Report: Median Charlotte County-North Port Home Price Shot Up By $45K Last Year

What would you do with $45,000?

Buy an expensive luxury car, perhaps. Maybe to Australia a few dozen times. You could even pay for a year’s worth of education at Harvard.

Or, the aforementioned sum would also cover last year’s jump in the average cost of a Punta Gorda, Fla., home, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

It is probably no surprise to South Florida residents that the median prices of Charlotte County-North Port real estate have risen dramatically. You could expect to pay $223,800 for a single-family home as of December — a 26 percent jump compared to December 2004, when the median price in the same area was just over $178,000.

The association’s divides Florida into 20 metropolitan areas, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. By all accounts, information suggests that sales are slowing. Charlotte County-North Port and 16 other metropolitan areas in the Sunshine State reported fewer home sales in December 2005 than in the same month a year earlier.

However, industry professionals aren’t ready to say that slower sales will necessarily result in a dropoff for Charlotte County-North Port’s median prices. There are a lot of newer and more expensive homes on the market, which are likely keep the average price high.

“I’m sure volume did drop a little,” real estate agent Greg Byrd said. “But if there’s a lot of more expensive homes on the market, that could actually bring the median sales price up.”

In December, Charlotte County-North Port’s sales were down 25 percent compared to December 2004. Similarly, the Sarasota-Bradenton real estate market was down 42 percent, while the nearby Fort Myers-Cape Coral area saw 24 percent growth. Charlotte County-North Port still lags behind Fort Myers and Sarasota in median price, with homes in those areas priced well over $300,000.

• The Fort Myers-Cape Coral area maintains the distinction of having posted the biggest median price increase in Florida at year — 46 percent.
• Throughout the state, median home prices were up 27 percent from $194,000 in December 2004 to $247,000 in December 2005.

Many real estate agents believe that Southwest Florida real estate prices, however overvalued they may be, will stay high. Meanwhile, affordable housing advocates like Loraine Helber, Charlotte County’s housing coordinator, are working with county officials to create affordable housing for hurricane victims who lost homes. She knows a lot of area residents simply don’t have the extra $45,000.

“It’s getting harder and harder to bridge that gap,” Helber told the Herald-Tribune.

There has been great national debate over whether the housing market can sustain its record growth or whether prices will come crashing down. The truth, as with so many other pressing issues, is likely to be found somewhere in the middle. Don’t expect South Florida homes to be selling nearly as fast, but doomsday isn’t coming either. A modest increase in Florida home loan rates over the next year should bring the market down to earth gradually.