Golden Gate Estates: Short Sales & Bank Owned Homes

Below are my answers to questions from Laura Layden reporter for The Naples Daily News that she asked me about the Golden Gate Estates real estate market. Article will appear in the paper at a later date which i'll pass on to you when i know it's available.

•1. Foreclosure judgments i feel are affecting sales positively because thus far in the last 12 months there has been a total of 1,993 single family homes sold in Naples, 349 of them have been in Golden Gate Estates that's 17.5% of all sales in Naples. Of the 349 homes sold in the Estates 48% of them are in the $100,000 to $199,999 range.

•2. Primarily most sales have been Bank Owned Foreclosures/Real Estate Owned (REO's) or regular deals where the seller has owned the home for a five or more years and is in good position to sell because they didn't take out equity in their home during that time. Some Short Sales have been selling but not as much as Bank Owned Foreclosures because the time frame to close Short Sales is much longer. I have notice though in the last couple months banks are working quicker on Short Sales and are starting to close them. In fact I'm part of a Short Sale Team at VIP Realty Group, INC. in which we're positioning ourselves to close more and more of these potential Short Sales.

•3. For the 3^rd quarter of 2008 the median price in the Estates is at $160,000. In the 3^rd quarter of 2007 it was $333,500 and $370,000 in 2006. Median price means half of the homes sold for more than that price and the other half sold for less than that price.

•4. The reason there's so many foreclosures in the Estates is because during the boom years that was the last area of affordable Single Family Homes in Naples, matter of fact I was getting buyers that were squeezed out of Miami and into Golden Gate Estate homes. Those that couldn't get a home in the Estates decided to relocate to Cape Coral & Lehigh Acres where currently there's high foreclosure rates as well.

•5. The Estates currently have 1,068 homes for sale and new listings have been up and down all year long but in the last 3 months have been trending down. Compared to July 2008 new listings are down 23% and compared to October 2007 listings are down 12%. All great signs for the Estates and here's why if you compare September 2008 to the same time a year ago Pending Sales are up 500% from 14 pending to 84 pending, Closed sales are up 185% from 14 sales to 43 closed sales and the Median Price has dropped 42% from $275,000 to $160,000.

Again all great signs showing now's the time to buy...