Returning flippers going cheap

We all know the flippers are back, snapping up cheap homes in crash markets like Cape Coral and reselling them for a small profit after they clean them up.

But is that the only game in town right now?

“Unfortunately, investors in non-primary housing are bottom fishing,” says Gerald Howard, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders. Howard was in Naples recently to meet with the Collier Building Industry Association.

Howard says second-home buyers, which make up a significant portion of the market on the Gulf Coast, are still suffering from financial angst even though they'd like to buy here.

Your guess is as good as Coffee Talk's for predicting when that worry will dissipate. “It's like forecasting the stock market,” Howard says.