CAPE CORAL, Fla. — When you drive around Cape Coral, it seems like thousands of homes are on the market. Well, it's true — there are.
Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp, who's also your committed housing reporter, dug into the numbers to see where our market stands.
It's been a roller coaster over the past two years with overpaying for homes, high interest rates and waves of inventory.
"I think we have the perfect storm at this point," said Angie Cloutier, a realtor at Cre8ive Realtors.
Back in September 2023, Cloutier said she thought prices would steadily increase. She added we wouldn't see anything crazy and it would be a normal market.
Now, Cloutier is digging into the numbers for Fox 4 after she noticed her listings are just sitting recently.
"I'm thinking 'Well the market is not that good', so I did the research, and that's not true," she said.
There are a lot of numbers we can dig into, but these are some of the biggest ones to show where our market stands.
According to data Cloutier pulled, there were 2,897 homes for sale in March 2023. This includes single-family homes, condos, townhouses and some new builds.
In March 2024, Cape Coral had 4,003 on sale! Cloutier says there are a few reasons why more people could be selling.
"I'm thinking that the reason they're so many on the market is the hurricane, people are just wanting to get out of flood zones," she explained. "Maybe they're done updating, you know, putting it back together and now they're putting them on the market."
When they do go on the market, Cloutier says numbers show they are staying on the market longer.
In March of last year, the average Cape Coral house was on the market for about 22 days. Now, it's 50 days.
"You've got a lot to pick from, so I guess that's why things aren't going as fast," Cloutier said.
Here's the catch: When they do sell, Cloutier says the sale price is pretty close to the listing price.
It's only about a 2% difference between March of last year and this year.
As for the number of homes selling, numbers show there's not too much of a difference.
"So from March of last year to March of this year, 317 units less units sold," Cloutier said.
For more context, 3,542 homes sold in March 2023 and 3,225 sold in March 2024.
During season, which is January to March for the housing market, Cape Coral sold 739 less units this year compared to the same time last year.
She also pulled statewide numbers to see how Cape Coral compares to the rest of Florida.
In March of 2023, there were 93,524 homes on the market in Florida. At the same time this year, there's a huge difference. The state is looking at 143,425.
When asked what this says about our market, Cloutier says it's a buyer's market at this point.
"It's hard to tell," she said. "I mean, usually you can see what to do. The trends help you see what to do."
Cloutier says for sellers, be patient because it may take some time, and you might have to cut your price.
For buyers looking for a place to call home, she says you have your pick.
"I think you have more negotiating power than you had before," Cloutier said.
