The Naples Summer Real Estate Market Review 2020

The Naples real estate saw a 35.2% rise in total closed sales from 812 in August 2019 to 1,098 closed sales in August 2020. The Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR) August housing report highlights that this consistent momentum in closed sales results from Naples’ growing home-buying activities throughout summer this year.

Broker analysts attribute this steady momentum to the rising closed rates, increased new pending sales, and more new listings relative to last year. They further predict that this combination is set to fuel a more favorable market performance beyond fall this year.

Market trend reports show that August had the most month-over-month increase in new pending home sales than any other summer month this year. Records show a more than 70% up throughout August, accounting for 1,479 pending sales in the Naples housing market.

The report further breaks this down to show that single-family homes led in increased sales by 76.4%, followed by condominiums closing at a rate of 63.9%.

With a cumulative 3,133 in closed sales, this summer’s rate outshined the 2,659 incremental sales for the peak season from January to March 2020.

Inventory trends and market preferences

August generally recorded a drop in month-over-month inventory, accounting for a 29.1% decline to represent a decrease from 5,887 homes in August 2019 to 4,174 properties in August this year. Despite this staggering inventory decline in August, the summer months cumulatively recorded a higher number of new listings than the preceding months.

This increase could have resulted from the pending listings that recurred during the lockdown period in April and May.

The good thing is that buyer demand is steadily increasing and consequently moving some of the recurring house stock throughout Naples. This has similarly led to an overall reduction in the period that homes stay available in the market, resulting in a 5.9% year-over-year reduction with properties taking six fewer days relative to a similar time last year.

The report continued to show that Naples generally had 184 single-family properties going for less than $300,000 available for buying in August. The inventory for those priced between $300,000 and $500,000 dropped by 54.9% to 446 from 990 single-family housing units in August last year.

Local real estate experts believe that the new home building incentives offered during the Great Lockdown are gradually going away, forcing these new homes to escalate. Property analysts estimate that about 81% of the Naples real estate market’s general price changes reported a slight price declines in August compared to the first two summer months.

Many homeowners who had overpriced their properties initially plus all the price adjustments seen through August explains the record high competitive home prices seen this summer.

The median closed price overview

August’s average closed price for homes in Naples rose by a year-over-year 26.7% from $315k to $399k at the end of summer. Single-family home types recorded a year-over-year 15.7% climb in median closed prices and sold for $457k in August, while condos spiked by 18.4% and went for $290k.

On a 12-month home statistic metric, the Naples housing market saw a general 5.4% increase in median closed prices at the end of August 2020. The NABOR report used this metric to show an actual decrease in median closed prices for homes priced between $300k and $2 million.

With a general increase in median closed prices coupled with 4.8-months of inventory, realtors now firmly believe that the Naples real estate market is inclining towards being a sellers’ market. Note that any housing market requires at least 5.5-months of inventory to stabilize and not favor either buyers or sellers.

This August report further illustrates that the steady increase in demand for single-family properties in Naples was simply because many buyers were still keen on changing their lifestyle preferences due to the pandemic. Many included individuals are looking for extra space in their homes, specifically remote workers and those with kids’ schooling from home.

Bottom line

Property analysts now believe that until we find a way to treat COVID-19 or find a working vaccine for it medically, condominium living is yet to be fully explored. The NABOR August report supports this theory and indicates that luxury homes priced above $2 million had an 18% rise in closed sale price than the other property categories.

This is a clear sign for high-end buyers to invest in the Naples housing market now that we still have low-interest rates, which means that you can quickly secure a $2 million priced home with a 50% deposit and at least $4,200 monthly loan payments.