Up, Up, Up

March 2024 Housing market updates and statistics for Naples, or any other area of the country for that matter, can get really convoluted and even boring for some people. Imagine getting blasted with a bunch of numbers and not truly being shown how they relate to one another. This is the whole “overwhelm them with information” that many tricky agents exert on the public as a business model. Yet, lengthy explanations of how these numbers all tie into one another can be equally as overwhelming. A consistent and balanced approach is ideal. As mentioned in one of my previous Naples housing market update blogs, the numbers that REALTOR’s, economists, news people and your neighbor Chad will cite can all be different from one another. So how can one transparently compare? Who is accurate?

I consistently use the same numbers, month after month for years now. Whether it be Median Sales Price, Current Inventory, Total Sales, Days on Market or Months of Supply, I am always reporting for “ALL properties” as the Naples Association of Realtors would label them. The other options would be to report those same stats for ONLY Single Family Homes OR ONLY Condos. I choose ALL PROPERTY TYPES and have done so consistently for years now and always give my customers, clients and general public the option to request more specific reports for any ZIP code, neighborhood or home they are curious about. May I suggest that I am a servant of the people?

With that said, there seems to be an “up” trend in the following categories for the Naples March 2024 Housing Market:

Overall Naples Market | March 2024 vs March 2023

Median Sales Price – Up 6% | $649,000 (New All-Time Record)
New Listings – Up 7.4%
Inventory – Up 69.1% | 5,326 Units
Days on Market – Up 72% | 43 Days
Months of Supply – Up 92.3% | 7.5 Months (“Balanced” by Definition)

You wouldn’t think that there is pessimism in the Naples March 2024 Housing Market by the looks of the record setting Median Sales Price for Overall Naples. But there is a bit of anxiety that I hear about fairly regularly. Let’s look at which categories have been trending “down” in the Overall Naples Housing Market.

Pending Sales – Down 4.2%
Total Sales – Down 13.5%

Naples March 2024 Housing Market | Median Sales Price

More of that upward momentum in Naples most expensive ZIP code, 34102. Specifically, Port Royal & Royal Harbor prices are up big time from March 2023. You wouldn’t think so at first glance when you see price reductions all over the place and empty Open Houses. Although my listing in Royal Harbor located at 1660 Sandpiper St sees regular traffic on Sundays and Thursdays. Have you seen how great a deal that listing is? Oh my gosh, we are talking about upwards of $100,000/yr in cash flow as a rental.

34102 | March 2024 vs March 2023

Median Sales Price – Up 99.6%
New Listings – Up 1.2%
Inventory – Up 74.6%
Days on Market – Up 114% | 92 Days
Months of Supply – Up 107.8% | 16 Months

Golden Gate Estates | March 2024 vs March 2023

Median Sales Price – Up 16.3%
New Listings – Up 1%
Inventory – Up 27.2%
Days on Market – Up 80% | 63 Days
Months of Supply – Up 51.4% | 5.3 (“Balanced” by Definition)

Naples March 2024 Housing Market | Days on Market

Naples March 2024 Housing Market | Months of Supply

Even with Pending Sales and Total Sales slumping in the Naples March 2024 housing report, if you look at the graph below that goes back all the way to 2011, you can see that we are pretty much at normal “pre-Covid” levels of Pending Sales and Total Sales for the Naples Housing Market. Inventory is approaching those normal pre-Covid levels as well, but I tend to believe that because we are hovering in the historically average mortgage interest rate level, yet at a much higher price point for housing in a time when income levels have not risen at the same rate, we just may see home prices come down. Especially with the expectation of lower rates in 2024 all but nixed as a result of higher than expected inflation per the April 2024 CPI report.

I am hearing that due to 2024 being an election year, the Fed may not touch rates (which influence, but do not control mortgage interest rates) until 2025 when they may even raise the benchmark Fed Funds rate instead of lowering it. Whalla, there you may have your threshold for home prices to fall. Now, I don’t like predicting where the Naples March 2024 market is headed, but logically speaking, there must be a threshold of accumulated housing inventory that tips the scales to cause home prices to start coming down to earth again. Simple ideas, complicated system. Leave it to humans…

Naples March 2024 Housing Market | Pending Sales

Naples March 2024 Housing Market | Total Sales

Relationships

For me, March 2024 was wonderful. I was invited to and taken to lunch at Molto on 5th Ave by a wonderful customer couple whom I have known for over two years now. How long did we sit there and chat? Not sure, but we covered a lot of ground. I don’t put time limits on meetings with customers and clients because I typically very much enjoy being around my customers and clients. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t work with them. But these folks are great. Not only did I learn more about them this season in Naples, I learned more about myself! The subject of my Naples housing market updates came up and how long it takes for me to write these articles while researching the facts, designing the cover graphics (Classic car on this month’s edition because I love classic cars) and just plain writing the article myself without the use of AI. I found that I do this as an extension of service to my customers, before I even meet them. It also allows folks time to get to know me.

Anyone in business will know that once you gain a paying customer, you will do well to stay in touch with them after the sale and take care to show appreciation for years to come so that you get either repeat business, referral business or both. I realized that these blogs that I spend days on are really that same post-closing “nurture” service that is conducted before I even meet my customers. Nothing “stock” here. Relationships are personal, one-on-one. Does that make sense? My blogs have hundreds of readers every month who are not on my mailing list. The trust I am gaining with them is real. I am an open book and share those chapters with everyone, regularly and consistently. I hire people too, and I always go with the person or company I feel like I know, and certainly who I feel is competent and deserves my business.

One last chart I want to share is the 7-day Residential Snapshot from the Naples Association of Realtors MLS System. There have been 2,086 Price Reductions in the last 7 days. Compared to 1,193 New Listings in the same time period, this equates to 74.85% more Price Reductions than New Listings in the last week from April 17th, 2024. That is quite a lot of price reductions to still see a record setting Median Sales Price for Overall Naples in the Naples March 2024 housing report. Is this a race to the bottom? When will we start seeing, on a larger scale, homes price correctly right from the start? This trickle down price reduction stuff isn’t helping the market (which is another word for people), let me tell you. I will die on that hill.