Shoveling Sunshine on Sunny Sanibel

Hooray, the islands had a couple of quick showers Sunday night and Monday. Perfect timing with no disruption to the successful island holiday events over the weekend, including the well-attended Luminary Strolls.

Since then, island temperatures have been back to daytimes in the 70’s, nights 50’s-60’s (degrees F) with mostly blue skies and sunshine. It may even hit 80 tomorrow. Gotta love that in December!

Florida Realtors 2025 Broker Summit

Monday and Tuesday, I joined 400+ Florida brokers, zooming into Florida Realtors 2025 Broker Summit. Moderated again this year by friend Mike Hughes from Naples, the first day concentrated on national real estate news.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun presenting from Washington DC said it was a chilly 30 there. His tidbits on our state included:

·        What he considers a temporary price decline in the Florida market.

·        On the plus side, there are 11.3% more jobs in Florida now than pre-COVID.

·        Nationally, Florida is a top job-producing state.

·        Year-to-date, single-family home sales are up 1.6% in Florida.

·        Year-to-date, condo/townhome sales are down 6% in Florida, compared to last year.

Other Monday speakers included NAR Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn and NAR General Counsel Jon Waclawski. Then consultant Sherry Chris moderated a session called Broker Insights with tips for brokers provided by Christina Pappas President of The Keys Company, Gus Grizzard CEO of ERA Grizzard Real Estate, and Sean Frank Founder of Mainframe Real Estate. The use of AI continues to be a hot topic in all offices with it being used in a variety of ways, none to reduce manpower, but instead to increase productivity, streamline procedures, and improve marketing.

Day 2, also moderated by Mike Hughes, was more specific to Florida Realtors (FR), first with a session by FR General Counsel Juana Watkins. She said that though there is a lot less national anti-trust litigation, there still is some. There also is a lot of discussion at FR on required forms. Many new ones resulted from the NAR lawsuit, but FR already is reviewing those and others, with the goal of having fewer forms and retiring others. More details will be provided early next year. She referred to this as “dotting the i’s & crossing the t’s”, i.e. “buttoning up and suspender-ing” (in legal talk). (I got a kick out of that.). Juana said the FR legal hotline answered 70K calls this year. She encouraged more calls.

FR Chief Economist Dr Brad O’Connor shared his view on the Florida real estate market. He said:

·        Regarding active listings, inventory in Florida is returning to a more normal seasonal pattern.

·        Year-over-year, the number of Florida listings is up 10%.

·        In Lee County, number of listings is up 46%.

·        In Florida, the median sale price of single-family homes is relatively flat.

·        The median sale price of condos/townhomes state-wide has been falling for over a year, now down about 5%.

·        He thinks the Florida market is turning the corner for the better, though some coastal areas are lagging.

FR Senior VP for Public Policy Trey Goldman reporting from Tallahassee discussed the many real-estate related bills in the 2025 Legislative Session and those already in the works for the upcoming 2026 session. He also said that there now are 17 new homeowner insurance providers servicing Floridians. Citizens no longer is the largest.

FR Chair of RPAC Trustees Marilyn Pearson-Adams and FR VP of Government & Political Affairs Genessa Casanova spoke on the many real estate wins funded by RPAC dollars.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Real Estate News

The local Association of Realtors had an East-End Caravan meeting yesterday. After the meeting, ten properties (the maximum allowed) were open for easy viewing, three condos and seven homes.

Next Thursday is the December membership meeting with guest speaker from the Captiva Civic Association. After that meeting, there will be a caravan of West-End open properties. Also after that meeting, a brokers’ round-table at the Association Office will gather input for 2026. I will participate.

Looking at residential activity posted in the SanCap MLS, since last Friday, there have been just four new sales, all Sanibel homes, like last week. There has not been a new condo sale since Nov 26.

During the same time, there were 25 new listings and 16 price changes.

