Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Let's Talk New Developments 
in Naples, Florida...
Be sure to visit my web-site to view the New Developments Map and Index.
Contact me today for all the details by calling 239.404.7787 or by e-mail at Michelle@NaplesHomeSweetHome.com

Deerwood Naples is comprised of 155 acres and only 28 custom homes. Build your luxury custom home with our highly respected builder, M Development. This limited community offers two sparkling lakes with viewing docks where you can enjoy the gentle surroundings of nature. Enjoy watching the sunset fall over the lake from your backyard!

There are only 6 premium lots still available, each on an expansive .75 acres and surrounded by lush preserve for the privacy you desire. Build your custom home with luxurious interiors and finishes designed for the way you live and entertain.

Deerwood is a gated upscale community located on Collier Boulevard (adjacent to Naples National Golf Course). With convenience to downtown, shopping, dining and the beaches.

Friday, February 17, 2017


This weekend In Naples... 
You won't want to miss out on one if not the BEST Art Show of the Year in Naples!!!

Naples’ National – This weekend!
Saturday & Sunday, February 18 & 19
10AM to 5PM
This two-day event in Cambier Park & on 8th Street (from the alley to 7th
Let's Talk Hot Off the Press...

Naples, Florida  
(February 17, 2017) -

 The new year rebounded with a strong gust of activity in the Collier County real estate market. Increases in overall pending sales (homes under contract), overall closed sales and overall inventory indicate a strong season ahead. Broker analysts who reviewed the January 2017 Market Report, which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island) using the Southwest Florida MLS, are confident that market indicators are favorable to support momentum through season.

"We are definitely in a buyer's market now, and home sales were strong in January," said Phil Wood, President & CEO of John R. Wood Properties, who pointed out that the 6 percent increase in overall closed sales for January was driven by an impressive 14 percent increase in closed sales of condominiums. He remarked, "Properties that are selling rapidly are those that are priced at true market value."
According to the January Market Report, overall pending sales increased 9 percent to 924 pending sales in January 2017 from 847 pending sales in January 2016. Broker analysts said they are most encouraged by pending sales activity in the middle range of the market; namely, homes between $300,000 and $2 million, which all experienced double digit increases in January.
 
Overall closed sales increased 6 percent to 603 closed sales in January 2017 from 571 closed sales in January 2016. Interestingly, January was the first time both overall pending sales and overall closed sales were on the upswing simultaneously since March 2015.
 
The report also showed that overall inventory for all price segments increased by double digits in January too. Comparatively, condominium inventory in the $2 million and above category had the highest gain with a 44 percent increase to 135 condominiums in January 2017 from 94 condominiums in January 2016.
 
"Increases in inventory typically drive prices down," said Kathy Zorn, broker/owner, Florida Home Realty. "And yet, with a 28 percent increase in inventory in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 condominium price range, we show an increase in the median price of 9 percent compared to last year." 
 
Zorn added that geographic proximity to the beach remains a driving force in the Naples real estate market. As such, properties located in the Naples Beach area experienced a 15 percent increase in overall median closed price to $784,000 in January 2017 from $680,000 in January 2016. Pending sales for the Naples Beach condo market for January 2017 increased by almost 40 percent compared to last year and closings were up 16 percent. This was mostly driven by a somewhat limited condominium market in the Naples Beach area, where inventory increased 34 percent and pending sales shot up 39 percent in January.  
 
"Today, buyers have more choices," Zorn said.
 
The NABOR® January 2017 Market Report provides comparisons of single-family home and condominium sales (via the Southwest Florida MLS), price ranges, and geographic segmentation and includes an overall market summary. The NABOR® January 2017 sales statistics are presented in chart format, including these overall (single-family and condominium) findings: 

CATEGORIES
Jan 2016Jan 2017CHANGE
Total homes under contract (pending sales)
847
924
9%
Total closed sales5716036%
Median closed price$340,000$314,000-8%
Total active listings (inventory)5,0916,39326%
Average days on market 759121%
Single-family closed sales291284-2%
Single-family median closed price$425,000$397,000-7%
Single-family inventory2,7153,21919%
Condominium closed sales28031914%
Condominium median closed price$278,000$265,000-5%
Condominium inventory2,3763,17434%

"We are in a different market than we were a year ago," said Jeff Jones. "The stock market is now performing very well, home sales are now very strong in northern states, and winter came early up north so people fled to Florida's warm weather early too." 
 
Nationally, a balanced market (balanced equally between buyers and sellers) is considered to be six months of inventory. Yet, as observed by Adam Vellano, West Coast Sales Manager, BEX Realty - Florida, "Our report shows 8.91 months of inventory for January. The last time we had a supply of inventory like this was five years ago. I think it's time to remind sellers that 'price sells a home'." 
 
