The crush of foreclosures in the Southwest Florida real estate market may finally have started to subside as we head into 2011. It seems Lenders only filed 10,669 foreclosure lawsuits in Lee County in 2010, a decrease of 50.8% from the 21,768 filings in 2009. For Collier County, lenders filed 4,452 foreclosure lawsuits, a decrease of 47.2% from the 8,421 filings in 2009. All in all, it’s not too bad when you consider we’ve had over 100,000 foreclosures in the two county areas since January, 2006.

Continue Reading Southwest Florida Foreclosures: 2010 Year End Review

Tags: buyers, foreclosures, markets, real estate, SW Florida

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have notified brokers representing the GSE’s foreclosure inventory to once again begin marketing their properties for sale.

This is really good news for the Florida real estate market as both entities together hold or guarantee a substantial amount of homes – 31 million homes nationwide – of which, 12% for Fannie Mae and 17% for Freddie Mac are currently with delinquent borrowers in Florida.

The embargo on selling these properties no doubt led to the overall decrease in total existing home sales in September and October. Getting them back on the market quickly should help as the sooner we can clear them from the current inventory, the sooner the Florida market can begin to stabalize again.

Continue Reading Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Resume Foreclosure Sales

Tags: buyers, foreclosures, markets

I wrote a post prior to season this year in Southwest Florida about how the Luxury Florida real estate market appeared to finally be ready to burst its bubble too. Well, it seems like many high end sellers also came to the realization they would have to give in on price in order to sell their properties.

Let’s take a look at how things have shaken out.

All Property Sales $1 Million – $2 Million

Luxury Home and Condominium Sales:

• 198 Closed Sales (133 in 2009)
• Average Sales Price – $1,389,617
• Median Sales Price – $1,350,000
• Average Days on Market – 231
• Average Sales Price/Square Foot – $448.81
• Average List to Sales Price – 87%

Continue Reading Luxury Florida Real Estate Sales Finally Breaking Out

Tags: Florida, living, luxury, markets, real estate

According to a memo sent out to all its lenders and mortage servicers, Fannie Mae is going to modify the way it goes about the handling of selling its foreclosure/REO inventory effective immediately. In the announcement, Fannie says it will now accept purchase offers for this type of inventory immediately after listing, without notifying lenders or mortgage servicers whose loan files are under review. Under its previous policy, Fannie gave lenders and servicers fifteen days to find a better purchase offer for new REO they sent to the company following foreclosure.

Continue Reading Fannie Mae to Speed Up Foreclosure/REO Inventory Sales

Tags: foreclosures, real estate, sales

After a unbelievable first eight months of the year, real estate sales in Southwest Florida were again strong in September. In fact, home sales for the year are up 120% in the Cape Coral-Ft. Myers and up 30% for Bonita Springs-Naples. September marked the fifteenth month in a row sales have climbed in both Lee and Collier counties. The Cape Coral and Ft. Myers market area saw total sales rise over 57% on a year over year basis and the Bonita Springs and Naples market area was far behind, up 31%.

Cape Coral and Ft. Myers Real Estate

Cape Coral and Ft.Myers Highlights:

• Single-family home sales were up 64% and totaled 1,185 sales.
• Condos sales were up 57% and totaled 230 units.

Continue Reading Florida Real Estate Sales Strong Again in September

Tags: real estate, sales, SW Florida