According to the Bonita Daily News, home sales in the Fort Myers area rose for the 10th month in a row in October. A total of 805 single-family homes sold with the assistance of Realtors, up 122.4% from a year ago according to the Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc. Why are the home sales up...Because of exceptional value! It is that home sales in this area will continue to rise as prices fall.
They are falling because in this area of Florida more and more people are likely to find themselves in trouble as many of the home purchases may have been made as investments or as second homes. Thus, the reason for so many short sales and foreclosures and falling prices.
According to the Naples Daily News In Lee County 30.4 percent (about one-third) of all homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth and in Collier County, though not as staggering, it's 18.7 percent or about one in five homeowners, according to the Seattle-based Zillow.com. It is predicted that with the higher rates of unemployment and foreclosures, home prices will continue to fall here in Southwest Florida.
The paper also shared that in Collier, 66.9 percent of those who bought homes in 2006, owe more money than their home is worth and nearly 50 percent who bought in 2005 are in the same boat. In Lee County, 79.1 percent who purchased in 2006 have negative equity and another 66.9 percent who bought in 2007 are also under water.
As Realtors, we have attempted to work with homeowners, either doing short-sales and/or loan modifications. What amazes me is the cavalier attitudes that the banks have been taking. We have had several viable buyers for properties, cash buyers and yet the banks will not work out a deal or they wait so long that the buyer gets disgusted and walks away. What further amazes me is that the industry that has received billions in bail out money is not cooperating and yet they are the same industry who helped create this mess. I supppose it is no skin off their backd as they are now liquid and some of these institutions have money set aside for year-end bonuses!
With the upcoming predictions for further unemployment in 2009, if nothing is done to help these homeowners, we will continue to have foreclosures...prices will continue to fall...and we will continue to remain in this mess! Do people not realize how many areas of our commerce is reliant on the housebuilding and home buying industry? We must stop the bleeding at it's source...and for our way of thinking...it begins with the homeowner!
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