Sunny SW Florida Real Estate Tips, John See Realtor

Sunny SW Florida Real Estate Tips, John See Realtor REALTOR Born in SW Florida and a true Floridian at heart I will help you in your housing needs. Myers.

I specialize in single family homes, condos and gated communities in the SW Florida area which includes Marco Island, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero and Ft.

09/25/2026

Season used to mean January to April. That calendar is gone.

The seasonal buyers I am meeting now are in their 30s and 40s. They are not retired. They work remotely, they split the year between two homes, and Southwest Florida is the half with the better winter.

Agents around the state are seeing the same shift. One described the new client as a hybrid between the digital nomad and the classic snowbird. In Miami, summers that used to go quiet now stay busy straight through.

That changes what a home has to do here. A spare bedroom is not a guest room, it is an office. Internet speed comes up before square footage does. Lock and leave matters, because these buyers come and go more often than a retiree does.

For sellers it changes the clock. If your buyer pool includes people who can work from anywhere, your listing is not waiting on season the way it used to.

If you could work from anywhere, would you still wait until retirement to buy here?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/24/2026

Rates hit 7.03% this week. I have not typed a 7 in front of a mortgage rate since January 2025.

The 30-year fixed went from 6.95% to 7.03%. That is the fifth straight weekly increase. The 15-year moved to 6.42%. A year ago the 30-year sat at 6.30%.

Here is what that actually means on a $350,000 loan. This week's move costs you about $19 a month. The full year, 6.30% to 7.03%, costs you about $170 a month.

So the week is noise. The year is not.

And the reason is not housing. The 10-year Treasury climbed to 5.17%, and mortgage rates follow that yield, not home prices.

Which means nobody can tell you when this turns. What I can tell you is what your payment looks like today, and what a seller is willing to do about it. Right now sellers are doing more than they were in the spring, because the buyer pool thins out every time a headline like this runs.

If you are on the sidelines, what number were you waiting for when you started?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/23/2026

Two years ago, 37% of buyers said they would consider a home that runs on solar with battery storage.

This year it is 73%.

That is not a green trend. That is people who sat through a hurricane in the dark and decided they are not doing that again.

From the latest survey:

56% now call backup power a top priority.

One in three would pay up to a 10% premium for it.

Babcock Ranch held its power through Hurricane Ian and is still pulling buyers to Southwest Florida.

If you are selling and you have solar, a battery, impact windows or a whole-house generator, that is not a footnote anymore.

It belongs near the top of the listing.

If you are buying, it is worth asking what a home actually does when the grid goes down.

Would you pay more for a house that stays on during a storm?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/22/2026

Your vacant lot might be the easiest thing you own to steal.

Not the land itself. The sale of it.

Criminals pull your name off public records, make an ID that looks real, and contact agents claiming to be you. A new title industry study found 59% of firms ran into at least one of these attempts last year. In 2024 it was 28%. Vacant land is the number one target at 82%, followed by vacation homes and rentals.

The pattern is almost always the same. The seller will not meet in person or get on video. They want a mail-away signing with their own notary. They push for a fast all-cash deal and they will take well under market to get it done.

Naples, Bonita and Estero are full of held lots and second homes with out-of-state owners. That is exactly the profile these people look for.

Here is what I do before anything goes live. I confirm ownership against the tax record, I verify the phone number independently instead of using the one I was given, and I insist on a real conversation with a real face.

If you own land or a second home down here, who would notice if someone tried to sell it without you?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

Naples had two housing markets in July.Single family median closed price: $745,000, up 12.9% from a year ago.Condo media...
09/22/2026

Naples had two housing markets in July.

Single family median closed price: $745,000, up 12.9% from a year ago.
Condo median closed price: $400,000, down 4.8%.

Same county, same month, opposite directions.

Inventory is the reason people usually reach for, and it does not work here. Single family listings fell 20.3% over the year. Condo listings fell 21.6%, slightly more, and condo prices still dropped.

What is moving condo prices is what buyers underwrite before they bid: assessments, reserve funding and the insurance line. Supply alone does not fix that.

Countywide there were 4,415 homes for sale in July, down 21% from 5,586 a year ago. That is 5.8 months of supply, down from 8.7. Homes that sold took 108 days, up from 101.

Selling a house, you have less competition than last summer. Selling a condo, price to today and expect questions about your building. Buying either one, 108 days of average market time is negotiating room.

The county median is not your street. Send me your address and I will pull your comps.

John See, Realtor | Keller Williams Elite Realty
239-304-6224 | johnsee.realtor

Source: NABOR July 2026 Market Report (excludes Marco Island)

09/21/2026

Sales slowed in August and prices went up anyway. Here is why.

