NAPLES — With inventory dwindling in the Naples real estate market, the Naples Area Board of Realtors said Friday the overall median sales price of homes increased 17 percent in 2012.
The overall median price of closed sales rose from $175,000 in 2011 to $204,000 in 2012, according to a NABOR statement that focused on sales for all of 2012 compared with 2011.
“I think 2012 was strong and I can only imagine what 2013 will be like,” said Brenda Fioretti, NABOR’s media relations committee member and a managing broker for Prudential Florida Realty in Naples. “It will be phenomenal.”
The overall number of closed sales increased 9 percent for 2012 compared with 2011, from 8,345 homes and condos to 9,121 in 2012. The number of closed sales increased 20 percent in the $300,000 to $500,000 category, from 1,129 residences to 1,357, and it increased 29 percent in the $500,000 to $1 million category, from 794 residences in 2011 to 1,022 in 2012, according to the NABOR statement.
Mike Hughes, vice president and general manager of Downing-Frye Realty, said 2012 will go down as a record year for closed sales in the past 50 years — other than the boom years of 2004 and 2005.
“It’s nice to get back to the norm. Are we back yet, no, but we are close,” he said.
Overall pending sales increased 6 percent, from 10,070 pending sales in 2011 to 10,683 pending sales in 2012. Overall inventory decreased by 13 percent, from 7,581 in 2011 to 6,557 in 2012, according to the NABOR statement.
Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate analyst and CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting LLC, said the real estate market is far from normal.
“Prices are nowhere near 50 percent of where they were before,” said McCabe, pointing to sales prices of $486,500 during the height of the market in 2005-06. “People need to keep this in mind.”
Until all of the distressed properties are sold and fewer homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, the real estate market won’t fully stabilize, he said.
“What we need is a return to the mortgage qualifying criteria of the 1990s that prevented systemic foreclosures that did not inhibit transactions and growth of the real estate market,” McCabe said.
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter in the Naples area, sales increased 22 percent from 1,689 homes to 2,061 in 2012. The quarterly sales includes December’s report, which also increased in all price categories from 608 sales in December 2011 to 753 in December 2012.
Overall inventory decreased 13 percent, from 7,580 units in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 6,557 in the fourth quarter of 2012. The quarterly inventory includes December’s report, which also decreased from 7,579 in 2011 to 6,557 in 2012.
The yearly, monthly and quarterly reports track Realtor sales made through the Sunshine Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.
In a separate report this week, the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc. reported a continuing rise in the median price.
The median home price in that portion of Lee County increased 14.6 percent in December 2012 over 2011’s number and was 26.4 percent higher than at the beginning of 2012. For the past 23 consecutive months, the market has seen gains in the median price as it has climbed 65.4 percent since January 2011, the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc. reported.
The 2012 median price in that portion of Lee County, not including south Lee, increased 29.9 percent from $97,000 in 2011 to $126,000 last year. The overall inventory dropped 13.4 percent at year’s end in that portion of Lee County.
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The overall median sales price of homes in the Naples area increased 17 percent in 2012, the Naples Area Board of Realtors said Friday.
The overall median price of closed sales rose from $175,000 in 2011 to $204,000 in 2012, according to a NABOR statement that focused on sales for all of 2012 compared with 2011.
“I think 2012 was strong and I can only imagine what 2013 will be like,” said Brenda Fioretti, NABOR’s media relations committee chairwoman and a managing broker for Prudential Florida Realty in Naples. “It will be phenomenal.”
Fioretti encourages homeowners to put their homes on the market.
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Comments » 15
manforpeace writes:
Propaganda! The first ones to be sold are the run down cheap ones. We are now into homes that were occupied by richer folks that could hold on longer, or had legal advice on how to delay and hold on longer. The NDN is all about PROPAGANDA. Someone prove me wrong, PLEASE!
manforpeace writes:
One more thing, NABOR is and always has been a joke. Laura Layden was reporting with NABOR, been called out for who she is. Next. Tracy! People should understand NDN's stake in this, and wake up. How do you think a local paper can operate without real estate ads? They can't, so they lick their backsides.
Revenge_is_BEST_Served_COLD writes:
Dude, I'm not a realtor but I've been monitoring home prices around here for two years in the 75k - 225k range and I can tell you after 2 years of looking, prices are on the rise. The problem is that appraisals are all over the place and it's hard for people like my wife and I (who have good credit) to get the bank to approve a loan because of the whacky appraisals. It's not propaganda, it's just facts. Sounds like you got burned though cuz you say the same thing about every real estate article - foreclosure, short sale, bankruptcy? You shouldn't have bought more than you could afford!
wallstreetgeek writes:
Revenge_is_BEST_Served_COLD:
Exactly. Average home prices are determined by sales, not listings! If people are paying 17% more on average, thats the number. Market price is what the consumer is willing to pay for something.
