January 2012

The end of year 2011 Village Walk real estate market statistics for both home and condominium sales are listed below. Built by DiVosta Homes, Village Walk is an amenity rich community featuring single family, patio, and townhomes. DiVosta designed Village Walk so that most of the homes will have lake views and planned an all-inclusive lifestyle arrangement. The Town Center is the hub of living at Village Walk. The clubhouse offers fitness, with aerobics, weight lifting, and cardiovascular training, a library where you can access wireless, games and a sewing room. Their ballroom plays host to all the social activities within the…

The Lee Building Industry Association 2012 Parade of Homes will offer the public the opportunity to view 41 decorated model homes throughout Lee and Collier counties.

The 26th annual event will be held the first three weekends of February. The models will be open on Thursdays through Saturdays from 10AM to 5PM and on Sundays from Noon till 5PM. Admission is free.

Some examples of the communities participating in the event include Bella Terra and Belle Lago in Estero, Paseo and The Plantation in Fort Myers and Palmira and Verona Walk in Bonita Springs and Naples.

Visit bia.net for more information and maps...

The end of year 2011 Heritage Bay real estate market statistics for both home and condominium sales are listed below. Located in Naples, it is widely recognized as one of the most premier bundled golf club communities in the area.

Nestled on 675 acres of preserve, lakes, and 27 holes of championship golf, Heritage Bay is one of Naples' hottest new gated and planned golf communities. At the 27,000 square foot two story Clubhouse you’ll be spoiled by both formal and grill and bar room dining. In addition, the 7,000 square foot amenity center, you also enjoy outdoor dining at the very popular chickee hut and poolside bar, state of…

Citizens Property Insurance announced on Friday that Florida state insurance regulators have approved its request to cut the maximum policy coverage limit to $1 million from $2 million for residential properties in wind-eligible areas throughout the state. The change will become effective February, 1st for new policies and May, 1st for renewals.

The change applies to wind-only and multi-peril policies that include wind coverage. Properties with a replacement cost value of more than $1 million and condominium units with a combined building and contents replacement cost of more than $1 million will no longer be eligible for…

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced plans last week to extend their mortgage relief programs for unemployed borrowers while they are out of work. According to Fannie's guidance letter, banks can offer unemployed borrowers up to six months of lowered or skipped payments without seeking prior approval and up to 12 months with a formal approval.

Fannie Mae will start its program extension on March, 1st. Freddie Mac will begin its offering of the extended forbearance period starting on February, 1st. To be eligible, the banks must determine if the "borrower" has less than 12 months worth of mortgage payments in savings and has…

The crush of foreclosures in the Southwest Florida real estate market has seriously started to subside as we head into 2012. It seems Lenders only filed 5,419 foreclosure lawsuits in Lee County in 2011, a decrease of 48.3% from the 10,447 in 2010 and 75.1% below the peak of 21,768 filings in 2009. For Collier County, Lenders filed 2,842 foreclosure lawsuits, a decrease of 36.2% from the 4,452 in 2010 and 72.5% below the peak of 8,421 filings in 2009. All in all, it's not too bad when you consider we've had well over 100,000 foreclosures in the two county areas since January, 2006.

For Lee County, December's 554 foreclosure filings…