As if soaring Florida mortgage bills weren’t enough.

Unique circumstances could make property taxes go up while a home’s value goes down, the Charlotte Sun-Herald notes. (more…)

Just blame it on… the weather?

That, at least in part, is how the National Association of Realtors is explaining the worst drop in home sales in 18 years. But residents of Charlotte County know there’s more to it than that.

(more…)

Only 155 Charlotte County home sales were registered in January, the worst month since Hurricane Charley swept through and radically altered the local real estate market a few years ago.

Statistics released by the Florida Association of Realtors support the view of many local real estate agents and prospective sellers that the Charlotte County housing market is stuck on “slow,” at least for the time being.

The glacial January represented a 36 percent drop from 243 dwellings sold in the Punta Gorda metropolitan statistical area in December. It was also a 20 percent drop from 194 houses in January 2006.

The other lowest month was also 194, in November. The biggest sales month since Charley was in June 2005, when Florida mortgage rates were at record lows and 490 houses changed owners.

The reported median price for January was $199,400, down nearly 5 percent from $209,100 in December and 12 percent from $227,000 in January 2006.

The median price is a typical market price in which half of the houses sell for more, half for less - and is used as a good reference point for the cost of Florida mortgage loans in a particular area.

January’s slow market serves as a strange addition to a 2006 fourth quarter report released by the state in mid-February that showed the Punta Gorda area actually outperforming the state.

While larger markets ended 2006 with double-digit declines in sales, 663 houses were sold in Charlotte County, just 11 fewer than the last three months of 2005.

Meanwhile, median prices were dropping about 10 percent, to $209,700. Many local Realtors viewed this as a healthy market correction. Many homeowners had listed their properties at a price the market no longer could support. They were facing a stark choice of either cutting their asking prices or keeping their houses on the market indefinitely.

If January started out bad for the local real estate market, it wasn’t so great in other parts of Florida either. Statewide, 9,382 houses changed ownership, a 27 percent drop from January 2006.

But the median price - much as it had during most of 2006 - remained high at $239,300, just 2 percent down from January last year. People seeking a little relief in the form of Florida home loan costs may find themselves out of luck, if prices don’t fall even as demand does.

Although there are major price corrections taking place in various Florida urban markets, it has yet to translate into a trend toward more affordable housing statewide. Generally, as a pricey market like Sarasota goes down, some affordable market like Lakeland goes up.

The Charlotte County housing market looked remarkably stable compared with the rest of the state as a tumultuous 2006 drew to a close, according to the Sun-Herald.

Even while sales of existing homes dropped 28 percent statewide during the 2006 fourth quarter compared to 2005, home sales in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte were off a statistically insignificant 2 percent, according to figures released Thursday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Elsewhere, the close of 2006 was tough on sellers.

Every other metropolitan area in the Florida real estate landscape reported a double-digit volume decline, except Miami, down 3 percent, and Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, which was up a remarkable 20 percent.

With Florida mortgage costs more than many residents can handle, volume of sales in Fort Myers-Cape Coral was off by 20 percent compared to the 2005 period. Sarasota-Bradenton was off 11 percent, while incomplete figures for Naples-Marco Island suggest a 34 percent drop in volume.

What didn’t drop (much) was the shockingly high cost of a home in paradise. Sellers may be complaining about having their houses listed for months on end, but this has not yet translated into a general price adjustment throughout the state.

Statewide, the median cost of an existing house declined only 1 percent during the fourth quarter to $242,100. With a large inventory of homes for sale, this is not a figure that would motivate buyers - much less provide relief for young working families looking for starter homes.

But the Punta Gorda metropolitan statistical area - which also includes all of unincorporated Charlotte County - reported a 10 percent drop in median prices, a healthy step toward putting the market back in motion.

Punta Gorda’s fourth quarter median home price of $209,700 (a more reasonable sum for a prospective Florida mortgage loan seeker) is a lot better off compared with $233,700 during the 2005 period.

“This is still a hot market, and these numbers show it,” said Bill Dryburgh, president-elect of the local Realtors, and immediate past president of the Realtors Multiple Listing Service.

“We are happy that our area appears to be one of the more stable areas in the state,” said Alan Mitchell of the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port Association of Realtors. “We have been kind of aware of that for some time. We have been running some ads to let people know that this is the time for people to get out there and buy.”

