Buyers snapping up Coral Lakes' homes

COURTESY PHOTO Investors are selling the 82 single-family homes and 34 attached villa homes in Coral Lakes.

Buyers flocked to Coral Lakes in Cape Coral in droves this past week to purchase new homes for prices as low as $86,900.

"It's like 2004," said Realtor Denny Grimes of Denny Grimes and Company, the sales manager for 116 homes reduced to liquidation sale prices.

"The buyers have finally been liberated," he said. "They've been waiting to buy but their friends have been telling them 'not yet.' Now, they're saying 'Damn the torpedoes,' I'm going to do it."

The sale began last week and as of Monday afternoon only 29 homes remained. Those are nearly all fourbedroom, four-bath units with prices ranging from $141,990 to the low $190s.

"There are more buyers than we can deliver," Grimes said. "It's exciting."

Investor O.J. Buigas, manager of the Private Equity Group, purchased the 82 single-family homes and 34 attached villa homes March 18 for $13.5 million from Engle Homes. Buigas and his group reduced the prices and didn't even have time to advertise before the onrush of buyers.

COURTESY PHOTO Villa homes in Coral Lakes.

The sale was featured in many local media outlets and even made CNN over the weekend.

Engle officials said the sale of Coral Lakes was a business decision, not an indicator of Engle Homes leaving the market.

The builder and its parent company Tousa Inc., are in the reorganization phase of Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Despite the filing, sales in Southwest Florida's Engle Homes communities continue to outpace others in the market. Its yearto date sales are up 20 percent over 2007 and new construction orders outpace many other homebuilders, officials said.

Grimes said the Coral Lakes phenomenon is a microcosm of the overall real estate market.

"First, there is a market. We don't have a demand issue - we have a supply issue," he said. "Second, the market reconfigures. It's bringing more normalcy back to our market. Buyers haven't been able to define 'value.' Now, these buyers are confident that the value is there. It's a blueprint for recovery."

COURTESY PHOTO Some single-family homes in Coral Lakes are still available as of Monday.

Coral Lakes, a private, controlled-access community of single-family homes and townhomes is located on more than 72 acres of lakes and preserves in a park-like setting off Del Prado Boulevard in northeast Cape Coral.

Engle Homes will warrant the homes for a period of one-year from date of purchase, and provide a 10-year warranty on the structure of the home. It has also committed to completing the amenity package in the development, Grimes said.