In this concise market update, Naples real‑estate specialist Renee Hahn describes the current “bipolar” market—some neighborhoods see multiple offers while others have virtually no activity. She highlights a sharp rise in price drops (2,844 in February, 144% higher than January) and explains that many sellers are adjusting prices after initially over‑pricing. Hahn advises sellers to price strategically, noting that cumulative days on market affect future buyer perception, especially in the luxury segment where inventory has risen to double‑digit months in areas like Port Royal and Old Naples. For buyers, she points out increased inventory, greater negotiating power, and the availability of mortgage programs that allow borrowing now with the option to refinance later. She also touches on broader factors such as the typical election‑year slowdown and the impact of mortgage‑rate expectations. The video ends with contact information and a friendly Easter greeting.
Chapters
Hello, Renee Hahn, your Naples real estate expert, and I am bringing you this month's market update for the Naples area real estate. Um, as always, I wanna point out a couple of things. This video is just one component. I've obviously got some metrics in the Tide Talk just below, but also on my webpage under the market update. Um, I always have real-time metrics that you can go look at any time. So with that, let's kind of go. This will be a shorter one because what I don't want to do, as I have in past months, is regurgitate all the data because you can see it on the page. Instead, I thought I'd just hit some commentary notes. I would say my overarching comment about the market, and this is in no way intended to use this term lightly, because there are, um, situations where this term has very serious health implications, but it's the easiest way to explain the market. And that's that we have got a bipolar market right now. There are areas within the market that you might still see multiple offers. Then there are other areas where you can't hear anything because nothing's happening, meaning there's no showings, no activity, nothing's really happening in that space. Space. So it is truly a bipolar market. It's the same area, Naples, but depending on the community, depending on the price point, the type of home— we've always been segmented, but even when we're segmented, there's been a general trend, if you will, across the market. Right now, trends are outside the door, um, because I could tell you it's a buyer's market, and then I can show you a couple examples where that would be disproven. So it is a bipolar market. It has been slower on the buy-in front than I have seen it certainly in the last 10 years. I don't say that to alarm anyone. It's just how it is. The good news is, and I always say this, the sky is not falling. The Naples area market in particular in Southwest Florida is a strong market. And what happens, and I share this with my buyers regularly because There's a lot of sentiment right now, which is why it's been slow with showings and stuff of people saying, mm, prices are coming back down. I've been on TikTok and I heard that the market is crashing. Well, first of all, I've never seen TikTok to be a very reliable source for accurate news, but that's a different topic for a different day. Um, all joking aside, what it does mean is that it is slow and there are people that are stalling their search because they do think prices are coming down. But what they need to see on the other side of that— and believe me, I don't say this with any disposition in one direction or the other because I work almost equally with buyers and sellers. I do that by design because I think it helps me be a well-rounded agent that has a finger on the pulse of what's going on with buyers and what's going on with sellers. And the two marry together greatly. But what the reason I bring it up is Naples is a high cash market. So if people paid cash for their homes, that generally means they own it outright. And if they don't like what the pricing is doing, they can always pull it and wait. Most of the time, and there are exceptions to this without question, but most of the time owners in Naples do have some flexibility and choices on timing. So if they feel like the market is not a great market to sell in, you'll see people pull their homes and relist in another year, another day. Because of that, it keeps us a little what I would call insulated. We're not. Insulated from everything going on, but it will certainly help the market, you know, in tougher times. So without question, there are price drops going on. In fact, one of the, the, the data points I give in here is the number of price drops. I only started adding that a couple of weeks ago, but in the month of February, there were 2,844 price drops. How does that compare In the month of January, it was 144% lower. So lots of price drops. That is usually an indication of a couple of things. It may be that people started too high, and that's not a complete surprise because look at where we're coming off of. People are trying to find what the reset value is on homes. It's a little bit of a guessing game, if you will, candidly, because we know as agents and sellers We, we always look back at history to help predict what we think things are going to sell for. Well, history had a couple unusual bleeps. So some of it is that they're just right-sizing the price. So it may not be that values necessarily are on the decline by 143% or 144%. It means that there may be properties that came on too aggressively and they need to right-size the price. What I will tell you without question is sellers need to be thinking really smart about selling their homes and how they price them. You know, you've got to look through your circumstances. And even though you, seller, may have the luxury of waiting and not selling right away, that cumulative days on market follows you when you're on agent 1, agent 2, agent 3, year 1, year 2, year 3. That never hits the reset. So you will always, someone will always be able to see how long it takes cumulatively before your home goes under contract. And whether we like it or not, assumptions get made when people see that information. So even though sellers may have the luxury of pulling their properties, I would still caution everyone to be smart about how they price it if they're serious about selling it. If they're just trying to do a temperature check, then so be it. Just know what the consequences are in the future. For buyers, it's been a bit of good news because there is a bit more of, of inventory to choose from than there has been in past months. And there's more appetite for negotiating. Again, there's still some bidding wars out there, but they're in the minority. So when you see a home, you may still be able to negotiate a fair offer on that. Now, I've seen a lot of real lowballing, and that doesn't necessarily work either. So it's both parties finding a balance here. Yes. The scales may be giving some favorability to buyers, but that doesn't mean sellers are going to give their properties away. And the start of a negotiation when it's offending people may not always be the best approach and strategy, but that's for another day too. So again, bipolar market, definitely tipping the scales in favor of buyers. Things are taking longer to sell. Not only are they taking longer to sell, but showings have been slow to come, and that's kind of across price points. But in particular, I will tell you the luxury market I'm seeing it the most. If you look at places like Port Royal, Royal Harbor, Old Naples, Connors at Vanderbilt Beach, the inventory is double-digit months, not single-digit months. And the more inventory you have and the less sales, that obviously drives up months of inventory as a calculated you know, number. But the more inventory you have, the less buyers, the less pricing favorability you're going to get. But certainly that also means that individual properties may, may see little to no activity. So I want to stay under 10 minutes for this. So that's what I would say. I think we are continuing to monitor things as you would expect. There's a lot going on in the environment. Year before an election, things will typically historically slow down. People are waiting for mortgage rates to go up. Although what I would tell buyers is this: if you're one of those waiting for the mortgage rates to go down— I said up, but I meant down— know that there's a bunch of other people too. So if real estate values are all a function of demand and availability and interest rates go down, therefore the number of buyers jumps up, what do you think is going to happen? Probably more competitive competition for different properties, which could have, could or could not have a price impact. So I've told buyers it's not necessarily a bad time to buy right now in light of two things. One, you might have some negotiating strength there. And two, even though interest rates aren't as low as people are predicting them to be, there are mortgage brokers out there that are offering programs that would allow you to borrow now and refinance with little to no out-of-pocket expense. Expense later to incent people to do their loans now versus waiting for interest rates to come down. So again, could be a good time. If you've got questions on the buying or selling side, you know that I'm always here, so reach out: 239-287-2576. Otherwise, I'll, I'll wish everybody that supports Easter a very happy Easter. God bless. Those that don't support Easter, I still hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I'm here if you need me. You can find me on yournaplesexpert.com. Thanks and have a fantastic weekend.
