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LEE
THE HOTTEST MARKET BY DICK HOGAN Lee County is the hottest home-building market in the country for the fourth quarter in a row, U.S. Housing Markets magazine reported this week. The industry trade publication measures the number of houses being built compared to population and ranks the markets: Lee was No. 1 with 30.5 permits per thousand in the year ending the last quarter of 2003. This is the fourth quarter that Lee has led the list. Collier County, at 19.8 per thousand, was fifth. Lee's success is coming because "it's one of the few affordable places" where people want to move, said Bob Miller, chief operating officer of Fort Myers-based Mastercraft Home Builders. "You have people up North who have experienced a huge increase in property values and they can sell a house and buy here, and that's why you're seeing our prices escalate as well. Lots of people are selling houses and getting out of a $400,000 or $500,000 home and they come here and only have to spend $200,000." Miller said he doesn't see any indication of a slowdown and the latest figures from the county bear that out: 570 single-family home permits were issued in March, second only to the 571 issued in August 2003, a county release stated Wednesday. Michael Reitmann, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, said lower-end and moderately priced homes have been doing well all along but it's only been recently that sales of high-end homes made a recovery - probably because the stock market has done well in recent months. But a big run-up in the price of residential lots in Lehigh Acres and Cape Coral means the affordable-housing market may suffer, he said. Still, the market as a whole should stay strong, he said. "As the land increases it's going to affect the lower end much more dramatically." SOURCE: U.S.
HOUSING MARKETS MARKET
HOTNESS TOP 20 Lee County Lee housing permits, 2003: Total units:
15,267, up 37 percent |