Looking for insights into Cape Coral rental market

[Gillian Irving]

Hi all - I'm a Canadian looking to invest in FL and possibly Cape Coral. Worried about the direction of housing markets in general with looming interest rate hikes. How have prices been faring in Cape Coral over the past 6 months or so? What is general sentiment there. It is very bearish here in Ontario.

[Tony Guillaro]

I'm a local Investor, wholesaler and Flipper here in South West Florida 
We have shown signs of price decreases but that's mainly due to people asking for way too much on their outdated homes and their asking prices are coming back down to reality! lol 
But houses keep selling no problem 

As long as you purchase them correctly you shouldn't have anything to worry about 

[Gillian Irving]

Thanks @Tony Guillaro - really appreciate the speedy reply. So you aren't feeling the impact of interest rate hikes too much on price yet? Ontario prices are dropping fast (although they did see explosive and unsustainable growth in the past couple of years)
Also  - do you have specific neighbourhoods where I should start my research in Cape Coral?

[Yvonne Gallegos]

Quote from @Gillian Irving:

Thanks @Tony Guillaro - really appreciate the speedy reply. So you aren't feeling the impact of interest rate hikes too much on price yet? Ontario prices are dropping fast (although they did see explosive and unsustainable growth in the past couple of years)

Also  - do you have specific neighbourhoods where I should start my research in Cape Coral?

Hi Gillian 

Market in Cape Coral is still moving no problem. I totally agree with Tony that the only homes with price decreases/longer days on market we’re ones that were priced too high with no comps to support.  As far as best area it’s definitely southwest Cape Coral seeing the highest price per sqft in my opinion. 

[Gillian Irving]

@Tony Guillaro.. Subto? This must be unique to USA. Never heard of this in Canada. 

[Stetson Miller]

Hi @Gillian Irving,

I completely agree with everything that was said above. One of the major things that most people are seeing is a large uptick in price decreases, but as stated previously, these are largely comprised of properties that were already overpriced from the start. This can be proven when looking into the median and average sale prices for Cape Coral over the past 6 months. Median sale price has increased from $380,000 to $430,000, average sale price increased from $499,544 to $524,261. If you're looking at those same two metrics month over month, from June to July, median sale price decreased slightly from $435,650 to $430,000, and average sale price similarly saw a very small decrease $533,077 to $524,261

These decreases being as minor as they are, this is actually the first time we're seeing any kind of market softening in the numbers month over month, but we've obviously been dealing with rate hikes since the beginning of this year. This is something that I would say lends itself to the strength of the Cape Coral market overall, which in my opinion has still retained a somewhat bullish overall sentiment

[Peter Davis]

In my experience with recent sales of entry level/move up homes under $450K, buyers are being more selective and offering under the asking prices whereas even 2-3 months ago that wasn't the case. Higher interest rates have affected this segment of buyers keeping some of them on the sidelines. On the bright side, Redfin did a study recently of the percentage of buyers that pay cash for home purchases: nationally it was 30% but in Cape Coral it was 44%. 

My bigger concern is rent pressure in Cape Coral. Everywhere I go I see huge new apartment complexes with 100+ units going up, along with hundreds of new construction homes, many of which are being built as annual rentals. Rents have surged over the last couple of years here but with all the new rental options coming to market I expect rents to decrease. If I'm running a 5-year SFR rental proforma I'm no longer assuming a 3% to 5% annual bump in rental income. In fact, I might assume an equal decrease in rents just to play it safe, or at least to understand my "what if" scenario.

[Carlos Julio]

@Peter Davis this is interesting view since many long term investors (including me) are under the assumption that rents won't go down... my assumption was associated that rents will be flat at worst case scenario since renters population will still be growing anf will occupy all these new rentals until house inventory catch up with demand .

[Peter Davis]

@Carlos Julio

You may be right. Many new renters will come to market and many would-be buyers who are priced out of the market or who can't afford the higher loan costs will remain or become renters. Let's hope that rents remain flat.

[Mike Terry]

yesterdays 30 year average mortgage rate was 4.99%.