Certainly, there has been a significant amount of unhappiness from sellers who can’t find a buyer to make an offer at their asking price and agents who are finding it harder to close deals.

Local Realtors have coined the term “reality-based pricing” to reflect the decline in prices, which they largely see as a positive development.

Simply stated, if you want to sell your house, cut your price at least to what similar properties have sold for locally.

It’s also important to remember that the current “slow” market is slow by comparison with the frantic period following Hurricane Charley, when any structurally sound dwelling could command top dollar.

“The real estate agents who are self-motivated and do their homework are making money while the agents who just sit back and wait for someone to call are starving,” observed one Realtor.

Both of Charlotte County’s neighboring metro areas in the Southwest Florida housing market showed both a drastic drop in sales volume combined with a big drop in median prices.

At least through the end of 2006, “reality-based pricing” wasn’t enough to turn prospects into buyers. Median prices in Fort Myers-Cape Coral were down 23 percent, to $256,400. Sarasota-Bradenton was the same story - down 18 percent to $281,500.

So 2006 turned out to be a disappointing year for many prospective sellers, who missed the opportunity of cashing out during the overheated housing market years of 2004 and 2005.

But the Realtors report predicted that with Florida home loan rates still low, the market will firm up this year. Indeed, the drop in home sales volume tells only part of a more complicated story.

“One important indicator of the real estate market is occupancy rates, and these appear to be stable or increasing in most markets, including apartments, office buildings, retail space and industrial warehouse and distribution space,” said Wayne Archer, director of the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida.

“Employment is very good and the fundamentals that drive rental income and occupancy are still very strong. In addition, mortgage rates have remained a little more stable than some people expected,” he added.

The Charlotte Sun-Herald reports that local home sales posted a modest upturn in December, but it’s difficult to say whether this represents a trend or just a temporary respite.

Despite some statistical discrepancies, it appears that Charlotte County was the only real estate market in Florida to show signs of recovery as 2006 drew to a close.

Local sales of existing single-family houses showed a modest increase while rest of the state still struggled, despite Florida mortgage rates staying more or less the same since the end of 2005.

The Florida Association of Realtors reported Thursday that December sales were down 28 percent in all 20 Florida metro areas, compared to the same month in 2005. Specifically, 12,415 dwellings changed owners compared to 17,215 in December 2005.

There seems to be a conflict between what the Florida Realtors reported and the December sales figures provided by the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port Association of Realtors, which operates the MLS in the local market.

Linda Pizarro said her most up-to-date figures show 229 closed sales in December for a real estate market area that includes Punta Gorda, all of unincorporated Charlotte County and much of North Port.

However, the Realtors had earlier reported 243 closed sales for December in this monthly report, released around noon Thursday. The significance becomes clear when it’s compared with the 204 houses local mulitple listing service records indicate were sold in December 2005.

Contrast this figure with the Realtors’ report, and it seems the Charlotte market achieved a not-shabby 19 percent bounce from December to December. Sales were up 24 percent when compared with 194 houses sold in November.

The Realtors reported that December’s local median sale price was $209,100, down 3 percent from December 2005 and nearly 4 percent from November.

The statewide median price for December was $241,100, down 2 percent from December 2005, reflecting a decrease in housing demand fueled by a massive, five-year run-up in Florida home loan costs.

Sales volume in the other 20 metropolitan areas of the Southwest Florida housing market was down between 4-45 percent compared with the close of 2005.

The only exception may have been the Naples housing market, for which only incomplete figures were available. This raises the debate over whether local figures have been inflated.

Neighboring markets didn’t fare so well. It’s always worth an argument whether Charlotte more closely mirrors economic trends in Sarasota, Fort Myers or greater Lee County.

But for December, it appears that the Sarasota-Bradenton area showed a degree of recovery comparable to what was happening in Charlotte.

Sales of 626 houses were down only 7 percent from December, 2005 and almost exactly the same as November. But the median sale price of $284,700 was down 17 percent from the previous December.

The Realtors report doesn’t attempt to explain the collapse of Florida home mortgage demand in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, where December sales of 598 houses represented a 45 percent drop from the year-earlier period.

The median sale price lurched downward 19 percent, to $262,500.

What to make of all this? The housing market is supposedly in disarray, despite the fact that mortgage rates are still relatively low and there’s plenty of inventory on the market.

