“We saw another surge in mul- tifamily permits. Why? Because people saw their homes go up to astronomical numbers,” he said. “They’re selling out, choosing not to buy in, and renting an apartment. They’re riding it out until the mar- ket softens. Young families looking to buy a home got priced out, so they’re renting.” When it comes to single-family homes, Lee County saw a 59% increase in permits—and not just in premiere locations. “I believed and what I was taught was, ‘location, location, location.’ These are C and B locations (with the highest increase). It’s not about location—it’s about availability of lots to build on.” One of the most noteworthy statis- tics is that 25% of new single-family home permits in Southwest Florida were pulled in Cape Coral—notably in the north Cape. “I don’t see that stopping,” he said. “People are flocking there because of affordability.” Another hot commodity on the market is build-to-rent homes. Thibaut said the 6,740 in 2021 is expected to double in 2022. As for what homebuilders are doing to work through the supply chain issues, Thibaut said these enti- ties are going to manufacturers and suppliers and looking to purchase wholesale amounts of product to be able to keep up with the demand from their customers. WILLTHE BUBBLE BURST? Thibaut says that in order to have the market crash, there needs to be an oversupply, something Southwest Flor- ida is not experiencing at the moment. While he’s confident a crash is not on the horizon, he did say there could
be “softening” coming, due to buyers hitting a wall on pricing, rising inter- est rates, supply chain issues, and the possibility of a recession. “It looks like it’s not going to stop anytime soon,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep these things in perspec- tive. I hope they’re not happening.” UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH Florida is the second fastest-grow- ing state in the country. Lee County, in particular, saw 23,000 people relocate to the area from July 2020 to July 2021. Residential real estate expert Denny Grimes, president of Denny Grimes & Team at Keller Williams Realty, cited statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Florida, the median price of sold single-family homes in January 2022 is $375,000, while Lee sits at $413,000. “There’s no $200,000 market here anymore. That’s gone,” Grimes said. “When you look at the per- centage change, Southwest Florida outperformed the state in every county other than Sarasota. There is no question this area is blessed, and we’re doing better than the rest of the state.” The number of existing homes sold increased by 16% in Lee County from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, Lee, Charlotte, and Collier counties all set records for single-family home sales, with Lee coming in at 19,226. The median price of existing homes sold in Lee County from 2020 to 2021 increased by 31%. The median price of a single-family home in Lee County in 2021 stood at $360,000—the first-year median prices were over $300,000. Grimes said in January 2022, the median price for a home in Lee County was $411,000.
The total number of residential permits for Lee, Collier, and Char - lotte counties totaled 25,184, a 37% increase from 2020. New residential single- and multifamily homes in Lee County saw a 28% increase, while Collier and Charlotte saw 48% and 50% increases, respectively. Thibaut compared those numbers to what he called a true “boom” in 2005 when those counties saw 44,000 total permits. He said if there were to be a massive influx of res - idents looking for homes in South- west Florida like we saw in 2005, the builders would simply not be able to meet the demand due to the short- age of supplies and other factors. Thibaut says many homeown- ers have seen their home values increase dramatically and are opting to sell and rent, leading to an increase in multifamily properties.
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