According to the Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR), many local REALTORS® consider May an “in-between month” as it sits between when seasonal winter residents leave Naples for their homes up north and summer visitors arrive. Yet despite this perception, activity for May in the $300,000 to $500,000 price category of the housing market was on fire with a 30 percent increase (month over month) in overall closed sales from 181 homes in May 2014 to 236 homes in May 2015. This report tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island).
NABOR®’s May 2015 Market Report also indicated closed sales for single family homes in the $300,000 to $500,000 price category, while impressive at an increase of 25 percent from 102 single family homes in May 2014 to 127 single family homes in May 2015, was not actually the highest performing price segment. It was closed sales for single family homes in the $1M to $2M price category that experienced the highest increase – 38 percent – from 32 single family homes in May 2014 to 44 single family homes in May 2015. Interestingly, closed sales in the $300,000 to $500,000 condominium market in May were also impressive with an increase of 38 percent from 79 condominiums in the 12-months ending May 2014 to 109 condominiums in the 12-months ending May 2015.
According to Jeff Jones, NABOR treasurer and Managing Broker at the Naples-Park Shore office of Coldwell Banker®, the May report also indicated that, “historically, the median closed price for homes above $300,000 in May was the lowest since NABOR®’s been tracking statistics [March 2008].” Effectively, the median closed price for homes above $300,000 was $520,000 in the 12-months ending May 2015 compared to $550,000 in the 12-months ending May 2009.
The dynamics of the Naples market in 2015 are quite different than they were in 2005. We are not seeing the rampant flipping of properties that occurred in 2005. Many of our buyers recently are end users. The financing market today is a lot tougher now than it was in 2005. Roughly 60 to 70 percent of our buyers these days are cash buyers. Also, many of the developers are requiring a larger down payment than they did back in 2005.
Certainly property values have climbed in the area. With respect to the low-end part of the market, we still have many properties within Naples and there are plenty of these properties on the outskirts of the Naples area too. The bottom line is that the consumer looking for properties below $300,000 still has a wide selection of choices in Southwest Florida.”
