I don't know about you...

I don't know about you but this sounds like good news to me.When you see news like the following, sometimes we have a tendency to behave like consumers saying "there goes another downturn in real estate." when we, of all people should be jumping up and down for joy.

Read the following from the Wall Street Journal about the real estate market in Florida. Of course buyers are always going to ask you "Are we at the bottom yet?" and no one can answer that question. You can only know when we have passed the bottom because prices have started back up.

the point here is that this is another reason to call every buyer you have no matter where you are in the country and tell them that buyers are starting to line up for deals. Perhaps they would like to get in line as well, so they won't miss the opportunities in their area.

Here is the article, enjoy and please add your comments. Lets get the conversation going!

The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher, March 28, 2008



Bargain-Hunters Descend On Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.; 'We're Just Dumping It'



LEE COUNTY, Florida -- Here in the distressed-home capital of America, worried sellers keep slashing prices. Growing numbers of bargain-hungry buyers are circling. Both groups have the same question: How much more will prices fall?



In February, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area in southwest Florida had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., which tracks notices of mortgage default, house-auction notices and bank repossessions. The area had a record 3,739 properties in some stage of foreclosure, or one per 84 households -- almost seven times the national average.



As foreclosures rose, asking prices tumbled. That has resulted in discounts of 40% or more on properties ranging from mansions to modest tract houses. In February, median sale prices for single-family houses in Lee County, which encompasses Fort Myers and Cape Coral, fell 17%, to $211,900, from a year earlier, the Florida Association of Realtors says. (Nationwide, median prices were down a record 8.2% in February from a year earlier, to $195,900, the National Association of Realtors says.)



The price cuts are particularly steep in Cape Coral, which had lots of cheap vacant land when the area's building boom began six years ago. Rapidly rising home prices attracted big national builders and prompted small local ones to ramp up production. Now, many of these sandy subdivisions are full of unoccupied houses -- some just half-finished.



James Matey, a Cape Coral builder, leans on the granite counter of an empty riverfront house he built for New York real-estate marketer Ted Kurz. Mr. Matey says the 5,139-square-foot house, with five bedrooms, wood-coffered ceilings and river views, was advertised at $4.2 million three years ago. The asking price is now $2.4 million -- which covers only the cost of land and construction. "At this point, we're just dumping it," Mr.Matey says. Mr. Kurz says he'd like to hold on to the house for a few years until the market turns, but that would cost him more than $200,000 in interest, taxes and other expenses -- money he doesn't have now that the market has collapsed. "I'll entertain any offer," he says.



Such willingness to deal is attracting shoppers. Coldwell Banker says the number of house showings its agents conducted in southwest Florida almost tripled in February from the same month a year earlier. Sales are picking up, especially in Cape Coral, where some buyers are snagging houses for as little as half the original asking price. Agent Cindy Roper says bidding wars -- rarely seen since the height of the housing bubble -- have broken out for some foreclosed houses. In one recent case, a client missed out on a $329,000 waterfront property that attracted 12 bids after only 10 days on the market, she says.


The number of existing single-family houses sold in Fort Myers-Cape Coral was flat at 445 in February from a year earlier, while 181 condos were sold, up 19%, says the Florida Association of Realtors. Roughly 18% of these properties were in some stage of foreclosure, according to figures compiled by RealtyTrac.



Agents say the fire-sale prices have been particularly attractive to Europeans and Canadians, who have seen their purchasing power rise as the dollar's value has fallen. Lyle and Janet Reinhart, of Vernon, British Columbia, have been checking out houses in the $250,000-to-$300,000 range. "I've been overwhelmed by the choices," says Mr. Reinhart, a retired oil-company executive. He says he's looked at more than 20 houses since January, all reduced 20% to 40% from their original prices.



But even with the cuts, many houses aren't selling. Bobby Driscoll, a retired United Parcel Service manager and real-estate agent, put his 10,500-square-foot mansion on the market six months ago for $10 million. He's since slashed the price by $2 million. The six-bedroom spread, with a dock and faux-painted ceilings, is in a riverfront area that was a hotbed of teardowns and speculative building during the boom. Even at its new price, his house remains the most expensive one on the market in Cape Coral. "I may wind up here for a long time," he says.



Not all of Lee County has been hard-hit. Agent Sabina Carsten says there aren't many deals on the upscale vacation-home islands of Sanibel and Captiva -- partly because they were slow to recover from hurricane damage in 2004 and 2005, and missed the overbuilding of those years. Prices are also holding up in tony Bonita Springs. Still, there are foreclosure specials to be had in that town: Early this month, a lender reduced the price of a five-bedroom house with solid mahogany doors on palm-lined Snarkage Drive to $2.75 million from $3.795 million, a 28% cut, and a four-bedroom home across the pink-paved street was reduced 32% to $2.295 million from $3.395 million.