According to the Fort Myers MLS Board figures, it will take 44.5 months — nearly four years — to work off the current inventory of homes for sale. That doesn’t count the discouraged sellers who have taken their houses off the market but still want to sell. Foreclosures numbered 1,441 in December and 7,324 for the year — about 4 percent of the single-family homes in Lee County. And most of those foreclosures were after August.

The local Ft. Myers News-Press regularly advertises auctions of homes built to sell for $250,000. The minimum bid: $50,000. Small FL condos are offered with opening bids of $25,000. One real estate agent says those $250,000 houses are now selling for $100,000 — when they sell at all. She also explains that most of the properties that are selling are “short” sales, where the debt and closing costs exceed the sale value of the house.

But, this isn’t bad news for everyone. It means a half-empty glass for sellers, but also a half-full glass for buyers. For about $800,000, for instance, it is possible to buy a large and essentially new Florida house with a pool in a Florida gated community with deeded boat dockage and direct access to the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling a Boca Raton Country Club Community Home.

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