Naples Real Estate sales are continuing to build in Florida. Mike Huges the VP at Downing-Frye Realty, Inc explained that our pending sales In January 2012 were our highest January since 2005! Same again in February, with 398 pending sales, March had 465 Pending sales and April was also the best since 2005, May and June also followed the same path. July which is normally a slower month in being in the middle of the Summer slow down, also never missed a beat with another very strong pending sales list. That makes seven strong homes sales months for the first part of 2012. Altogether we had a 17% increase in pending sales in Naples Florida compared to the same time period in 2011. Inventory is continuing to diminish and prospective buyers are rising. Last year it was thought that a large number of buyers bought simply because they thought they were missing out on lower prices, also because they saw the inventory slowing down and becoming limited. New construction in Naples Florida is a large part of home sales. Since 2005 new home construction has slowed significantly with very few developers breaking ground for new subdivisions. This year that has changed, in 2006, 2007 new construction had to compete against the large inventory of low priced inventory that was available. That has changed with our inventory on used homes becoming low, new construction in Naples, Florida is once again about to take off. Olde Cypress has its new neighborhood Lantana at Olde Cypress, breaking ground this year with models hopefully being ready for the start of the winter season.
After such a wonderful start to the first six months of the year, do not be surprised if sales slow down a little, we have a pivotal election coming up, mortgage and interest rate deduction and capital gains being discussed politically could cause some investors to hold off for a while to see where the market goes from here. However, even with these influences, Naples is still THE place to live in southwest Florida, with a large number of new residents making Florida their place to live, the market may slow down a little, but we are definitely on an uphill climb.
By Joe Epifanio
