Pelican Bay Increases Transfer Fee

On Monday, May 19th, the Board of the Pelican Bay Foundation increased the transfer fee on purchases in Pelican Bay from $3,500.00 to $5,000.00.  The increase will take place on any real estate sales contracts written prior to June 30, 2008.

Considering all the properties that are for sale currently in Pelican Bay, I am not too happy with this decision.  I personally wish that the Board had not invested over two million dollars in buying a building to house our service personnel.  I think we would have been better served helping our service personnel find rentals in Naples.  The rental market has an abundance of rentals due to all those investors who bought units thinking they were going to flip the units.  Rental prices have decreased because of the competition.

There is also "talk" that the Board is thinking about eliminating the exemption of the transfer fee for owners in Pelican Bay purchasing within Pelican Bay.  Should you have an opinion on this, you might want to share it with our Board.  You can log onto www.PelicanBay.org and e-mail your opinion.

Turtle season began May 1st.  You will notice that there are no lights shining down on the beach from the restaurants in Pelican Bay as of that date.  Be advised that should you see an area of the beach roped off in what looks like yellow crime scene tape, do not touch that spot!  That's a turtle's nest!

The 1st Quarter of 2008 Florida Sales report has been released along with the April 2008 Naples Area Board of Realtors figures.  To view these statistics, click on Real Estate Reports.

The Gulf water temperature was reported at 86 degrees in the paper this morning.  If you are in town, I hope you are enjoying the beach!

If you are riding the tram down to the Sandpiper, you'll notice that our screech owl is back in its tree knot hole.  The owl is small and blends into the tree but if you look hard, you'll see it.

I recently calculated the statistics for Pelican Bay from January 1, 2008 - April 30, 2008.  The figures are in for Pelican Bay:

Low Rises - Condos with 1-3 floors

Mid Rises - Condos with 4-7 floors

High Rises - Condos with 8+ floors

You'll note on each one of these reports, you will see tabs at the bottom of the page.  If you click on those tabs, you will be taken to different report formats with all sorts of information.

LOW RISES IN PELICAN BAY

Let's take a look at those Low Rise statistics.  When you look at the average sale price, for the Closed Sales, you'll see $645,587.00.  Comparing that figure to the 2007 YTD Closed Sale averages, it appears that we had an increase in Closed Sale prices from the YTD 2007 figures.  Averages can be deceiving.  There was one closed low rise sale in Cannes that sold for $1,900,000.00.  Removing that sale from the equation leaves us with an average closed sale price that mirrors the YTD 2007 closed sale average of $574,816.00.  It appears that this season flat lined for Low Rises.

The good news is that only 49% of all the Low Rises are failing to sell compared with the YTD 2007 figure of 71%. Where is the bulk of the active listings?  Of the 121 active listings that are on the market, 42 are priced between $450,000.00 - $549,900.00.  What's selling?  Of the 19 closed sales, 8 have sold between $320,000.00 - $450,000.00.  What's not selling?  Of the 32 units that failed to sell, 13 were priced between $450,000.00 - $549,900.00.  Don't those numbers look familiar?  We still have about a 25 month inventory of  Low Rises on the market.

Even more interesting to me was that of the 19 closed sales, there were NO closed sales between $600,000.00 - $699,999.00. 

If you click on and take a look at the MSR tab at the bottom of the report, you'll see average prices broken down by bedrooms.  It appears that the prices of the active listings are still even higher than the prices of the expired (failed to sell) listings.  Sellers for low rises might need a reality check.

MID RISES IN PELICAN BAY

Mid Rises also had a large closed sale of $1,800,000.00.  Only 18% of all Mid Rises are failing to sell.  Of the 9 closed sales, 3 of them were between $450,000.00 - $499,999.00.  The average market time for closed sales comes in at 193 days, while the average market time for active listings comes in at 236 days.  Please note that I did not include the condo hotel units in these figures.

HIGH RISES IN PELICAN BAY

High Rises are up from the 2007 YTD figures.  This market has a 22 month inventory at present.  While the number of units that failed to sell are up over YTD 2007 figures, the pending sale average prices are higher than the active listing prices.  The largest bulk of the closed sales are between $2,000,000.00 - $2,999,999.00.  The average time for active listings is 208 days compared to closed sales at 193 days.  The largest bulk of active listings are 2+Den units, while the largest bulk of sold listings are 3+Den units.

In my opinion the numbers seem to be suggesting that Low Rises may still come down a bit and I mean a bit not a ton in price.  If you are a seller that wants to sell their Low Rise unit in Pelican Bay, discuss your listing price with your Realtor.  If you are a buyer WAITING to purchase in Pelican Bay, JUST BUY IT. Stop waiting.  You have a dynamite selection of properties to choose from right now.  Should you wait, you might not be able to find your piece of paradise in Pelican Bay.

Here is sunset at the Sandpiper Restaurant in Pelican Bay.