Despite the state's increasing coronavirus cases, homes in Southwest Florida are selling — and they're selling fast.
Real estate experts in the area say that a surge of interest from out-of-state buyers is outpacing the region's currently low inventory, and many homes are receiving multiple offers and going under contract within days of listing.
Budge Huskey, the CEO of Naples-based Premier Sotheby's International Realty, said that most Realtors had previously expected the outbreak to impact demand from buyers in the Southwest Florida home market.
Instead, Huskey said, it's had more of an impact on supply.
According to Huskey, the Naples market now has about 30% less inventory than last year, while also having demand "that is off the charts."
He stated that, while it is a good time to enter the market, there are still those that are hesitant to allow strangers to come through their home during the pandemic and are therefore hesitant to put their home on the market.
In Lee and Collier counties, there were 9,421 active listings as of Monday, a 1.5% decrease from the previous week and a 25% decrease from February, according to data collected by Mike Dodge, the director of market research for John R. Wood Properties.
The data also shows that, after lagging behind 2019 through mid-May, new listings have picked up in recent days and exceeded last year's pace for the past three weeks. But even so, they haven't kept up with new sales, which outpaced new listings by 46% last week.
"The overall market ... has posted more modest recent increases in new listings; not enough to stop the decline in listing inventory which has fallen by an average of 2% per week since April," Dodge said in an emailed statement.
Newly written contracts last week exceeded the same week in 2019 by 297, a 50% increase, and closed sales saw a year-over-year increase of 10% last week.
Additionally, Dodge's data show that fierce competition fueled by the high demand and low supply is keeping prices high throughout the pandemic.
For sales that closed starting in April and through June, 15.9% sold at or above full price, according to the data. Through the 15th of July, that number jumps to 17.3%.
"Clearly, the intense buyer activity we are seeing this summer combined with a limited supply of listings is causing competition between buyers for available properties," Dodge said.
More of our coverage: SWFL home builders find sales success after pandemic changes home-buying priorities
'The way of the future': Realtors embrace new, virtual methods to market homes
Southwest Florida homes selling fast with low supply, surging demand
On July 15, a home in Naples' Royal Harbor sold for $7.2 million, making it the highest priced sale ever to occur in the 400-home community, based on available data from the Southwest Florida Multiple Listing Service.
And while the home was previously on the market with the same owners in 2018, the most recent listing of the almost 9,000-square-foot residence went pending after just 20 days.
"The demand is high and the supply is low," said Ryan Chiodo, an Engel & Völkers Olde Naples Realtor who represented the buyers in the transaction. "We were already in a good market, and now we're in a hot market. The coronavirus must have had an impact on this, because it wasn't like this before."
He attributed the increased amount of real estate activity to a "pent-up demand" that lagged after much of the market was stalled in the earlier days of the pandemic.
He also said that the coronavirus has shifted priorities among many buyers, making them more willing to pay more — and pay faster — in order to live in a dwelling that they love.
"(The coronavirus) has driven a lot of people to make a decision to say, 'You know what? I want a nice home,'" he said. "'I'm not as concerned with going on vacation anymore. Traveling isn't as important as having a nice house' ... People are wanting to get into something quicker."
Brett Ellis, the team leader for the Ellis Team at Keller Williams Realty in Fort Myers, said his team is also seeing homes go quickly after multiple offers.
"I need more listings," Ellis said. "I have a couple of sellers who want to make a move. I could sell their house tomorrow. I just don't know where we're gonna put them. They want to stay here. They don't want to go North, and there's not much inventory."
By the way: Highest priced SWFL home sale of 2020 occurs after Naples mansion sells for almost $20M
Coronavirus becomes 'stimulus' for increased SWFL home sales
Huskey said that, despite the worst fears of many in the real estate industry, the coronavirus' impact on buyer behavior has actually worked to the advantage of the Southwest Florida real estate market.
He noted that his company's pending sales in June were 72% above that of last June in terms of volume.
"That is unheard of," he said. "We knew that there would be a level of pent-up demand that would have been delayed as a result of COVID-19. What we are witnessing is much more than that ... It really speaks to the fact that COVID-19 has been a stimulus for real estate sales in this market, versus what everybody feared would be the opposite."
In other news: After hitting 'rock bottom' in April amid the coronavirus pandemic, SWFL's airports have seen an uptick in passenger demand
As of now, Premier is "on par" with where they were last year in total closed sales volume and is expecting "two of the strongest closing months in the history of the company ahead of us."
The strong demand has been "driven" by people from Northern, more densely populated states that were hit harder in the earlier weeks of the pandemic, according to Huskey. After experiencing the pandemic in those areas, these buyers are looking to move to a "single-family environment," Huskey said.
"They want to have the pool and they want to have the containment ability to be able to live a lifestyle that is private and safe and secure," he said.
Some of the buyers who may have moved to Southwest Florida from these areas within a few years have sped up that timeline due to the pandemic, he said.
Another factor in the strong demand is the pandemic showing companies that employees can work from anywhere and still get the job done.
"Generally, the affluent have always been the most mobile, and that ability to choose to live anywhere and continue working has only been fostered over these months," Huskey said.
In case you missed it: Luxury real estate market heats up as temperatures cool down
More: SWFL real estate starts to see improvements in activity
And: After years of development dreams, Lofton's Island is up for auction
Sales spike could hit wall if inventory doesn't replenish
Despite the fact that Premier's closed sales have caught up after seeing significant dips in the earlier weeks of the pandemic, the lack of choices for motivated buyers could soon slow down the sales speed the market has been seeing.
"The only governor on our speed, in essence, is our ability to replenish the inventory," Huskey said. "At some point, the absence of inventory in the market will serve to limit the potential number of sales that we have."
He noted that the extra $600 in unemployment benefits that some were receiving throughout the pandemic is expiring at the end of the month, and at the same time, funds from programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program are waning for many.
Therefore, Huskey said that while he hopes the same level of performance and demand will occur in the second half of the year, the market can't and shouldn't "count on it."
Ellis also stated that there is still much uncertainty in the market, with the surge of new coronavirus activity that has taken place specifically in Florida and the many individuals who have lost their jobs and have mortgages in forbearance.
A new report from LendingTree on American mortgage borrowers shows that about 53% are suffering from household income loss during the pandemic.
And while unemployment numbers improved in June, according to the latest report from the Department of Economic Opportunity, Collier still sat at 9.7% and Lee at 9.8%, a far cry from the around 3% that the counties saw in February.
Despite these negatives, Ellis said that the wish from new buyers to be in the state's low-tax and more-spread-out environment is "winning out" over the pandemic-fueled problems.
"I see that probably continuing," he said. "The market is so strong right now, that even though there's some hurting going on, the positives outweigh the negatives."
He added that if a vaccine does come out soon, the market could really "take off."
"The wild card is the virus and what it could do to the economy, but Florida is in a good position," he said.
Reach Andrew Wigdor at awigdor@gannett.com and on Twitter @andrew_wigdor
"selling" - Google News
July 23, 2020 at 05:03PM
https://ift.tt/3hFLo5l
SWFL homes sell fast as demand surges, inventory drops amid coronavirus pandemic - The News-Press
"selling" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QuLHow
https://ift.tt/2VYfp89
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "SWFL homes sell fast as demand surges, inventory drops amid coronavirus pandemic - The News-Press"
Post a Comment