Real Estate Market Slowing Down?

The Florida real estate market has enjoyed a five-year boom. Southwest Florida also enjoyed that status. Within the last year, (ending November 30) the median sale price for existing homes in Englewood, and North Point, in Charlotte County went from $167,700 to $236,900, a 41 percent increase. These statistics are based on reports from Florida Association of Realtors and the U of F Real Estate Research Center. This wasn’t far behind the 49 percent price increase in the Fort Myers and Cape Coral areas, where the price median is $295,400. The statewide median sale price gained 31 percent, from $191,300 to $250,500. Nationally, the median sale price was $216,200 through October, a gain of 16.6 percent over the year before, according to the National Association of Realtors. While area home prices have continued to go up, sales have gone down, with 15 percent less home sales being recorded in November than in that same month a year ago. Nancy McClary, a past president of the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port Association of Realtors, considers the slowdown as temporary and anticipated. "The market is definitely seeing a slowdown," she explained. "But it's really just pausing to catch its breath, and that's a good thing. There are very few buyers right now and there's a large inventory of available homes. But this is just a plateau." "Interest rates are still significantly lower than they have been historically," she said. "The people up north are just getting their first big winter blasts of snow and cold weather, and a lot of people up there have just been laid off. I think you're going to see a lot of people in the coming months look at the size of their heating bills and electric bills. I think a lot of them are going to lose power in snowstorms in the freezing cold, and ask themselves: 'Why should I stay up here. At least down in Florida when they lose power they don't freeze to death.' "As long as we have the sun and they have the snow, they will come." By Patricia Fuller Miami Real Estate - Aquablue Realty Sarasota Real Estate

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