Below, with data from the island MLS are summary tables of the residential sales statistics, followed by the details of the MLS action reported this week.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service Activity Dec 5-12

Sanibel

CONDOS

9 new listings: Blind Pass #A102 2/2 $549K, Blind Pass #D204 3/2 $735.7K, Blind Pass #E103 3/3 $735.7K, Sunset South #2A 2/2 $824K, Sunset South #3D 2/2 $895K, Pointe Santo #A45 2/2 $1.395M, Pointe Santo #E4 3/2 $1.65M, Pointe Santo #E44 3/2 $2.1M, Wedgewood #101 3/3.5 $3.195M.

5 price changes: Sandpebble #2E 2/2 now $494K, Sanibel Siesta #112 2/2 now $790K, Sundial #T204 3/2 now $1.485K, Compass Point #191 3/3 now $1.499M, Gulfside Place #115 2/2 now $1.695M.

No new sales.

5 closed sales: Colonnades #14 1/1 $225K, Sundial #D206 1/1 $485K, Oceans Reach #3A3 2/2 $930K, Sundial #T304 3/2 $1.05M, Sundial #N301 2/2 $1.075M.

HOMES

13 new listings: 935 Pecten Ct 3/2 $799K, 1040 Kings Crown Dr 4/3 $1..25M, 2479 Harbour Ln 4/3 $1.395M, 241 Violet Dr 3/2.5 $1.42M, 1508 Middle Gulf Dr 3/4 $1.495M, 9455 Coventry Ct 3/2 $1.525K, 5801 San-Cap Rd 2/2.5 $1.6M, 2480 Library Way 3/3 $1.75M, 1044 Fish Crow Rd 4/3,5 $2.25M, 1141 Paper Fig Ct 3/3.5 $2.75M, 5145 Joewood Dr 5/4.5 $3.25M, 1157 Bird Ln 3/3.5 $3.495M, 3767 West Gulf Dr 4/4.5 $9.495M.

1 back-on-market: 1674 Sabal Palm Dr 3/4 $1.999M.

5 price changes: 837 Casa Ybel Rd (multi-family) 2/2 now $425K, 1444 Sandpiper Cir (1/2 duplex) 2/2 now $459K, 838/840 Rabbit Rd (multi-family) 4/2 now $739K, 771 Rabbit Rd (1/2 duplex) 2/2 now $739K, 915 Pecten Ct 6/5 now $2.15M.

4 new sales: 421 Lake Murex Cir 3/2 listed at $749K, 4221 Old Banyan Way 3/2 listed at $1.095M, 2319 Wulfert Rd 4/4.5 listed at $3.247M, 859 Limpet Dr 4/3.5 listed at $3.495M.

1 closed sale: 3362 Barra Cir 2/2 $670K.

LOTS

No new listings.

3 price changes: 5648 Baltusrol Ct now $419K, 5642 Baltusrol Ct now $429K, 4733 Rue Belle Mer now $700K.

No new or closed sales.

CAPTIVA

CONDOS

2 new listings: Sunset Beach Villas #2236 3/2 $1.425M, Beach Cottages #1403 2/2 $1.595M.

1 price change: Tennis Villas #3135 1/1 now $309K.

No new sales.

1 closed sale: Beach Villas #2433 2/2 $850K.

HOMES

1 new listings: 11529 Laika Ln 3/2 $1.65M.

2 price changes: 14865 Mango Ct 2/2 now $1.075M, 15160 Captiva Dr 6/6.5 now $4.749M.

No new or closed sales.

LOTS

Nothing to report.

This representation is based in part on data supplied by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors® Multiple Listing Service. Neither the association nor its MLS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy.  Data maintained by the association, or its MLS, may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.  The information provided represents the general real estate activity in the community and does not imply that SanibelSusan Realty Associates is participating in or participated in these transactions.

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Enjoy your weekend,

Susan Andrews, aka SanibelSusan