Imagine our real estate boom from 2002 - 2006. New developments sprang up everywhere in Lee County except for Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Prices jumped up month after month. Home prices more than doubled and some land in Cape Coral increased from 5-10 times its value. Realtors were invited constantly to lavish introductory parties. At first these developments were located in south Fort Myers, not far from the beaches. But as land got scarcer they moved further inland and then to Cape Coral and to North Fort Myers and in the end we were building high rise condos on the river in downtown Fort Myers.  New construction increased in value during the construction period and prospective buyers were enticed to buy pre-construction homes which they often 'flipped' before construction was completed; sometimes a unit was flipped more than once. At first there were no buyer restrictions but as things got crazier and crazier the developers started to limit buyers to one unit per development and in the end they even insisted that a buyer could not sell his home/condo until at least one year of occupancy. I remember several developments sold out in one morning after people had camped out in front of the non developed land over night. Mortgages were so easy to obtain because the lenders seemed to believe that if the buyer forfeited on the loan then another buyer was ready to step right in and lenders were still ahead financially because of the closing costs. Of course I don't know what developers and bankers thought then. I was watching in amazement and selling real estate. We heard everywhere that there were some 60 million baby boomers looking for real estate. They were presented as a rich group of future retirees eager to move to our little corner of the world. So when it all ended suddenly in the second half of 2006, we landed with a huge crash in the middle of all this frenzy, with much overbuilding and not completed projects, investors who had counted on flipping properties they never intended to occupy and often with mortgages they now had to pay and could not afford,  and developers begging for buyers, any buyer, any number of units, with no mandatory occupancy, ever. Much later one such buyer would buy 150 units of a new development and those high rise condos on the river became sad reminders of unfulfilled builder dreams and today can be bought for bargain prices.       This drastic slow down in our local real estate market started in August 2006. It was also due in general to a major nationwide slowdown but locally primarily due to extreme overbuilding and related issues.  I think we all knew this would happen, builders, lenders and realtors alike, it was just a matter of time and we did not know when the time was up. Well, it was up!   I have updated this page several times since because of the many transitions we went through in the meantime. Today I am going to show you statistics. If you do not like tables - this is not the page for you. If you are interested in good buys or short sales, please check the menu to your left where I show you many such great examples.   All statistics were generated from our Fort Myers and Sanibel MLS systems and are intended to give you an overall picture. Search criteria were the same for all tables, so the numbers show you a trend.   High end homes remained pretty stable at 2006 prices on these islands and are slowly climbing again. Most price adjustments took place for homes previously listed below $2 million. We still offer  Gulf front homes listed below $3 million.    Sanibel and Captiva Islands Yearly Average Sales Prices and # sold      2004  2005 2006   2007  2008  2009   Single Family  $1,034,941     [305]  $1,152,708      [297]  $1,213,784     [166]  $1,287,461      [162]  $1,155,583     [161]  $936,804    [160]                Condominiums  $681,970     [248]  $775,587     [277]  $930,420     [164]  $797,601       [99]  $761,137     [116]  $697,601    [109]     Sanibel and Captiva Islands Median Yearly Sales Prices      2004  2005 2006   2007  2008  2009  Single Family  $740,000  $840,000  $900,000  $835,00  $745,000  $627,500                Condominiums  $580,000  $675,000  $782,500  $670,000  $623,750  $585,000       Sanibel and Captiva Median Sales Prices for SF Gulf and Bay Front Homes Jan 1 - Jul 9  2004  2005  2006  2007 2008  2009   $2,732,500  $3,300,000  $2,925,000  $3,175,750  3,358,000  $3,600,000     Cape Coral - Median Sales Prices for SF Canal Front Homes Sold Jan 1 - Jul 9  2004 2005  2006   2007  2008  2009  $290,000  $432,900  $423,925  $369,450  $285,000  $215,000     Cape Coral - Median Sales Prices for Gulf, River and Bay front SF Homes Sold Jan 1 - Jul 9  2004 2005   2006  2007  2008  2009 $800,000 $1,060,000 $750,000 $848,500 $700,000 $602,500     Fort Myers - Median Sales Prices for Gulf, River and Bay Front SF Homes Sold Jan 1 - Jul 9  2004  2005  2006  2007 2008   2009  $740,000  $900,000  $1,250,000  $1,400,000  $1,375,000  $316,000       Number of SF Homes Closed Sales Jan 1 - Jul 9  Year  Ft Myers  Cape Coral  Sanibel & Captiva Ft Myers Beach   Bonita Springs/Beach  2009  1453  3766  83  54  135  2008  822  2017  111  53  72  2007  763  1243  105  41  21  2006  1109  1959  115  43  31  2005  1501  2630  194  77  37  2004  1374  2128  203  94  65         If you are interested in statistics not shown here, please contact me and perhaps I can help you.