low prices made real estate investment as rental property practical.
- Investors as well as resident homeowners caused strong competition on homes which were priced at very bottom of competitive range for their market. Homes priced above a competitive level received almost no buyer attention.
- For the first time in a couple of years, we saw investors who had successfully bought low priced homes, did some rehab, and resold.
- A statistical stabilization of median sale prices throughout almost all segments of our home sale prices may indicate we have reached the bottom of price declines.
Where are we heading?
It will take time and economic growth to absorb our excess homes and then let market pressure start to cause real increases in value. Fortunately, we are still a great destination for value and weather for potential retirees and we should see continued growth and home sales to people from outside our area. Our local economy will probably not draw significant numbers of new job seekers for a few years. Our expectation is that our values will remain relatively stable for the next couple years and after our excess inventory of homes get absorbed by population growth we will start to see real price improvement.
Steve Koffman
Broker/Associate
Century21 Sunbelt Realty
239-443-2463 Steve@koffman.com
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