Southwest Florida home prices drop as sellers struggle to find buyers | State

Florida’s housing market has been struggling, with homes lingering on the market due to dropping prices and a lack of interested buyers. This trend is evident across neighborhoods in Southwest Florida, where “For Sale” signs are plentiful, but closings are scarce.

In Punta Gorda, Rodney Weng has been trying to sell his home for more than three and a half years. He worked with a real estate agent, lowered the price three times, and finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

“It’s just a gamble right now,” said Weng.

He never expected the process to take this long.

“No way, no way. I figured a year at the most,” said Weng.

Dr. Shelton Weeks, a professor of real estate at Florida Gulf Coast University, explained the broader market challenges.

“I think the more challenging issue is that we have a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace, and that’s caused both buyers and sellers to be a bit apprehensive,” said Weeks.

Weng decided to sell his home independently to avoid realtor commissions and further price reductions.

“I decided to take it off the market and try to sell it on my own. Between the commission of realtors and that kind of stuff, I really wasn’t going to be making any money if I sold the house, because I had to keep dropping and dropping it,” said Weng.

A recent housing market report highlighted the areas in the U.S. with declining home prices, with the top four in Southwest Florida. Punta Gorda saw a more than 12% decline, Cape Coral a 10% decline, and Naples more than 7%.

“I think a lot of folks saw the very rapid appreciation that we saw coming out of the pandemic. However, since then, we’ve continued to see the cost of ownership, in particular, the property taxes and insurance costs increased dramatically, and that’s really stretched folks in terms of their housing budget,” said Weeks.

Despite the challenges, Weng remains hopeful for change.

“I don’t know what’s going on out there. I mean, I see a lot of construction. I see a lot of new houses going up, but as far as the older houses. I don’t see anything happening. Everything is just sitting,” said Weng.

Dr. Weeks offered advice for those trying to sell in the current market.

He said sellers need to ensure their homes are priced appropriately for today’s market conditions.