Many broker analysts including Zorn, Vellano, and Wes Kunkle, President and Managing Broker at Kunkle International Realty, said they have observed a large increase in investor held single-family homes being added to the inventory mix in recent weeks. Zorn pointed to signs of bracket creep in the report, such as a 23 percent increase in inventory for single family homes in the $300,000 to $500,000 price category, while its median closed price fell 4 percent. Jones also cited that days on market for single-family homes in the $500,000 to $1 million price category had doubled in January, while this price category's median closed price actually rose 4 percent.
 
Responding to these observations, Cindy Carroll, SRA, with the real estate appraisal and consultancy firm Carroll & Carroll, Inc., warned that sellers who are testing the market with high list prices may be disappointed in a few months as "these sellers see a reduction in list price as a reduction in value, when this is not the case at all. Working with a REALTOR® who closely monitors comparable listings will help them avoid months of waiting for a sale."
 
Zorn agreed and added that the cost of holding out for a higher price in many cases - especially for investors - could result in a loss of revenue from both rental income and unavoidable costs like taxes and insurance. 
 
Ready to embark on a journey to buy a home in Collier County? Let me help you find properties that best suit your needs and budget or if you wish to enter the our Real Estate Market to Sell Your Home I will be happy to send you a market comparison and recommend a list price that is realistic and fair to get the best possible price for your home along with the BEST Marketing that I along with BHHS has to offer in our market!

Please feel free to contact me today with any questions you may have by e-mail or by calling 239.404.7787.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. 
I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Michelle

 

  
Michelle J. DeNomme, REALTOR, GRI
Cellular Phone I  239.404.7787
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty
Office: 239.659.2400
E-Fax Number: 239.236.5550
Website:  www.NaplesHomeSweetHome.com        
Twitter: DeNommeRealtor
Homesnap: http://www.homesnap.com/Michelle-DeNomme 

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Let's Talk... Miami Boat Show this week! 
February 16th - 20th
http://www.miamiboatshow.com  
Let's Talk...
It's that Time Again...


Naples Reserve kicks off the 2017 Single-Site Parade of Homes tomorrow with 16 spectacular models 


Come experience Naples’ most unique lifestyle tomorrow, when the Collier Building Industry Association’s 2017 single-site Parade of Homes kicks off at Naples Reserve. Sixteen stunning model homes, as well as the resort-inspired Island Club, will be open for tours Friday through Sunday, Feb. 17-19 and Feb. 24-26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Whether you fancy yourself a connoisseur of lakefront sunsets from your private boat dock, a top tennis player or a (chaise) lounge lizard who understands pools are best enjoyed with an umbrella drink, you’ll find your perfect lifestyle – and home – at Naples Reserve.
The fully furnished homes, created by the area’s best builders, feature gourmet kitchens, sweeping scenic views, custom pools and spas, and special places and spaces – inside and out – to entertain friends and family, relax by a cozy fireplace and more.
Model homes are now open in five of Naples Reserve’s 11 neighborhoods, woven into a tapestry of 688 natural acres and 22 freshwater lakes, one with its own private island. The community offers attached villas, single-family homes and custom estate homes by Ashton WoodsD.R. HortonFlorida Lifestyle Homes, KTS Homes, Lundstrom Development, Marvin DevelopmentMcGarvey Custom Homes and Stock Signature Homes.
Parade models represent nearly endless lifestyle options within 2,100 to more than 3,500 square feet and feature three and four bedrooms, swoon-worthy master suites, expansive outdoor living areas, and home-specific studies, dens, sunny kitchen nooks and second-floor lofts.
The essence of lakefront living is experienced throughout Naples Reserve, especially along the 125-acre Eagle Lake, where homebuyers have the opportunity to build a floating dock in their backyard. The lake is home to the destination Kontiki Island (tiki hut included) and offers a mile-long stretch along the 76,000-acre Picayune Strand State Forest for purposeful paddling and National Geographicmoments.
At Naples Reserve, each home is designed to fit into the natural waterfront setting and embrace the laid-back community spirit – think Key West and other old Floridabeach towns. Featuring Southern Coastal architecture and fully furnished interiors, the models capture Naples Reserve’s vacation-every-day lifestyle.
After finding your dream home – or two or three or 10 – visit the Island Club, Naples Reserve’s epicenter of awesomeness. The recently completed community building and separate fitness center channel island ambience with a sweeping stretch of beachfront for volleyball and sunning, bocce courts, plus plenty of spaces to relax, including the openair Chat ‘n Chill Tiki Bar, a waterfall pool and Latitudes Cafe.

