It’s SusanSusan reporting that it has been another good week here on the islands. With Sanibel and Captiva weather reported to have some of the warmest temperatures in the nation, real estate here once again has become seasonally popular! The below photo was taken earlier this week at Sundial Beach Resort.

Below are a few news items, followed by the activity posted over the last seven days in the Sanibel and Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors® 1^st Caravan of 2015

After a 2-week reprieve with the Thursday holidays, yesterday’s Association of Realtors® Caravan meeting was well attended. With close to 20 east-end properties on tour, it was tough for lookers to see them all, but both David and Elise had good turnouts in Gumbo Limbo and at Sundial. At the meeting, I also announced our new listing in The Sanctuary, advising that it will be open next Thursday morning when the Caravan rotates to west end.

Tomorrow night is our annual Installation and Awards Banquet which is being held in Sundial’s new upstairs conference facilities. As the emcee again this year, it is always fun to welcome leadership teams from our surrounding associations in District 5 (Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Springs/Estero, Fort Myers & The Beach, and Cape Coral).

We also have Florida Realtors® 2015 President, Andrew Barber coming to install our new Board of Directors, while Florida Realtors® 2013 President and now National Association of Realtors® District Vice President, Dean Asher will install the officers.

My script is ready; now I just need to keep the names of the annual award winners a secret until tomorrow night.

6 Market Types You Will See This Year

I got a kick out of the below article which was posted Tuesday on Realtor®Mag’s “Daily Real Estate News”. Sanibel and Captiva Islands don’t exactly fall into the “Comeback Kids” category, but our market is coming back!

“From the stalwarts to the tech magnets and comeback kids, the new year is likely to see several types of markets. Redfin recently highlighted six “housing market personas” that the real estate brokerage believes will be driving the continued recovery in 2015. Here’s an overview of the personas and the pros and cons of each:

Stalwarts: “Strong economies, lots of Millennial buyers, yet still affordable.” Good news: Lots of jobs and booming economies. Bad news: Picky buyers and lack of selection. Markets that fit this persona: Chicago, Houston, and Dallas.

Topping Out: “Sky-high prices that will peak and even dip into negative territory this year.” Good news: Strong economies and well-paying government jobs. Bad news: Bidding wars and low inventories. Markets that fit this persona: San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C.

Tech Magnets: “Tech-driven economies, young wealth; getting more expensive, with growth limited by zoning or geography.” Good news: Lots of wealthy households. Bad news: Little room to expand, and suburbs losing popularity. Markets that fit this persona: Boston, Seattle, and Denver.

Comeback Kids: “Markets hit hard by the financial crisis that will see a pickup in sales in 2015.” Good news: Lots of investors and broad-based job growth. Bad news: Few affordable single-family homes, and new construction mostly limited to the luxury market. Markets that fit this persona: Miami; Atlanta; and Orlando, Fla.

Sleepers: “Not in the news much, but mid-priced cities with good economies and job opportunities.” Good news: Lots of new development and big tech-job gains. Bad news: Not many affordable homes available. Markets that fit this persona: Baltimore; Philadelphia; and Raleigh, N.C.

Down But Not Out: “Hit hardest by housing crisis, fewer jobs, still working through foreclosures.” Good news: Lots of homes for sale. Bad news: Overzealous builders and cookie-cutter remodels. Markets that fit this persona: Las Vegas; Phoenix; and Tampa, Fla.”

Speed Limit Reduced to 20 mph in The Dunes

At Tuesday’s Sanibel City Council Meeting following a presentation which detailed the results of a traffic study in The Dunes subdivision, the speed limit was reduced by unanimous City council vote to 20 mph effective immediately.

Those looking to avoid the Periwinkle Way traffic by scooting through The Dunes had better do it slowly!

Zillow, ListHub to End Listings Agreement

An Inman News article on Tuesday, “Rupert Murdoch Playing Hardball with Zillow”, resulted in the following posting on Wednesday’s “Daily Real Estate News”:

“The real estate website Zillow will soon stop receiving feeds of hundreds of thousands of for-sale home listings from ListHub within the next three months, as it expects to transition to its own listing syndication tool.

Zillow’s contract with ListHub expires on April 7. ListHub is a listing syndicator owned by Move Inc., operator of realtor.com®. Zillow officials say they plan to get more listings directly from multiple listing services and brokers through a new service called “Data Dashboard.”

In a statement, Move Inc. said that “ListHub has been negotiating in good faith a new listing distributing and reporting agreement with Zillow on terms that reflect the best interests of the brokerage industry. As communicated in public announcements, Zillow decided to end those negotiations and announced the launch of their own platform. Zillow chose their own route for their business model and interests.”

