Realtors and analysts are monitoring recent residential real estate transactions in Southwest Florida to gauge whether prices will remain steady, decrease or increase in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“It depends on the location,” said Shelton Weeks, Lucas Professor of Real Estate and director of the Lucas Institute for Real Estate and Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University.
He referred to Charlotte County as “an area double hit with flooding” over the last month, noting that buyers have more of an awareness of flood risks.
A new state law that went into effect Oct. 1 mandates sellers disclose whether their homes have been flooded, said Carla Nix, a residential Realtor with The Nix Team at Coldwell Banker Sunstar Realty in Punta Gorda.
“We see people buying as is,” she said. One such home was sold on Trabue Avenue in Punta Gorda, and Nix’s team has had nine other closings since Hurricane Helene.
Her husband Danny Nix, who sells commercial real estate with the firm, said he has closed several deals.
“The storms seem to have an interesting effect,” Carla Nix said.
Savvy buyers are looking at homes to see how well they fared from the storms, she said, adding that most flooding happened in older homes in Charlotte County. Flooded homes with debris piles still out front could deter buyers until the debris is picked up.
But homes built to the most recent code “do very well,” she said. Nix spoke of a buyer, whose home was flooded, purchasing a villa on Virginia Avenue in Punta Gorda that sustained no flooding.
Weeks concurred that for buyers, purchasing a home that’s been flooded comes with inherent risks. He said homes on Fort Myers Beach are coming onto the market after being rebuilt at current code following Hurricane Ian, calling it “a very resilient response” from the market.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 50% rule prohibits repairs and improvements on damaged homes exceeding 50% of their market value unless the entire residential structure is brought up to the most recent floodplain regulations, meaning the home’s elevation must be increased.
Nix said that hardened homes built to code will attract buyers.
In some cases, Fort Myers Beach buyers “paid more for vacant lots” than what the former house and lot would have garnered, Weeks said.
Looking at Charlotte County, Weeks said with tourist season begining in November, there could be other factors besides hurricane concerns that could affect buying interest, such as the return of red tide.
For those wanting to live in a particular area and perhaps invest in a second home for recreation, hurricane concerns might not be part of their decision to live in a warm, waterfront community, he said.
Weeks and Nix agreed until inventory levels decrease, it will generally remain a buyer’s market.
The latest statistics from Realtors of Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port-DeSoto Inc. are from September’s transactions and show Charlotte County inventory for single-family homes was at 6.6 months while inventory for condos and townhomes stood at 9.4 months.
The median price for single-family homes was $335,250, down from August’s $350,000. Also, there were fewer closed sales in September – 346 versus 486 in August.
For condos and townhomes, the median price in September was $250,000, an increase from August’s $199,000, and there were also more closed sales in September – 68 against August’s 51.
