Fort Myers High Rise Sites Finally Seeing Some Action

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Downtown Fort Myers is starting to stir up a little action.

In the past few months, developers have purchased two sites long thought to be potential high-rise developments:

• Developer Andy Messick paid $325,000 for the 2.2-acre Billy’s Creek Condominium project. Messick already owned the Rock Lake motel next door so he has 7.3 acres to develop.

• The site of the foreclosed Cypress Club high-rise condominium project in downtown Fort Myers was purchased by Lynx/Zuckerman of Ft. Myers LLC for $2.3 million.

Meanwhile, Bob MacFarlane of The Pittman Group has a contract to buy the long-vacant Amtel Hotel – a booming Sheraton in the heyday of downtown 20 years ago. Pittman hopes to renovate it and turn it into an assisted living facility, and the Lee County Industrial Development Authority has approved a $47 million bond to finance the deal.

Still, not much has actually happened yet as developers try to figure out exactly what will work in a chancy economic environment.

“It’s not like it’s an easy thing to do,” said commercial real estate agent Steve Luta, who’s working with Messick on a plan to redevelop the Billy’s Creek property. “It’s got to make economic sense.”

So what do you think? What would you like to see in Downtown Fort Myers?

Lee County Takes A Jump In Single Family Home Permits

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Single family home permits in Lee County are at their highest in 5 years. On the flip side, the number of foreclosure lawsuits was up.

After the bottom fell out of prices in early 2006, the number of homes being built fell sharply from the peak in 2005, when an average of 1,585 houses a month were built. At the recession’s bottom in 2009, only 68 permits per month were issued, according to statistics compiled by the Regional Economic Research Institute at FGCU.

Rose attributed the good March performance to an increasing number of decisions being made by baby boomers to build retirement houses.

“For the past five years they’ve put their plans on hold just to see what happens,” he said. “They’re either tired of keeping their lives on hold, or they’re feeling a little more confident” as the economy and the stock market perk up.

Also, Rose said, despite the rising cost of construction materials, new construction is able for the first time in years to compete with resales of existing homes. “We’re finally in parity with the houses that are out there. It’s no longer that the existing homes are beating us to death.” source

What to know what else is going on in the Fort Myers real estate market?

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Fort Myers Home Median Prices and Closed Sales On The rise

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The Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach has reported a 29.9 % increase in the median price of homes from $97,000.00 in 2011 to $126,000.00 in 2012.

The Association also reported an inventory decline of 13.4 % from 8,005 in 2011 to 6,930 units in 2012.

“The positive movement in the median price and the reduction in the number of bank-owned properties has helped our market recover,” said Doreen Falcone, association president. “The housing outlook for Lee County in 2013 is very positive although local residents are challenged with low inventories and tight credit, as foreign nationals and retirees are making the market quite competitive with cash purchases.”

In general the housing market is looking up in the Fort Myers, FL area.

If you would like more information on homes in Fort Myers, feel free to contact us any time.

Real Estate On The Upswing

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Real Estate in The Southwest Florida area is coming back. In Collier County, a place that you will find new construction going on is on Collier Blvd. near Vanderbilt Rd.

Andy Zuckerman, a local developer has said, “We have all the shopping, houses of worship, a rated schools, close proximity to 75, I think it’s fantastic,” . Zuckerman has also said, “We’ve been watching over the last 18 months, we thought that the market already bottomed out and coming up to this past year, now was the time to get back in and start building again,”.

This is just another sign of our Florida Real Estate market, whether you’re looking to buy, build or sell.

Eyeballs On Florida Real Estate

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A high percentage of real estate sales in Florida have typically come from foreign buyers.

With financial markets in their current state and exchange rates in favorable conditions for foreign currency, this trend seems to continue.

A recent poll taken by the Florida Realtors Association has shown that Canadians are some of the largest buyers of Florida real estate today.

“We’re dealing in a world where prices are starting to come back but there’s still room to go,” says Dr. John Tuccillo, chief economist for the Florida Realtors association. “There are areas here where there are still bargains.”

He says that although the market is improving, it is still years away from a full price recovery.

“We have gone way below the historical trend in prices in Florida. That suggests we will see in the future a return to that historical timeline. There is a lot of scope here for price improvement over the next 5 plus years, but there is still time.” details

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