“Zillow’s has been receiving listing data via ListHub since April 2011. Since Move’s acquisition by News Corp in December, there has been speculation about whether the agreement would be extended.

“With the ListHub contract ending, Zillow’s continued flow of listings will hinge on the appeal of Data Dashboard and broker and MLS participation with it. “A few hundred thousand listings” of the 3.6 million currently displayed on Zillow would be disrupted if the ListHub contract ended today,” said Katie Curnutte, a Zillow spokeswoman, in a report on Inman News. So Zillow officials are now reaching out to MLSs and brokers to participate in Data Dashboard. Since many of Zillow’s MLS partners with Data Dashboard, so far, are located in large urban areas, Curnutte told Inman News that rural areas initially may be the most affected by the end of the agreement with ListHub.”

The Sanibel and Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service does not syndicate its listings so they are not specifically part of this ListHub/Zillow discussion. But, many island Realtors®, me included, also have their listings posted in the regional database (covering areas from Cape Coral to Naples) through a secondary affiliation membership with the Association of Realtors of Fort Myers & The Beach. I do this to broaden the local exposure of my listings and to give them double national exposure because by having two memberships each of our listings gets two postings on Realtor.com. Those second listings, the ones inputted into the regional database, are the ones that are syndicated to a variety of other real estate search sites, like Zillow, because the Fort Myers association does syndicate its listings through a third party, called Point2.

The evolution of how the internet is affecting real estate sales and the future of the profession is interesting and obviously changing, but the local island association (me too) still subscribes to the notion that it takes someone here with first-hand knowledge of the islands to best serve both sellers and buyers on Sanibel and Captiva. After all, real estate on a barrier island is significantly different from that in most home towns.

Sanibel & Captiva Multiple Listing Service Activity January 2-9 

Sanibel

CONDOS

2 new listings: Loggerhead Cay #522 2/2 $695K, Sand Pointe #228 2/2 $799K.

2 price changes: Dugger’s Tropical Cottages #4 1/1 now $279K, Seascape #105 3/3 now $1.895M.

5 new sales: Spanish Cay #F6 1/1 listed for $275K, Lighthouse Point #113 2/2 listed for $499K, Sand Pointe #235 2/2 listed for $699K, Kings Crown #307 3/2 listed for $899K, High Tide #A101 3/2 listed for $1.199M.

4 closed sales: Colonnades #51 1/1 $170K, Spanish Cay #A6 1/1 $252.5K, Tennisplace #C35 2/1.5 $290K, Sanibel Surfside #133 2/2 $824K.

HOMES

8 new listings: 2984 Island Inn Rd 3/2 $599.9K, 1409 Causey Ct 3/3 $624.9K, 1173 Kittiwake Cir 4/2 $789.9K, 625 Sea Oats Dr 3/3 $799K, 1351 Middle Gulf Dr 3/3 $989K, 657 Birdie View Pt 3/3 $999K, 1740 Dixie Beach Blvd 3/2.5 $1.29M, 836 Sand Dollar Dr 3/2/2 $1.295M.

9 price changes: 702 Donax St 2/2 now $424K, 3168 Twin Lakes Ln 3/2 now $549.9K, 590 Lake Murex Cir 2/1.5 now $635K, 732 Durion Ct 3/2 now $719.9K, 218 Daniel Dr 2/2.5 now $829K, 1287 Par View Dr 3/2 now $889.5K, 6440 Pine Ave 3/3 now $1.295M, 1520 Angel Dr 4/3/2 now $1.398M, 842 Limpet Dr 4/3.5 now $1.595M.

3 new sales: 1712/1714 Sand Pebble Way 4/2 duplex listed for $399K, 457 Lake Murex Cir 3/2 listed for $475K, 999 Dixie Beach Blvd 3/2 listed for $599K.

3 closed sales: 1661 Sand Castle Rd 3/2.5 half-duplex $350K (foreclosure), 1203 Isabel Dr 2/3 $995K, 2302 Wulfert Rd 4/5 $1.25M.

LOTS

No new listings.

2 price changes: 1304 Eagle Run Dr now $249K, 6411 Pine Ave now $329,999.

No new or closed sales.

Captiva

CONDOS

1 new listing: Tennis Villas #3234 2/2 $427K.

No price changes, new or closed sales.

HOMES

1 new listing: 16177 Captiva Dr 7/7 $6.95M.

No price changes, new or closed sales.

LOTS

Nothing to report.

This representation is based, in whole, or in part, on data supplied by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors® or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the association nor its MLS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy.

Until next Friday, above is one of my favorite photos of our island feathered friends (thank you, Hans),

Susan Andrews (aka SanibelSusan) at 239-472-HOME (4663), 888-603-0603, Susan@SanibelSusan.com, SanibelSusan Realty Associates Realtor/Broker/Owner