Part 2 of the series focuses on real estate market specific results.
The 2011 - 2012 tourist season was better than anyone could have imagined. Additionally, the real estate market is clearly in a recovery. There are words of caution, though. There is an upcoming presidential election, high gas prices and maybe going up (down?,) and the uncertainty about income taxes particularly with upper-level income brackets.
"It's a mini-recovery, and we have a long way to go" said John Tucillo Chief Economist for Florida Realtors.
Data from the Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR) released mid April showed the median price for closed sales properties increased 17 percent from the same period in 2011 and the inventory of homes for sale was down 13 percent.
Sales of homes in the $500,000 - $1 million dollar range increase 55 percent from February 2011 to February 2012. Overall, the price increase for the sames periods was 29 percent.
Sales of homes in the $300,000 - $500,000 price range increased 14 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over the same period in 2011.
Sales of homes in the $1 million - $2 million dollar ranges increased by 14 percent.
Speculators and flippers no longer are dominating the market. Transactions that were short sales of foreclosures were nearly 70 percent of the market, now they are less than 40 percent.
The inventory is now down to 2004 levels with less than 8,000 homes on the market in the first quarter of 2012 which is down 13 percent from 2011.
The entry level market is very tight for inventory with only a few month supply. A "stable" market is about a 12 month supply of inventory.
If the inventory drops too fast we'll see prices increase faster than a 1 percent to 2 percent rate and that could indicate a market imbalance, again, with a shortage of inventory.
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