Home Sales Double
In May, 1,451 existing single-family homes were sold in Lee County, more than double the number of homes sold in May last year, according to a report by The Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc. Pending sales were up more than 38 percent over the prior year, with 1,980 single-family homes pending versus 1,429 a year ago. However, May's pending sales were 16.4 percent below April, the result of seasonality.
The supply of single-family homes stayed the same compared to the prior month at 3.8 months of inventory, which is significantly lower than May 2007, when the inventory supply was 8.1 months. This reduction of inventory is evident by the drop in the number of single-family homes listed in the MLS. At the end of May, there were 7,477 active listings of existing single-family residential properties compared to 11,634 a year ago (a decline of 35.7 percent) and the active listings were down 13.7 percent compared to the prior month.
While bank-owned properties continue to impact Lee County's median price, it has remained relatively stable in the second quarter, hovering around $80,000.
In 2009, about two-thirds of all singlefamily homes that sold and were listed in the MLS were bank-owned. Of those, 64 percent were cash deals. This would indicate that the banks are looking to expedite the sales of these properties by giving preference to cash offers in multiple-bid situations.
"This situation is causing many potential buyers, who live and work in our community to become frustrated as it is getting harder to get the home they want," said Suzanne Sherer, association president. "To reduce neighborhood blight and stabilize housing in our community, our workforce needs to be able to purchase these bank-owned properties, not investors. Hopefully, we can work with Lee County to utilize Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds to help our workforce attain homeownership."
orginally from Florida Weekly
