Lee County plummet drives up sales

If you thought the residential real estate boom years were crazy busy in the Fort Myers area, 2009 was even more frenetic.

Last year, Realtors helped sell 16,789 single-family homes in the Fort Myers area. That's 71% higher number of home sales than the 9,842 they helped sell in 2005 at the height of the residential boom, according to data compiled by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach.

Of course, the median price of a single-family home in 2009 had something to do with this sales bonanza.

In December, the median price of a single-family home in the Fort Myers area was $89,929. That's a 72% discount from the $322,300 median single-family home price in December 2005, the highest level reached during the boom.

Still, the sales activity is helping to reduce the inventory of single-family homes on the market. At the current sales pace, there's a five-month supply of actively listed single-family homes in the Fort Myers area. That's down from a nearly one-year supply a year ago.

Realtors caution that many recent buyers are investors who may return these homes to the market later. In addition, some banks are not listing foreclosed homes for sale because they're waiting for conditions to improve.

But despite these challenges, the sales activity hints at a recovery for one of the hardest-hit markets in the country.