Lee County Market Update

July 2023

Click here to watch Mike's Lee County Market Update, a review of what happened in the real estate market in July 2023!

Hi, this is Mike Darda with Compass Florida Real Estate and the Darda Group giving you your July 2023 market update. And remember, these averages are for all of Lee County, Florida.

First we're going to look at our homes sold report, and in June of 2023, we saw 948 homes sell, and that's compared to 1215 homes sold last year in June. That's a rate decrease of 28% in terms of sales. 

Now, if we look at the active listings, this June 2023, we have 3276 homes compared to 1971 a year ago. So that's an increase of 66%. How is that affecting the prices? Well, the average sales price for June 2023 is currently $405,995 compared to 425,000 a year ago. That's only a 4% decrease. We now have what we call a neutral market where prices are holding at the moment, or dropping slightly. 

So you can see now how the average days on the market is being impacted by the increased inventory and the decreased number of buyers. Last year at this time, we saw an average of 7 days on the market. Currently, we're seeing an average of 27 days on the market. That's over about 2 1/2 times increase in the length of time it's taking to sell a home. 

Interest rates, of course, are what's impacting all of this. Currently, they're at 6.71%. A year ago, they were at 5.09%. So that's a 24% increase. And it makes it you can see the relationship here between interest rates being up by 24% and sales being down by 28%, because as we always mention on these videos, every 1% interest rates change, a buyer's purchasing power drops by roughly 10%. 

Moving on to the new construction market, the major focus for the rest of the year with builders, they're telling us, is to complete all new construction projects more than opening new projects. So, according to the city's economic and business development manager, Sharon Woodbury, developers are only experiencing about four to six weeks of delay right now, and most are actually getting right back on schedule with major completion dates. The Strand at Judd Creek, is still scheduled to be finished by the summer end of 2023. The Club M-F at Pine Island is to be completed by the end of this month. Bimini Square, a luxury apartment complex, is scheduled to be completed by fall of 2023. Civitas Apartments, which began in January 2023, but does not yet have an estimated completion date. The Cove, a big project on Cape Coral Parkway, is actually going to have its first units available by December of this year. 

Quick look now at the rents. June 2023, we saw average rents of $2,681 versus $2,361 last year. That's a 14% increase. The last time we saw rents under $2,000 was May of 2021. 

Some big projects that are being completed is the Margaritaville Hotel on Fort Myers Beach. It's scheduled to open late 2023. Check it out, the website's actually up and running, and you actually can get a review of the rooms, accommodations, and restaurants. And pretty soon, I'm told you could even start making reservations. 

There's your July 2023 market update for Lee County, Florida. We thank you for watching. As all always, if you have any questions about how the market is affecting your plans or your property, whether you're buying or selling, we're here for you. Feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to answer your questions.