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As realtors immersed in the Bonita Springs/Estero real estate market, the Boeglin Team has a pretty good sense of the direction of activity and sale prices.  It has been our collective “sense” that activity has been on the rise; single home sale prices have flattened out; and condos have continued to decline in price.  With the 1^st quarter of 2010 concluded, I decided to run my own statistical review of how the 1^st quarter of 2010 compared to the 1^st quarter of 2009.

Statistics vary from community to community.  However, for the Bonita/Estero market as a whole, the Sunshine Multiple Listing statistics bear us out.  Here are the particulars: 

• The number of single family home sales (211 vs. 161) was up 31% from 2009 to 2010;
• The average sale price of a single family home was actually up 13% to $428,851 vs. $379, 614 a year ago;
• On a square foot basis, sale prices were up a more modest 2% from $178 to $182, indicating buyers have been purchasing smaller single family homes this year.
• The number of condo sales  was up by a whopping 72% quarter-to-quarter, from 149 last year to 252 this year;
• However, the average sale price of condos was down 9%–$219,755 in 2010 vs. $240,877 in the 1^st quarter of 2009.
• On a square foot basis, sale prices were down the same 9% to $136 in 2010.

What does this direction tell us?  It tells me that potential single family home buyers better “make their move” pretty soon, or they may miss the bottom.  For condo buyers, the decline in prices has slowed but a slow “drift” continues.  However, as the frantic pace of condo sales continues, the laws of supply and demand may soon reverse this price direction as well. 

Effective today, new federal rules apply to short sales and pre-foreclosures that are intended to facilitate the sale of some of the distress homes that have been weighing down the market.  It will be interesting to see if these new rules succeed in accelerating this process in the next couple of years.