Market Update

Several major land deals have fallen through, and Thibaut predicts fewer deals in 2003. "There was a frenzy to buy land, and then deals did not close. All that land is back on the market," he says.

Thibaut expects that prices for single-family land, which has been selling for between $60,000 and $100,000 an acre and has tripled in the past 24 months, will level off. "Land sellers need to get a dose of reality," he says.

Oversupply also exists in the commercial market. Lee and Collier counties had a combined office vacancy rate of 16.9 percent in 2002. In that industry, subleasing is hot. "I've never seen so much subleasing on the market," says Frank D'Alessandro of Re/Max Commercial. "The problem is it is competing with new spaces."

The industrial vacancy rate is also high, at 16.8 percent. "We're seeing a lot of new and expensive industrial space coming on the market," he says. "Demand can't keep with up supply."