In Florida, as elsewhere in inflated markets across the U.S., housing affordability is becoming a bigger problem for working families. The Realtors report noted the median cost of a house in Florida was $127,700 only five years ago - a figure that seems like a dream in today’s market.

“We have to get prices back to where they were before Hurricane Charley,” said Ellen McCarthy, president of Port Charlotte’s McCarthy Realty.

McCarthy said many factors are now inflating the cost of housing without creating value for homeowners. Chief among these are high property taxes and homeowner’s insurance price hikes that followed the bad hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005.

According to the Sun-Herald, which is conducting its ongoing business year in review feature, real estate in Charlotte County, Fla. showed what could best be described as a split personality during 2006.

The Southwest Florida housing market was clearly headed for a cooling-off period as the year began, coming off a torrid late 2004 and 2005 pace that real estate professionals realized had to fizzle at some point.

That’s because the local market was hot for the worst of all possible reasons - historically low Florida mortgage rates lured speculators from all over the country, creating artificial demand, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, anything with four walls and a roof would sell.

But by the fall, sales volumes for existing houses were roughly two-thirds of their 2005 levels, while asking prices were creeping downward, although perhaps not enough to ease fears that Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda were losing affordable housing for working families.

Median home prices had crept above the psychologically critical $200,000 mark around the time of Charley. The “market correction” of recent months has yielded only a modest rollback in prices, which - disappointed sellers to the contrary - remain near historic highs.

Meanwhile, commercial real estate construction avoided the ups and downs of the residential market. Several significant commercial redevelopment deals were announced during 2006.

The feeling among local builders is that the commercial market’s big test won’t come until the market takes the full brunt of increased city and county impact fees. Indeed, some projects were timed to begin just before year’s end, thereby beating the new fee schedule.

But potentially the biggest new deal in Charlotte County will come entirely under the new fee regime - and perhaps it’s appropriate that The Wilder Companies successfully developed shopping centers in notoriously high-tax Massachusetts prior to turning its attention to the Orlando area.

In November, Wilder closed on the last parcels in a 200-acre tract south of Punta Gorda that will become The Loop, a mixed commercial and residential project that should break ground in about a year, assuming Charlotte County grants all required building permits.

The Loop will have about 1 million square feet of retail space, plus a hotel, condos and office buildings. The Florida condo market has been hit hard in recent months, however, so it remains to be seen if demand for the new units is anything more than tepid.

The real wild card in the area is also one of the biggest real estate deals ever in Charlotte County. In May, a Naples developer paid $25 million for a 129-acre tract at Interstate 75 and Jones Loop Road, south of the airport.

Part of the reason the Southwest Florida housing market is so expensive? They’re not making any more land. Therefore, the strategy for developers and county planners in these changing times is how to best utilize what little is left.

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, a 138-acre chunk of undeveloped land along the east side of I-75 near the Charlotte County Airport is set to become the area’s newest planned community.

Fort Meyers-based Land Solutions Inc. plans to turn the property into 232 single-family homes and 380 town homes aimed at middle-income buyers, with plans earned approval from the county’s Development Review Committee.

“Our goal is to get as close to affordable housing as we can,” said Ron Inge, COO of Land Solutions and its sister company, Development Solutions LLC. “This will not be something that’s upscale.”

The company said it was too early to predict the project’s home price range. The project, currently called Oak Haven, would be bordered to the north and south by Jones Loop Road southeast of Punta Gorda. DRC Chairman Tom Burns says there are no major problems reported at the onset.

Plans for the parcel of Florida real estate call for the destruction of less than one acre of wetlands. As required by the county, about 40 acres are being preserved as open space, including a pond and land that abuts Alligator Creek.

Gary Quill, the director of operations at the airport, is concerned that the project’s close proximity to the airport would affect its future, as many airports around the country have closed because of residential encroachment.

Quill asked that a condition be placed on the development that requires the company to notify potential home buyers in writing about the airport during the title transfer process, making it less likely that the airport could be sued over noise complaints.

Land Solutions has been the primary home building company or project manager for more than two dozen projects throughout Southwest Florida. This is the fourth development in Charlotte County by the company, with the previous project being the 349-unit Devonshire community.

As Florida mortgage costs have fallen for the seventh time in eight weeks, many buyers are seeing openings in the local housing market. Developers are being given incentives to create moderately-priced units as concerns of a mass exodus of the county’s workforce continue to arise. Expect this trend to continue in the coming years.

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.