Close to downtown Naples and the area’s Gulf of Mexico beaches, Naples Reserve was created by award-winning developer iStar to offer premier lakefront living and amenities on the water’s edge.
Naples Reserve’s Parade of Homes models are open Friday through Sunday, Feb. 17-19 and Feb. 24-26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Homes are priced from the high-$200s to more than $1 million. A $5 donation per visitor is suggested to benefit the CBIA’s scholarship fund.
Learn more about the Parade at www.naplesreserve.com/parade-of-homes. Visit Naples Reserve at 14885 Naples Reserve Circle, located off U.S. 41, 2 miles southeast of the Collier BoulevardCR 951intersection and 10 minutes from I-75, Exit 101. ¦ 

Monday, February 13, 2017

Let's Talk...

38th Annual Naples National Art Festiva

Feb 18, 2017 toFeb 19, 2017

Location: 5th Avenue South & Park Street
The 38th Annual Naples National Art Festival is held in scenic Cambier Park and along 8th Street South in downtown Naples, FL. Because of its national ranking and the beautiful weather in southwest Florida during this time of year, the Naples National draws some of the finest artists in the country. Sunshine Artist Magazine has ranked this art festival as high as the #9 art festival in the United States and has included The Naples National in its top ten national festival seven years running. This is a juried art festival with artists applying in eighteen categories including painting, jewelry, watercolor, ceramics, metal, sculpture and wood.
The local community counts Naples National among its premiere, must-see events thanks to the high quality of the art, the engaging personalities of the artists and the festive atmosphere. More than 20,000 residents and visitors flock to this outdoor weekend art festival to enjoy the art, live performances and our world-class restaurants in downtown Naples. Festival attendees take full advantage of the opportunity to meet artists from across the country and to learn about their inspiration and techniques.
Website: www.naplesart.org

Contact: Naples Art Association
Phone: 239-262-6517
Time: 10am to 5pm

Sunday, February 12, 2017




Michelle DeNomme
 your southwest florida realtor® 
Let’s Talk Today! 
Researching Real Estate on the World Wide Web can only take you so far… I am the Real Estate Professional that will provide you with the attention and communication you deserve. I have the depth of knowledge and expertise in today’s ever expanding South West Florida Real Estate market to provide you with the highest level of customer service. 

Whether Buying or Selling you Home, contact me to experience my “Complete Level of Service” today. 
Let’s Talk about your next move today! 


Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Let's Talk... 
Did you Know???


Dodd-Frank changes could shuffle 

real estate rules...