Florida lost 13% of its single-family inventory compared to last August. That is not a small dip. There are now fewer homes on the market than there were two years ago, back when supply was still climbing.

Condos and townhouses did the same thing. Inventory down 11.5% year over year.

So closed sales eased about 1.5% for single-family homes, and the median sale price still rose to $415,000. Sixth straight month of annual gains. Condo median landed just under $298,000, up close to 3%.

Dr. Brad O'Connor, the chief economist at Florida Realtors, put it plainly. Tightening inventory is keeping prices largely intact.

If you are a buyer waiting for a flood of listings to drag prices down, the flood is going the other direction right now.

If you are thinking about selling, you have less competition on the street than you did last year.

The statewide number is not your number though. Naples is not Jacksonville, and your zip code is not the county. I pull the local numbers before anyone lists.

Are you seeing fewer homes for sale in your neighborhood too?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/18/2026

Four out of five people looking at a new home in Cape Coral and Fort Myers do not live here.

Realtor.com tracked new-construction listing views for the second quarter. Cape Coral-Fort Myers came in second in the entire country at 82.4%. Lakeland-Winter Haven was first at 83.1%. Port St. Lucie, Sarasota and Daytona also landed in the national top six. Five Florida metros out of six.

The biggest source of that outside traffic was Miami-Fort Lauderdale. New York made our top three too.

Here is why it matters if you are selling. Your buyer is not driving past the sign. He is scrolling on a couch in Fort Lauderdale or Long Island, and the only thing he knows about your street is what your photos tell him. That should change what you spend money on before you list.

Builders already know it. One in five new-construction listings took a price cut last quarter, more than existing homes did.

Median new-construction list price in Cape Coral-Fort Myers right now is $496,102.

If you had to sell to someone who has never set foot in your neighborhood, what would you fix first?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/17/2026

Realtor.com just named the best week of the year to buy a home. It's Sept. 27 through Oct. 3, about six weeks out, not next spring.

Their 2026 report looked at eight years of seasonal patterns, including four Florida metros. In Tampa, buyer competition during the late-fall window runs 43.4% below its annual peak. Jacksonville asking prices sit 7.1% under the seasonal high with 13.8% more listings than an average week. Homes across all four metros stay available about two weeks longer than they do during the fastest stretch of the year.

Naples and Fort Myers weren't in the study, but the rhythm is the same here. Snowbirds haven't landed, the summer buyers are done, and the sellers still on the market in November have been at it a while.

That last part is where the money is. A seller sitting on 60 days of market time negotiates differently than one who listed Tuesday.

Are you holding out for spring, or would you rather be the only person at the showing?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/16/2026

Sales slowed in August. Prices went the other way.

Florida's August numbers just landed, and they tell a steadier story than the headlines suggest.

Single-family closed sales were down about 1.5% from a year ago. Condo and townhouse sales slipped just under 2%.

But here is the part most people miss: there is a lot less to buy. Single-family inventory dropped 13% from last year, and condo inventory fell 11.5%.

Less supply is why prices held. The median single-family price rose to $415,000, the sixth straight month of year over year gains.

Florida Realtors Chief Economist Brad O'Connor called it a market settling into a steadier pace, not one turning for the worse.

Rates in the 6% to 7% range are still the thing slowing buyers down. That has not changed.

If you have been waiting for 2021 to come back, this is your sign that it is not the plan to bet on. The market you have is workable.

What is holding you back right now, the rate or the price?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

09/15/2026

Some of my buyers pick a home without ever standing in it.

Orders come through, the report date is set, and the house hunt happens over video from three time zones away. It works. It just takes a different kind of preparation.

Florida Realtors ran a good piece on this. Navy veteran Neil Brooks laid out what actually matters when someone buys from a distance.

Start with the move, not the house. Report date, housing deadline, whether closing has to happen before you arrive. Then a lender who knows VA loans, because that is who tells you the real budget and spots the obstacles while there is still time to fix them.

On the video walkthrough, the camera is the problem. It does not pick up road noise. It flatters worn flooring. It hides the water stain under the window. My job on those tours is to say the unflattering thing out loud.

VA Minimum Property Requirements matter too. Peeling paint, damaged windows, missing handrails, a tired roof. Any of those can turn into repairs and delays if nobody catches them early.

And remote closing is a solved problem. Mobile notary, base legal assistance, a consulate, or a power of attorney set up ahead of time.

Brooks put it well. Prepare early and distance becomes an inconvenience, not an obstacle.

If you are headed to Southwest Florida on orders, how much time do you actually have before your report date?

Call or text 239-304-6224 | JOHNSEE.REALTOR

Keller Williams Elite Realty

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9696 Bonita Beach Road
Bonita Springs, FL
34135

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