Hurricane Ian was devastatingly destructive. But there's one thing it couldn't do: cool Florida's red-hot real estate market. At least not for long.
Worse, it will likely lead to even higher home prices and rents.
Even Southwest Florida's housing market is likely to stay overheated — even with the devastation that Category 4 Hurricane Ian caused in parts of the region.
Housing industry expert Ken Johnson expects a temporary downturn in the home purchase and rental markets as the region begins to recover from the hurricane damage. But soon the markets will return to their previous heights.
The reason? Pre-hurricane, the Fort Myers area was facing "a severe housing shortage." That's only going to get worse, said Johnson, an economist at Florida Atlantic University's College of Business, who is a researcher on monthly reports on the nation's home purchase and rental markets.
“The area already was facing a shortage of homes for sale before the hurricane — and that likely will get worse with so many properties sustaining damage during the storm,” Beracha said. “The properties that are in condition to sell will be that much more valuable.”
Resale price trends
Separate data from the Florida Association of Realtors shows that median sale prices of both single-family homes and townhouses/condos in southwest Florida have jumped sharply during the first eight months of 2022, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Here is that data:
Fort Myers/Cape Coral: Single-family home sale prices averaged $435,000, up 23.6% from a year earlier. Townhouse and condo sale prices averaged $328,000, up 36.7% from a year earlier.
Naples/Immokalee/Marco Island: Single-family home sale prices averaged $785,000, up 23.6% from a year earlier. Townhouse and condo sale prices averaged $475,000, up 41.8% from a year earlier. The median resale price for a single-family home in the Naples area was significantly higher than in the other 21 Florida metro areas in the study, with the Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach area second at $560,000.
Punta Gorda/Charlotte County: Single-family home sale prices averaged $389,000, up 29.7% from a year earlier. Townhouse and condo sale prices averaged $283,196, up 32.6% from a year earlier.
Sarasota/North Port/Bradenton: Single-family home sale prices averaged $501,000, up 26.8% from a year earlier. Townhouse and condo sale prices averaged $371,000, up 32.5% from a year earlier.
Those year-over-year price increases were higher than the statewide increases of 19.4% for single-family homes and 24.0% for townhomes and condos.