Despite being a bit removed from the Charlotte County real estate market’s heyday, when there were bidding wars to pay above the listing price for homes and condos, sellers are still receiving more than 90% of their listing price for single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
Real estate experts, such as Danny Nix Jr., president of the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port-DeSoto Inc. Realtors Association, maintain that until inventory levels move above a six-month supply, it will remain a seller’s market.
Della Booth
“Six months is an equal playing field,” said Della Booth, a local Realtor who will chair the 2024 Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce board.
In August, there was a 5.6-month inventory supply for single-family homes and 5.7 months for townhomes and condos in Charlotte County.
Sellers of single-family homes in August were getting 96.5% of their original listed price. For condos and townhomes, 92.9% was the median percentage of the original list price received by sellers.
For single-family homes, townhomes and condos, the median time to contract and sale increased in August over July as inventory levels ticked up slightly.
The median sale price for single-family homes was $371,500. Most homes (703) that month sold in the $400,000 to $599,999 range.
During the previous month, the median sale price was $391,300.
The trend for condos and townhomes was similar. In August, the median sale price was $240,000, a drop from $297,000 in July.
The majority of townhomes and condos (25) sold in the $300,000 to $399,000 range.
In August, 35.9% of single-family home buyers paid cash compared with 68.7% who paid cash for townhomes and condos.
Booth said the current real estate market is unlike those in the past.
She said after the market “pretty much died in 2009,” it rebounded, and “2017 was a fabulous year.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic caused an influx of people to move to Florida, with many moving to the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has become the fifth largest area for population growth in the nation.
Two months before Hurricane Ian, the real estate market fell off, Booth said. “It’s been a downhill slide since then,” she said.
The problem is sellers are looking for price levels seen a couple of years ago during the bidding wars. Over the last seven days, there were 298 price decreases, yet sellers haven’t slowed down on their prices, Booth said.
Perhaps bolstering the Charlotte County market will be Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor, which, experts said, is expected to bring more visitors to the area, some of whom could become buyers.
Booth said the resort is a plus for the local real estate market. She also is active in local economic development and sells real estate both globally and locally and said several Europeans continue to buy in the area, the majority of which are British, Austrian, German and Italian.