NEW YORK (AP) – Feb. 6, 2017 – President Donald Trump has wasted little time in beginning a push to reverse the stricter banking regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. Trump has branded the Dodd-Frank Act "a disaster" – a regulatory overreach that slowed the economy and stifled lending to consumers and businesses.
Dodd-Frank did impose tighter curbs on U.S. banks and how they operate. And the restrictions fell particularly hard on community banks. Yet it's also true that by just about every measure, the U.S. economy is healthier now: The job market is solid. The housing market has largely rebounded. And the banking system, which nearly collapsed at the height of the crisis, is safer and sturdier.
The Dodd-Frank Act took effect in 2010, a response to reckless risk-taking by banks that inflated a housing bubble, kindled the financial crisis and eventually required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. The law was designed, most broadly, to guard against another catastrophe.
But Republicans in Congress, emboldened Wall Street lobbyists and the Trump White House argue that the law went too far and want to roll back many of the regulations. Just as vociferously, defenders of Dodd-Frank say it remains a critically important bulwark against excessive financial risk-taking and should stay intact.
"The Dodd-Frank Act is a disastrous policy that's hindering our markets, reducing the availability of credit and crippling our economy's ability to grow and create jobs," Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, said Friday.
Here's a closer look at the law and what's at stake:
Q: What does Dodd-Frank really do?
A: It's a complicated law. But among other goals, it had one overarching purpose: To erase any perception that some mega-banks were "too big to fail" – that is, that they would require another taxpayer bailout in case of a new financial crisis because their collapse would threaten the entire banking system. Take the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, once a storied Wall Street investment bank. Its bankruptcy at a precarious moment for the banking system helped ignite a full-blown crisis. Once Lehman failed, the government felt compelled to rescue other financial giants that were deemed too important to the whole system.
Dodd-Frank required the banks to hold much more money relative to how much they lend. It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which aims to protect consumers from abusive financial products. Large banks had to prove they could survive a hypothetical financial crisis or a deep recession. And they had to devise plans to dismantle themselves in an orderly fashion if they ever had to seek bankruptcy.
Q: So has Dodd-Frank worked?
A: The balance sheets of the nation's biggest banks are far more robust than before the crisis and more prepared to endure financial setbacks. And most analysts say the restrictions imposed by Dodd-Frank largely worked as a safeguard against another crisis. Yet not until another crisis actually hits will it be clear whether Dodd-Frank works as well as its supporters claim. And no one knows for sure whether the law has caused the economy to grow more slowly than it otherwise would.
Q: Has Dodd-Frank made it harder for people to buy a home or car, or to borrow?
A: The law did restrict certain risky mortgages and reined in other types of lending that had previously faced little or no regulation. But Americans, speaking broadly, have ample access to credit. Immediately after the financial crisis, banks scaled way back on lending. Loans were harder to get. Yet for most people, those days are largely gone. The banking industry is making more loans in various forms. And Americans, who drastically pared their debt during the recession, are borrowing again.
Americans have $992 billion in balances on their credit cards, near a record high set in 2008, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Auto loans outstanding total $1.10 trillion, also a record. And the average rate on those auto loans is just below 4.5 percent, near a record low.
What's more, mortgage debt has reached $14.2 trillion, not far below the record set in mid-2008, when the housing market was in a bubble soon to burst. Mortgage rates have been near historic lows for years. (One notable exception: Home equity loans, popular during the housing bubble, have declined since 2009.)
"The argument that Dodd-Frank choked the lending markets is simply not in the data," said Mike Konczal, a fellow at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute.
Even the most vulnerable Americans have re-entered the financial system. Roughly 7 percent of Americans were unbanked in 2015, down from 8.2 percent in 2011, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (The unbanked are people who have no bank account and are considered largely shut out of the mainstream financial system.)
Q: Have the banking industry's profits been hurt by Dodd-Frank?
A: Because banks are in the business of lending, the industry's fortunes rise and fall in sync with the economy. And as the economy recovered from the Great Recession, so did bank profits.
The roughly 6,000 banks insured by the FDIC earned $168.8 billion in profits in the past four quarters, a record, and above the $146.2 billion they earned in the 12 months leading up to the 2007 housing bust.
Still, while profits for large Wall Street banks have recovered, the gains are due largely to how much bigger the big banks became after the crisis. Banks' profits on individual loans are historically low. Yet they have managed to more than make up the shortfall through fees and sheer volume of loans.
Profits at small community banks are another story. They have not recovered. Dodd-Frank's stricter regulations disproportionally hit smaller banks. Unlike the banking giants, community banks don't have the economies of scale to make up for lower profit margins. Some modifications to Dodd-Frank enacted during the Obama administration have been intended to provide some relief to small community banks.
Small banks – those with less than $1 billion in assets – had a return on equity of 11.8 percent at the start of 2007. That figure is now down to 9.6 percent.
Critics of Dodd-Frank say it's slowed or even stopped the growth of the banking industry since its passage – forcing banks to merge and consolidate just to reach the size they need to survive. Before the recession, there were roughly 7,100 commercial banks in the United States. Nearly 10 years later, the figure is 5,100. Some banks failed in the crisis. But more were gobbled up by competitors or merged.
Q: Haven't the Federal Reserve's low interest rates helped?
Yes. In a response to the financial crisis, the Fed cut its main interest rate to near zero in 2008 and kept it there until December 2015. Though the Fed has raised rates twice, they are still well below historical averages. As a result, banks can still lend at low rates.
Consider, too, banks' average net interest margin. This measures how much it costs banks to lend and what rate they charge. That figure is now 3.03 percent. It means that if it costs a typical bank 2 percent to borrow money, it's lending it at 5.03 percent. That 3.03 percent margin is also near a record low.
This suggests that if banks are facing higher costs from tighter regulations and compliance with Dodd-Frank, they don't seem to feel compelled to pass on those costs to consumers.
Bankers say a key problem for the industry is not so much a lack of access to credit as an unwillingness by consumers and businesses to borrow. The lack of demand for loans has forced banks to lower their rates to compete for business. Ultimately, of course, that benefits consumers and businesses.
Q: What about lending to small businesses?
A sharp pullback in business loans followed the Great Recession and the passage of Dodd-Frank. But lending to small businesses soon recovered. And just like U.S. shoppers, businesses large and small are borrowing at high levels again.
Companies have borrowed over $1.1 trillion in commercial and industrial loans from the big banks as of December 2016, a record high, according to the Fed. Even among small banks, business loans totaled $573 billion as of December, also a record high.
AP Logo Copyright © 2017 The Associated Press, Ken Sweet. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.   
Related Topics: RESPA