Real estate market hot and cold

Humorist Tom Bodett read a news story about "West Florida" real estate Saturday morning on National Public Radio's "Bluff the Listener" segment of its popular "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!" show.

He told of the "West Florida Real Estate Association" offering 2-for-1 deals.

"Pay more than $800,000 on a new home and you will receive a second downmarket, repo'd home simply by taking over the payments," Bodett read. "Everybody dreams of the second home in Florida, well here it is."

He even quoted a Bonita Springs agent.

A contestant had to guess which of three news reports about the national housing market was true.

The others were of an inflatable home called the "Housing Bubble" and a subdivision in Oklahoma based on the old "Mr. Ed" television show.

The contestant picked Bodett's story.

Of course, it was all a lie, even the fictitious Bonita agent.

But it shows peoples perceptions.

To get a little more accurate view of the Lee County housing market Florida Weekly polled real estate agents and asked them how business was.

The results varied but almost to a tee agents were upbeat about the future.

"My overall view is that the market's very good," said Tim Blanton, an agent with GRG Realtors in Cape Coral. "But you have to work. In this market you have to work it very hard."

Blanton closed four deals last week in the $275,000 to $300,000 range and said he has seven more pending, including two in Fort Myers in the $800,000 range. (Sorry, no freebee)

Several agents said the first two weeks of February were "hot" but the last two cooled significantly.

"I think buyer activity is starting to get better," said Brett Ellis with the Ellis Team - RE/MAX Realty Group in Fort Myers. "I think a lot of people have been on the sidelines."

Rodney Williams at ERA Beaver Real Estate in Fort Myers said he believes prices have hit rock bottom.

"There's definitely more buyer activity but now the bank are getting tougher," he said. "It's tougher to qualify for a loan."

He added that if homes are priced close to what they're worth they sell.

Over at Prudential Florida WCI in Fort Myers, Marilyn Kistler said many of her customers have taken their homes off the market to wait it out.

"We've not seen a lot of price reduction," she said. "We've seen some movement on homes in the $200,000 to $400,000 range but the high end homes are just sitting."

And, like Ellis, Kistler has seen the market yo-yo of late.

"I see spurts of it picking up and then it flattens out," she said.

Oh, and what was the true story about national real estate?

It was the "Mr. Ed" themed subdivision where residents can live in "Ed Meadows" in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Any one for a house on "Wilber Lane?" n