Lee County housing is price sensitive

To understand of how sensitive residential real estate buyers in Lee County are to prices, consider single-family home sales in April.

The median price of a single-family home in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in April shot up 19% from one year ago to $101,500. While that's way off the peak of $322,300 in December 2005, it's still a big jump from $85,500 in April 2009.

But April's price increase was enough to stall volume. The 1,473 sales in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in April were equal to the number of sales in the same month a year ago. By contrast, sales in April 2009 rose 81% compared to April 2008.

That suggests buyers are still looking for bargains. The $100,000 mark may be a tough barrier to stay above.

In fairness, sales volume in Lee County over the past year has been high relative to the boom. April's sales were 36% higher than December 2005 when Realtors sold 1,084 homes.