Single-family home resales jump in Fort Myers in April

Buyers continue to snatch up homes at bargain prices in the Fort Myers area.

Single-family home resales rose more than 105 percent in April. There were 1,406 sales, up from 648 in the same month a year ago, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc.

Pending sales — sales that have yet to close — increased more than 60 percent year-over-year. There were 2,368 of them in April, compared to 1,478 a year ago.

“Our market is at warp speed,” said Denny Grimes, president of Denny Grimes & Co., a local real estate firm based in Fort Myers.

For the past seven months, single-family resales have averaged more than 1,300 a month. During the real estate boom in 2004 and 2005, the best month saw 1,200 sales, Grimes said.

At the end of April, sales this year had exceeded last year’s total sales, according to the Realtor Association.

The inventory of homes continues to shrink. There were 8,665 single-family resales listed at the end of April, down nearly 30 percent from 12,324 a year ago, according to the Realtor association.

Though demand from buyers is up, the median price _ the price at which half the homes sell for more and half for less _ continues to drop because there are so many foreclosures on the market. The median was $80,000 in April.

Bank-owned homes represented 65.9 percent of all single-family homes sold in Lee County last month, according to the Realtor Association. But some of these foreclosures are selling for more than their list price because they’re bringing multiple offers.

Over the weekend, Grimes said there were 30 offers on a bank-owned duplex in Lehigh Acres listed $50,000. It sold for $70,000.

He said 90 percent of the sales for less than $100,000 can be described as “distressed.”

“It has been fairly frantic and fairly busy, which you don’t think of when you look at the general marketplace,” said Bob Groves, managing broker for Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Fort Myers. “It’s all about these distressed property sales.”

Besides the foreclosures, there are more short sales _ sales made for less than the bank is owned on a mortgage to avoid foreclosure.

“We are finding an awful lot of people coming in and buying their second homes,” Groves said. “We are seeing the more traditional end users coming in. They are not buying it on speculation or to turn it over. They are buying it to use it.”

Daily his company is getting calls from Northern residents who are ready to make the move to a sunnier place.

For the past 21/2 months, his office has averaged about 1,000 showings a week on its listings.

More buyers are qualifying for FHA and VA loans, which offer closing cost assistance, according to the Realtor association.

“As listings shrink and sales prices move above the listing price, this indicates that our market is starting its recovery,” said Suzanne Sherer, the Realtor association’s president, in a statement. “This should be very welcome news to sellers out there. Priced right homes are selling quickly.”

In the under $100,000 market there’s now less than a four-month supply of homes on the market, Grimes said.

The Realtor Association estimates the supply of single-family homes at all prices has shrunk to 3.7 months, half of what it was a year ago. Grimes thinks that’s too low.

With so much competition out there, Grimes recommends buyers get preapproved for loans, which will make it easier for them to go up against other offers.

“A lot of eyebrows are focused on this market now,” Grimes said.