‘Normal’ Is Great for Island Real Estate

by Sarah Ashton, Broker Associate, Re/Max of the Islands

Coming off the Red Tide year of 2019, it is exciting to report that sales volumes on Sanibel and Captiva are coming back. Last year we had a real slow down in the number of folks who were even interested in looking at houses and condos, let alone purchasing one. This year things seem to be back to the levels of 2018 – back to normal.

The chart below compares Sanibel houses and Condos both from February 2019 and February 2020. This is a small, one month snapshot of the market and tells us a few things.

1. There are many more properties under contract and closed in February this year than last year. Overall interest in island properties is way up!

2. The inventory of properties is up from last year as well. It appears that more owners who may have held off listing last year are feeling that their properties will have a chance of selling this year.

3. Our average sales prices of the closed listings is virtually flat. February sales do not show much, if any price appreciation over last February.