Fred Elliott

Fred Elliott, a local broker and owner of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties on Homestead Rd., says he sees the light at the end of the tunnel because the sales of housing is heading upwards.

But it may take another 12 months before things are “back to normal,” Elliott said as he talked about the real estate market in Lehigh.

“The charts show that we sold 363 singe family homes in Lehigh in August. We sold 452 homes in June, so far the highest this year,” Elliott noted.

He expects that with the return of the snowbirds, many of whom didn’t come to Lehigh and Southwest Florida a year ago due to the ailing economy, will show up this year.

“And we’re hoping they see some good buys now that the prices have dropped,” Elliott said.

Chart compares sales of homes for months for the previous two years and this year.

The record of sales of homes is kept by Core Realtor Association, of which Coldwell Banker is a member.

“The boom in Lehigh and other areas left a lot of homebuyers with mortgages they could not afford … look around town today, and you’ll see that many of those realty groups have pulled up their tents and have gone,” Elliott said.

He said that those reputable Realtors who are still in business are still in town.

“We did not encourage the sale of homes to people that we knew could not afford them. That is why I belive many of us are still around,” Elliott said.

At Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties, there are 22 real estate agents and they are showing properties every day, Elliott said.

“I feel positive about the upturn in Lehigh although it is slow, but we are heading in the right direction,” he said.

Elliott said a lot of the so-called “boomers” who are coming to Florida are seeing good deals now that the homes are costing less.

“They and others in the area who want a single family home are the first to get the advantage to buy these homes … and then investors are buying homes in the area, too, fixing them up, and may rent or sell the in the future,” he said.

“Right now we have about 800 to 900 available foreclosures in the court system. Some of the banks are releasing them for sale and they are being purchased … but the fact is that we had so many foreclosed homes, more than most areas of the nation, so it will take a little time for them to be sold in the market place and for times to return to some type of normalcy,” Elliott said.

When you see homes in and around Lehigh where properties have been abandoned and foreclosed on, it takes six to eight months to get the properties through the system. Until the banks take over, the property owner who may have left the premises is responsible for cutting the grass and keeping the property in good condition.

However, in most cases that is not happening. Elliott said there are new firms that have come on the scene who banks hire to go to bank-owed properties, cut the grass, make certain repairs in the house are made and then they are put up for sale.

“In Lehigh, they are Lawn Geeks who have established a business to do these things prior to the sale of a foreclosed home that is put back on the market,” Elliott said.

He noted that Fannie Mae and some other lenders must first offer these homes to the public or private sales for the first few weeks. Then after that, the homes can be sold to investors, who in some cases are buying these homes at a very inexpensive price.

“I feel very positive and the figures over the past few months are showing that homes are being sold in Lehigh and hopefully, season will see those sales go up,” Elliot said.

“Many of these nice homes are appreciating in value and most of them are in the price range of $60,000 and $75,000 right now. Some are low as $50,000,” Elliott said.

He noted that there is a $8,000 tax credit available to help homebuyers and it is set to end Dec. 1, 2009.

“But there are efforts to get it extended,” he said.

“It would be a great help to prospective homebuyers to see it extended,” he said.

“There are some great deals out there for folks who want to buy a home now. FHA has an interest rate of 3 percent.

“If a person has decent credit and can show the ability to repay the mortgage, there’s a good chance we can move the property to that buyer,” Elliott said.

“The markets have also had an effect on rentals in the area, too. You can rent a nice home in Lehigh today for $600 a month, he said. Newer ones are going between $750 and $800 a month.

“We have a good rental pool,” he said.

“This area was the hardest hit. You can look at all the houses that First Homes built here in Lehigh. See what happened, now they’re gone. They pulled up their tents and left.

“It will take time, but we are selling houses and we would encourage prospective buyers to talk to their real estate agents. There are some good deals out there and the sooner we sell these units, the sooner we’re going to see things settle down and return to normal. But like I have said, it will probably return to normal sometime next year,” he said.

Nationally, economists are saying the same thing and are predicting home sales to level out during the fourth quarter of 2010.