Lee County Real Estate Shows Decline

Tuesday was a bad day for the Lee County real estate market from top to bottom.

Sales of existing single-family homes dropped 17.7 percent to 492 in January, even as the median home price crept up 1.7 percent to $266,900.

That was the opposite of the national trend, where purchases increased 3 percent over December as the price dropped 3.1 percent from a year ago to $210,600.

Meanwhile, Red Bank, N.J.-based Hovnanian Enterprises on Tuesday blamed an oversupply of houses in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area for weaker-than-anticipated earnings. They need to clear these out to Florida mortgage applicants ASAP.

Hovnanian is the parent company of the county’s biggest residential builder, low-end house builder First Home Builders.

Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities Inc., which specializes in the high end, reported it lost $64.6 million in the last quarter of 2006 as Florida home mortgage customers backed out of 276 contracts and placed just 262 new orders.

One hopeful seller, Cindy Infiesto, is trying to sell her 6,300-square-foot, all-concrete Alva house on 7.5 acres with a seven-stall horse barn and a putting green.

Infiesto, a Florida real estate broker with the Florida Real Estate Store, is motivated to sell, with a property tax bill of more than $13,000 this year and skyrocketing insurance rates.

But at $1.4 million, no dice.

“I’m desperate to sell my house,” she said. “I haven’t found the right person for it.”

But she hasn’t given up hope yet.

“I’ll even throw in the horses,” she said with a chuckle.