FreshFace writes:
LOL and yesterday's report said it was the high year for foreclosures. Which is it????
Revenge_is_BEST_Served_COLD writes:
It's both. Just because the sales are distressed (i.e. foreclosures and short sales) means nothing if there are multiple bidders for each property. It's supply and demand, it's that simple. When my wife and I bid on our first house, there was already an offer on it but the seller accepted ours because ours was higher, thus pushing the market value of that property up.
manforpeace writes:
You are making my point. You are a novice? been following the market for a few years? You can see a problem how homes are being valued? Show me a story about that, in this paper.?
You are doing the best thing. You are doing the research on your own. You have gut feelings and the way you write it seems you act on that. Cool. Me too. And to your other point, no I did not get screwed in the market. I just have been here a very long time and have seen this place and who reports on it, if you want to call it reporting, go down hill fast. This used to be a drinking town with a fishing problem. People were happy. Now we have cops in the schools, you drive anywhere around here people are rude. Let me ask you this, what would this town look like now without the real estate crash? So when I was hearing about people buying here "sight unseen" I thought maybe it was getting excessive. You could look back on my comments, however the way I post, NDN does not like it, so twice have deleted me. I do from time to time take the time to print out what I have said before they delete. Interesting. Now I take it from what you have said about following the market for a couple years, were you here before that? Or just another snowbird invoking your expert knowledge? The thing you must understand is every year we get a new batch of snowbirds that think they have the answers. They don't. Look at our county leaders, we have one that is a full time real estate in OREGON. Kinda makes you think, huh DUDE? maybe not.
kappa1997 writes:
The less you know, the more you believe. Do your own research.....
No1Uno writes:
Here we go again. Better hang on!
almasonlybar writes:
Don't mean to be picky, but they reported the MEDIAN sales price, not the average. My house has risen a bit in value.......5 or 6%, but remains much lower than the peak. I bought this particular home in 2002, and its value is roughly what it was then.
Revenge_is_BEST_Served_COLD writes:
My boss bought his place in '04 and is still wayyyyyy under on his place. He's doing the smart thing and short selling and cutting his losses but that just goes to show that the overall trend is positive but neighborhood to neighborhood numbers are still really volatile. It's a lot of cash buyers cuz the price volatility is causing inconsistent appraisals which are leaving finance buyers like myself and my wife finding it hard to get financed with good credit. That said, I'm not saying it's all rosy but cash buyer investors are definitely and organically pushing home values up. I'm a stock broker, I watch capital equity markets appreciate too rapidly and correct too rapidly on a daily basis. The Dow was 6500 and change in March 2009, now it's over 13600 in less than 4 years. The SWFL real estate market is no different. The prices overcorrected and are now returning to normal.
Revenge_is_BEST_Served_COLD writes:
Kind of but not really. FHA loans are still 3.5% down and if you don't have ample lines of credit (i.e. demonstrated responsible use of fixed and revolving credit) they have what's called alternate trade lines using utility bills and such. VA loans are 0% down up to 102% to cover wrapping the VA guarantee fee into the loan. What's weeding the unqualified and qualified alike out right now is the fact that appraisal standards are extremely tight. Thing is now, PMI (or the VA) guarantees 25% of the loan so in a stable housing market, that's sufficient for the banks to recoup their losses post foreclosure but until the distressed assets have been liquidated, home prices wont normalize and loans will still be hard to get for a typical family.
ennui writes:
Home prices corrected and hopefully there will never be another housing bubble so quit trying to pump and dump Naples real estate. The banksters took the money out of the system, welcome to the age of austerity. People will never have the money to buy houses like they did in the bubble.
Mike21 writes:
The average house may have gone up 17%, but that doesn't mean an individual house is worth 17% more. In 2011 there were a lot of really cheap (foreclosure) sales, and 2012 the average was pulled up by more high end houses being sold. Prices are trending higher, but not 17% higher. Maybe 5% higher is more like it.
cornandbeans writes:
OK, brainiacs, what's going to happen to the local real estate markets when foreclosures are near 0? 80% of home sales the last two years are cash sales. They will never be foreclosed on. 60% of all homes in Collier County have no mortgage. None. Nada.
The forecloser pipeline is about ready to be turned off. Next year will be half of last year. All mortgages have been reset to ridiculus low interest rates by refi or old ARMs.
Cash flow is back in favor of the home owner vs renter.
The only thing holding home prices down are the new finance requirements finalized last week. And, it's a good thing for a steady increasing market instead of an explosion.
Buy a home. Buy some beer. Sit back and enjoy paradise.
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