Rates Below 5% for Ninth Week Straight

Freddie Mac reports a slight rise this week in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 4.86 percent from 4.84 percent in the previous week.
Rates have been below 5 percent for nine weeks in a row. Last year at this time, the average 30-year rate was 6.01 percent.
The 15-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 4.52 percent [...]

Makeovers of condominiums along Vanderbilt Beach inspire sales

Sales of condominium property throughout the area spiked in the past quarter compared to first quarter 2008 activity, according to statistics released by the Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR). Along Vanderbilt Beach, part of the good news is the result of a proactive effort to spruce up buildings and residences up and down Gulf [...]

Great Deals Out There on Vacation Homes

Buyers are beginning to understand that prices have dropped up to 50 percent in some vacation home markets, but lenders are in short supply, practitioners said this week at the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve had banks pull out right before the closing, because they are constantly reevaluating how many and what [...]

Homes May Be Undervalued Today

After dropping for two years, home prices appear to be bottoming out, and any further declines would be an overcorrection, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told thousands of practitioners at the REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
The median national home price today is about $169,000, down almost 14 percent from a year [...]

Five new retailers coming soon to Mercato

Five more retail stores — Bobby Chan, Byte Shop Style, Mercato Jewelers, Pandora and Spectacles — have signed to establish locations at Mercato, the main street-style lifestyle center under development on U.S. 41 north of Vanderbilt Beach Road.
Construction is proceeding on all five shops, and openings are anticipated in late summer or early fall.
Bobby [...]

The Capri: where Mediterranean meets Californian in Treviso Bay

The Capri, a grand villa by R&D Companies in the Italia neighborhood at Treviso Bay is described as “Mediterranean style with a decidedly Californian edge.” Faith Fix of Freestyle Interiors outfitted the three-bedroom, 3½- bath model.
Saltillo Mexican tiles with Talavera inserts pave the way throughout the living areas of the Capri, starting in the [...]

April existing home sales more than double last year

There were more than twice as many homes sold in Lee County in April compared to April last year, according to a report by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc. Last month, 1,406 existing singlefamily homes sold, compared to 684 in April 2008. Pending sales improved 60.2 percent year to [...]

Make Over Condos sell well in North Naples

Along Vanderbilt Beach, condominiums have been selling after a proactive effort by Bonita Springs-based K2 Design Group to spruce up buildings and residences up and down Gulfshore Drive.
Vanderbilt Beach, a 1.3 mile stretch of land between a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Delnor-Wiggins State Park, has prime beachfront real estate, much of it in high-rise towers. Upscale [...]

Three furnished model homes sell at Mediterra Valued at more than $8.5 million

Fully furnished model homes continue to sell at Mediterra, the 1,697-acre North Naples community created by Bonita Bay Group.
Buyers closed on three model homes between early December and mid-March. The homes — two custom single-family estates and a luxury coach home — sold for a combined $8,525,000, said Kelli Eastman, director of sales for Bonita [...]

Fed Hopes 5-Year TALF Loans Will Help Real-Estate Market

The Federal Reserve is preparing to announce new terms on one of its lending programs that officials hope will help revive the commercial-real-estate market, according to people familiar with the matter.
The program is the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, in which investors are given low-cost loans from the Fed and in turn use [...]