Cape’s high-end condo sales solid, while prices shift
This week it is time for one more round of champagne wishes and caviar dreams as we look back at the Cape Coral luxury condominium market in 2019. This is our homage to the late, great Robin Leach, with our version of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. For our purposes, this luxury segment consists of condos that have sold for $500,000 and up, and it is dominated by sales in the high-rise Tarpon Landings section of Tarpon Point Marina.
In 2019, there were 29 closed sales in the Cape Coral luxury condo market, which was 11.54 percent higher than the 26 closed sales for the year in 2018. The highest-priced sale in 2019 was for a high-rise condo in the Tarpon Landings section of Tarpon Point Marina, which sold for $975,000 back in July. This was 16.77 percent, or $140,000 more, than the price for the top condo sale in 2018, which was also for a Tarpon Landings condo that sold for $835,000. Of note is the fact that this top condo sale in 2019 was the same unit that was the second highest-priced sale in 2018. According to the records, this Tarpon Landings unit, built in 2006, was sold for $790,000 in May 2018, and it was then completed remodeled before being put back on the market for $989,000 in March 2019, with the sale closing last July in an all cash deal at $975,000.
As an overview of the pricing for the Cape’s luxury condo market, in 2019 there were three market shifts. First, there was a shift higher in prices in the upper end of this market segment during 2019, with five sales closing at prices between $800,000 and $890,000 and two sales at $900,000 and $975,000. While in 2018, as mentioned above, only one sale topped $800,000. The second shift was at the lower end of our luxury condo market, at price points below $600,000, where the number of sales increased by 62.5 percent from eight in 2018, to 13 sales in 2019. The third shift was in the mid-range of luxury condos, where the number of sales from $600,000 to under $800,000 dropped by 47 percent from a total of 17 sales in 2018, to only 9 sales in 2019. When it was all said and done, despite these price shifts, the median sales price in the Cape’s luxury market barely moved, coming in at $630,000 for the 29 sales in 2019, versus $629,500 for the 26 luxury sales in 2018.
Of the 26 luxury condo sales in 2018, a total of 19 of them, or 73 percent, were in the high-rise units of Tarpon Landings, with six in Cape Harbour, and one unit sold in the Paradise Point complex at the end of Beach Parkway in Southeast Cape Coral. In addition, 13 of the top 14 condo sales in 2018, at prices from $629,000 and above, along with the seven highest-priced sales ranging from $715,000 to $835,000, were all located in Tarpon Landings. While a condo in Cape Harbour captured the eighth highest-priced slot in 2018 at $685,000.
Moving into 2019, of the 29 luxury condo sales in the Cape, a total of 22 of them, or 75.86 percent, were in Tarpon Landings, with six sales located in Cape Harbour, and one sale in the Paradise Point II condo complex. The top 14 condo sales in 2019 were all located in Tarpon Landings at sales prices ranging from $630,500 to $975,000. The six Cape Harbour units ranged in sales prices from $500,000 to $630,000 in 2019, while the Paradise Pointe condo sold for $595,000 in 2019, versus $525,000 for its top sales price in 2018.
The top Cape Coral condo sale in the fourth quarter of 2019 ended up as the third highest-priced sale of the year at $890,000. This 2,970-square-foot, 11th floor riverfront Tarpon Landings high-rise unit, was built in 2007 with three bedrooms, a den and resort-style amenities, including a boat dock in the marina. It featured a split floor plan design, with each bedroom having its own en-suite, plus a half bath for guests in the hallway across from den. This luxury condo has had about $150,000 of recent upgrades, including a chef’s kitchen with high-end GE stainless steel appliances and a Thermador induction cooktop. Along with the amazing water views of the river, with the Gulf of Mexico as a backdrop, this unit also has a private elevator from the attached, two-car garage.
The records indicate that the seller of this condo unit bought it for $760,000 in December 2014, and they eventually put it back on the market for $940,000 about five years later in February 2019. They lowered the price to $915,000 in August of last year and terminated the listing a week later. They changed agents and re-listed it at $915,000 last October, and it went under contract with a buyer a month later, with the sale being finalized at $890,000 on Dec. 30. This sales price was only 5.32 percent below the initial list price for this unit.
On a separate note, we have been getting requests from some readers of this column for our views about the economy, interest rates and some of the recent moves by the Jerome Powell-led Federal Reserve. Along with reversing their course and moving short-term interest rates lower again last year, The Fed made an unexpected move last September when they pumped a massive amount of “liquidity,” otherwise known as cash, into the “repo market.” In very simple terms, the repo market involves the overnight funding mechanisms through The Fed that deal with cash reserves held by banks enabling them to meet their short-term cash and money market account obligations. In essence, it appears that there was a liquidity crisis in the banking system and in order to prevent this part of the system from “freezing up,” The Fed stepped in to save the day. The concern in some corners is that The Fed has continued to pour additional liquidity into the repo market in every month since September, including an unusually large cash infusion just before the end of the year.
Analyzing this situation is largely above our pay grade, however, if you would like to read some interesting material from an independent source, I would suggest searching online for “Mauldin Economics,” which is run by a best selling author John Mauldin. Once on the home page, click on “Articles and Commentary,” and you should see “Thoughts from the Frontline,” which is a free, weekly newsletter. One of his recent newsletters, titled “Prelude to Crisis,” discusses this situation about the repo markets. Mauldin is known for providing unbiased information through his big picture view of the economy, and aside from reading his free weekly newsletter for a number of years, we have no other affiliation with his services.
(The sales data for this article was obtained from the Florida Realtors Multiple Listing Service Matrix for Lee County, Fla., as of Jan. 11, 2020. It was compiled by Bob and Geri Quinn and it includes information specifically for Cape Coral condominiums, townhouses and villas, and it does not include any single-family homes, short sales or foreclosures. The data and statistics are believed to be reliable, however, they could be updated and revised periodically, and are subject to change without notice. The Quinns are a husband and wife real estate team with the RE/MAX Realty Team office in Cape Coral. They have lived in Cape Coral for over 40-years. Geri has been a full-time Realtor since 2005, and Bob joined with Geri as a full-time Realtor in 2014. Their real estate practice is mainly focused on Cape Coral residential property and vacant lots.)