It’s the end of another fun-filled week on Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Reports are that it was the busiest week of the year so far, with another huge visitor/guest turn-over expected tomorrow. Today the annual Lion’s Club Arts & Crafts Fair across the street from our office at the Community House is bringing plenty of traffic. It continues through tomorrow.
 
Our Realtor® Caravan Meeting yesterday was held at The Sanctuary, with another update provided on their membership offerings. For those interested in a social membership, only a few remain. More new Sanibel sales were posted this week – five condos, eight homes, and one lot. One Captiva home sold. Price reductions continue, with 43 on Sanibel and five on Captiva announced just this week.
 
Here are a few news items followed by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands MLS activity this week.

Coyote Sighting

On Tuesday, a Tarpon Bay Explorers field guide at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge confirmed that one of their trail cameras snapped a new photograph of the coyote originally spotted last month on refuge grounds. (The cameras were purchased by the ‘Ding’ Darling Wildlife Society to get pictures of island bobcats.) Three weeks ago, officials at the refuge reported a confirmed sighting of a coyote on the edge of a mangrove shoreline along Wildlife Drive. The report stated “This is a new mammal for Sanibel, now established throughout mainland Florida, which most likely arrived here by swimming island to island. It is probably a young adult, which disperse from their mother’s territory to establish their own.” A coyote diet in Florida is typically small mammals such as mice, rats and rabbits, and they are most active near dawn/dusk. They also are normally very shy and stay away from humans; however, young coyotes, new to capturing prey, have been known to eat everything from fruits and vegetables to garbage as well as dead fish and wildlife, sea turtle eggs, birds, livestock and small pets. A City of Sanibel notice issued on March 4 asked island residents to apply the same caution as with raccoons, to not leave pet food or other edibles outside, and to secure garbage cans. Other sightings should be reported to the City of Sanibel’s Department of Natural Resources, the Wildlife Refuge, or the Conservation Foundation.

 
It’s All About Location, Location, Location

An interesting article was posted Wednesday on WorldProperties.com about real estate sales in the New Europe. It describes the growing gap between the development of attractive markets… and less attractive….” Sounds very much like here in the U.S. and the popular real estate slogan “location, location, location.”  www.opp.org.uk/news_article.asp?id=5038 .

Building for the Future

This year’s Dancing With the Islands’ Stars event was even more successful than last year. Both rehearsal and gala nights were sold out, with live video feeds to seven local restaurants/clubs, resulting in over $138K being raised to redevelop the Sanibel Community House. It will be exciting to see the new changes evolve there. http://www.sanibelcommunityhouse.net/

 
BIG ARTS Chorus Spring Concert

Our local chorus spring concert last night was a huge success and again sold out. It was a hoot for our director to get 80+ mostly-retired singers to quick-change during intermission from formal wear into cowboy duds for our 2nd half presentation of “Oklahoma” with an island-twist. Here’s clip of one of the songs during the first half of the evening with flute solo by my friend, Jennifer Valiquette. She’s a terrific young island musician who also teaches music lessons. Bet she was surprised that we could sing in Italian.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_60KZ7iig8 

 I’ve been part of the chorus since it began in the early 90’s and each year these concerts get better and better. Our director is top-notch and continually challenges us with new and varied pieces. We have one more performance next week at the last Minnesota Twins game, then we hang up our music until next fall.

There are so many goings-on and so much to do on the islands this time of the year, that our visitors probably have difficult deciding which “fun” thing to do next.

 
Canadians Interested in Buying U.S. Property

A Florida REALTORS® article posted today, says “A new survey from BMO Bank of Montreal and conducted by Leger Marketing finds that one in five Canadians would now consider purchasing property in the United States. Lower home prices and a strong Canadian dollar have sparked their interest in purchasing U.S. property. Overall housing prices in the U.S. have fallen by 30% over the past four years. However, prices in traditional Canadian snowbird destinations have dropped even more. For example, prices in Tampa are down 44%, Phoenix fell 54%, Las Vegas 57%, and Miami 49%. “Now, with the American economy and employment gaining strength, home sales should pick up and put a floor under soft prices,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist, BMO Bank of Montreal. “We expect prices to rise over time as the overhang of unsold homes eases.” He also expects the American dollar to strengthen, which would add to the investment potential for Canadians who jump into the real estate market now. Some Canadian banks, such as BMO, have branch offices operating in Florida and elsewhere in the U.S.”

Sanibel & Captiva MLS Activity March 18-25

Orchids just outside our new listing at Seashell #20

Sanibel