Island, beach property can sell in any market
By Jill Phaneuf
Special to news-press.com
                                                                                                                                                                            

Donna Croce, husband Richard Croce, daughter Molly Croce, 14, and the family dog at their home on Sanibel.

The Croce family loved Sanibel from the start, but it took a little longer for the New Paltz, N.Y., family to go from vacationers to island homeowners.

The family still owns a home in New Paltz, but have just renovated a Sanibel house they plan to make home nine months of the year.

Richard Croce said it didn’t take long for his family to forsake the coats and gloves for swimsuits and sandals. “We love the ocean, we love the beach, we love being able to be outdoors a lot. We’re very active.”

Call it the lure of the shoreline: Properties on or near the beach still sell, even in a slower market. The number of sales and sales prices have dropped a bit, but the activity is still steady, Realtors say.

And deals abound.

Brenda Roguska, owner of Sanibel One Realty, said she just sold two cottage homes in Sanibel Shores:

A two-bedroom one-bath home for $368,000 and one-bedroom one-bath for $375,000.

“That’s about as cheap as you’re going to get here,” she said.

The units’ big selling points: they were affordable and just two blocks from the beach.
The more typical higher end price on Sanibel is about $3 million, although some sell for much more, she said.

“I’ve seen the market go and come over the years and we on Sanibel are not as slow. We don’t have to worry about our buyers or their mortgages coming through.”

From where do the buyers come?

“We get them from everywhere, even Canada, New England and Germany. They come from every state.”

The Croces fell in love with Sanibel when a friend recommended Sanibel Harbor Resort about 13 years ago. They came regularly through the years and would make day trips to the island. Richard Croce said his family could not stop returning to Sanibel for Christmas vacations and would spend four weeks of vacation visiting Sanibel. They kept adding weeks to their vacation and in 2000, they were ready to buy a home for $500,000.

They just completed renovations on that home — located on Oliva street, about a mile off the causeway. They bought a condo nearby in 2005.

Richard golfs while his wife Donna goes on daily beach walks to exercise her bichon frise and meet her circle of fellow beachgoers. Their 14-year-old daughter Molly is a freshman at Bishop Verot. Richard Croce said where his daughter would attend school full-time was pivotal in their decision to spend nine months out of the year living the island life.

Clay Cason of Florida Gulf Coast Realty had two closings in December with another one in the works.

One of his clients, Chicago businessman William Griggs, paid $1.225 million for a three-bedroom, two-bath house on Fort Myers Beach. The 1950s-era house is on the water and has an assessed value of more than $1.6 million.

Cason also sold to a man who cashed in his IRA and chose a corner unit condominium in Estero’s Smuggler’s Cove for $530,000.

Still, Cason said some potential buyers are worried about natural disasters and other things.

“The person that does the ABC’s of real estate, be it an investor for pure money or the investor of the lifestyle dividend it’s going to make, you’re going to find what Franklin D. Roosevelt has proven true, ‘Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.’ ”

Still, it’s no secret that Southwest Florida home sales have stagnated in Lee County. Beachfront homes and those homes close to the beach have not sold as fast in 2007 as they did in the previous few years, according to some Realtors who deal primarily with buyers on Fort Myers Beach and on Sanibel.

The good news, according to Realtors like Bob and Isabella Wells of Nesbit Real Estate Inc. on Fort Myers Beach, is that many beachfront buyers are willing to forgo quick turnarounds and profits: They want daily walks on the beach and the breezy, easy lifestyle.

The Wellses said they are seeing a steady influx of buyers who just want to be residents, even with the downturn. And besides the sand and surf they have one other big thing in mind: bargains.

“Right now you’re looking at 2002, 2003 prices,” Isabella Wells said. “Homes priced $2 million to $1.5 million still sell, but what really sells the most are the properties from $250,000 to $400,000. Those were in the $500,000 or $600,000 range two year ago.”

She said the Beach real estate market will come back, but it may take three years to get fully healthy.

The desire for living near the beach is not limited to homeowners or those about to buy.

Roguska at Sanibel One said that some prospective buyers will rent for a period on Sanibel before making decisions to buy to see if Sanibel is a place where they want to live. “We find some renters who want to be in paradise. They’ll work in Fort Myers and drive back and forth. They rent until they find something they want to buy on the island.”

Others are just testing the waters from afar.

Roguska, who also owns Sanibel One Vacations, said that during the peak season of February and March, rates go from $1,100 a week to as much as $4,000 a week.

(December, January and April are considered shoulder months; and the rest are just summer months.)

But whether it’s for the powder-fine sand or the sun hugging them while they tan, new residents know that while real estate has slowed, their desire to be at the beach has not.

For many who move to Florida, moving to the Gulf Coast continues to be an affordable option.

Cason reinforces the point: “If you’re standing on Fort Myers Beach and your feet are in the sand and you are looking to the right, Sanibel Island is to the north and then you look to the left to the Naples Towers to the south, you’re standing on the most affordable beachfront property from St. Petersburg beach to Marco Island.”