SWFL & NAPLES REAL ESTATE NEWSLETTER
August 2023 Real Estate Newsletter
The Naples Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort has emerged from an extensive 7-month renovation and is better than ever before. We recently visited for a family dinner with friends at Sofra and I was able to tour the impressive new Ritz-Carlton Club lounge. Sharing highlights from the evening.
A new offering for Naples, the Ritz-Carlton Club Naples is one of 80 worldwide and is the Ritz’s “hotel within a hotel” located within the Vanderbilt Tower, a 14-story addition to the iconic hotel with 70 new guestroom suites. The tower consists of the brand’s largest club lounge in North America, and my understanding is that it’s the 2nd largest in the world, behind only the club lounge in Dubai. Designed to be a private sanctuary for club guests with it’s own dedicated full-service cocktail bar, kitchen and dining area, media room, exclusive programming as well as signature concierge service. Ritz-Carlton Club
Ritz-Carlton Naples Beach Resort
The resort renovation also features a new lobby, an ornate lobby bar with a champagne tasting featuring 50 curated champagnes and sparkling wines designed by a master sommelier, 474 redesigned rooms also included reimagined outdoor spaces, and suites, and captivating new pools, bungalows/cabanas and three new restaurants. It has again established its iconic presence in the local community and beyond.
Sofra, the casual open-air eastern Mediterranean vegetable-forward restaurant we tried out, is a culinary gem in the resort’s extensive renovation and it did not disappoint. Our meals and experience were 5-star. The best part was its atmosphere, framed by the mesmerizing sunset and reimagined pool area. It was a warm August evening but the ceiling fans kept the air moving and it will be perfect starting in October once the heat gives way to cooler evenings. Also, for everyone who loves dining beachside, Gumbo Limbo is the last part of the resort left to reopen and that is scheduled to come back online September 1, 2023.
This newly reimagined Ritz-Carlton is a big win for Naples! Make sure to check it out this winter/season. Ritz-Carlton, Naples
July 2023 Market Graphs & Commentary
This month I thought it would be interesting to compare four of Southwest Florida’s top golf country club communities, Grey Oaks Country Club (3 courses), Quail West Golf and Country Club (2 courses), Mediterra Golf Club (2 courses) and Bonita Bay Club (5 courses). Golf memberships have reached capacity at all of these communities but the waitlist membership status at select clubs comes with limited golf privileges to allow some golf until full membership status has been reached. Also, typically if a buyer purchases a home where the seller gives up their membership at the time of sale, certain clubs will allow the buyer to skip the wait but typically still pay the membership initiation fee, it just depends on the club and the type of membership. In the charts below, I have included only single family homes and excluded condominiums since Quail West does not have any condominiums within their community.
Please Note: The following charts represent a 3-month moving average.
AVERAGE SALES PRICE
The 3-month average sales price of a single family home within the four communities was highest at Grey Oaks at $4.35M with Quail West and Mediterra sometimes taking the lead position for the highest average price and Bonita Bay typically with the lowest average sale price of the group, currently just over $2.2M.
AVERAGE PRICE PER SQFT
Grey Oaks had the highest 3-month average sales price per square foot at $1,014/SF followed by Mediterra Naples at $919/SF, Quail West at $893/SF and Bonita Bay at $636/SF. This chart is very informative in that it shows the quick escalation of property values in SWFL in early-to-mid-2022 and then the stabilization of the market from mid-2022 to mid-2023.
MONTHS SUPPLY
Bonita Bay currently has the lowest inventory at 3.6 months of supply and Quail West Naples has the most supply at 5.7 months. It’s evident from the charts that the lines are trending down in all four communities as a limited # of new listings come on the market, some homes are sold and some listings are withdrawn for the slow summer months.
The months of supply indicator measures how long it would take for all the properties on the market to be absorbed/sold if sales continued at the past month’s pace and no new listings came on the market. 3.6 months is considered a seller’s market, around 6 months is a balanced market, and above 6 months, is a buyer’s market. This is one of the most revealing statistics to track since it combines the pace of sales with the number of properties available on the market.
Recently there have been approximately 10 to 15 homes for sale within each of the four top golf communities, significantly less than the 30 to 70 homes that were for sale in each community prior to the pandemic.
NEW LISTINGS
There have been approximately 5 to 15 new listings entering the market each month and I would expect that to start trending up as we get into the fall market, typically starting in October. The seasonal swing of listing activity is evident in the charts below, with new listing activity typically peaking in January or February and hitting a low point over the summer.
PENDING SALES
There were approximately 4 to 10 pending sales recently within the four communities with Grey Oaks Naples leading the way with 10 pending sales and Mediterra having the least at 4 pending sales. The pandemic rush of sales activity is very clear here with all four communities recording a peak of about 35-45 sales per month in early 2021.
TOTAL SALES
There were 7 to 15 sales closings recently within each of the four communities. Bonita Bay lead the way with 15 sales and Mediterra had the least amount of closings with 7 sales.
AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET
Single family homes within these top four golf communities of Grey Oaks, Quail West, Mediterra and Bonita Bay spent from 21 to 90 days on the market on average. It’s interesting to note that prior to the pandemic, it was not uncommon for homes to spend an average of 150 to 300 days on the market. SWFL is a 2nd/3rd home destination so typically it takes time for the buyers to visit, explore all their options, revisit and eventually decide which home/community is the right fit for them.
AVERAGE PERCENT OF LAST SALES PRICE
The average amount of negotiation for properties closed recently was 2.4% to 8.1% below the last asking price (which is not necessarily their 1st asking price). Of these four top golf communities in SWFL, sellers in Mediterra negotiated the most (typically there has not been this much negotiation within Mediterra) and sellers in Bonita Bay negotiated the least amount from the asking price.
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