Naples Bonita Spring Estero Real Estate Market Watch February and March 2015

COMBINED INVENTORY – Naples, Bonita, Estero

Combined Inventory Naples – Bonita Springs – Estero

The seasonal inventory activity is true to form. Year-after-year the inventory peaks in January and begins its decline in February and continues to drop at about 3%-6% per month until October when we will see the first uptick for the year. If you didn’t see the January 2015 report, there was an anomalous inventory bump-up in October 2014 and what follows is my view of what occurred.

The very early (October 2014) pre-season bump I attribute to the rising market, pent up demand for sellers looking to up-size, down-size, or perhaps buy that new construction dream home in one of the more than 60 developments offering new construction product and/or in a new community. New construction inventory as represented in the MLS is now double what it was one year ago, 14% now versus 6%-7%.

Naples Real Estate

Left to right: Closed Sales – Average Price Paid – Median Price Paid

CLOSED SALES

February closed sales volume rose modesty by 3% over January while March posted a whopping 1,000 plus closed sale transactions up 51% from February. February 2015 was off 7% from February 2014 and March 2015 was up 1% from March 2014.

AVERAGE PRICE PAID

January 2015 saw a large increase in the average price paid for a home, up 17% from December 2014. February stayed on par with a 1% increase but March 2015 pulled back about 3% from the previous month. However, when looking at the same period sales one year ago March is up a whopping 20%. The past six month’s year-over-year average sold price data saw increases from 2% to 27% each and every month.

MEDIAN SALE PRICE

(The number where 50% of the homes sell above and below.)
The median price paid for a home in Naples continues on a tear – up 14% year-over-year and 4% month-over-month for March 2015. The median price for a single family home was $361,000 and for a condominium the median price was $230,000 in March.

Bonita Springs – Estero Real Estate

Left to right: Closed Sales – Average Price Paid – Median Price Paid

CLOSED SALES

The Bonita-Estero market, with fewer numbers per month overall to report, diverged from the Naples’ results in March. February posted healthy increases of 17% and 8% month-over-month and year-over-year respectively. But, while March closed sale volume jumped 34% month-over-month it pulled back about 10% on a year-over-year basis.

AVERAGE PRICE PAID

The average price paid was up 2% month-over-month and up 9% on a year-over-year basis for March to $379,000. The average price paid for a single-family home was $514,000 and the average price paid for a condominium was $266,000. A note, again, about the smaller volume numbers for Bonita-Estero skewing statistical trending easily.

MEDIAN SALE PRICE

(The number where 50% of the homes sell above and below.)
The median price paid for a home was up 6% year-over-year and up 8% month-over-month to $270,000 in March 2015. Also, the median price paid for a single-family home was $349,000 and the median price paid for a condominium was $229,000. (Note: the January report incorrectly reported the median price for a single-family home of $261,000. It should have been reported as $333,000.)