There has been a lot of news about the declining residential real estate market for some time, so I would like to report an example of at least one area in Lee County that seems to be bucking the trend. Cape Coral-based Bellagio Real Estate Corp. shared some of its recent findings with me about a recent surge of activity in the area south of Gleason Parkway that suggests there are exceptions to the rule.

According to statistics that Bellagio pulled from the MLS last month, there were 227 homes sold in the area south of Gleason Parkway in Cape Coral in the past 90 days. Not bad, considering that there were approximately 2,423 homes sold in Lee County during that same period. That represents 9.4 percent of all homes sold in Lee County, and there are still 90 sale-pending homes in the same area.

There are a number of factors that may have attracted buyers. Most of southwest Cape Coral has already been assessed or has city water and sewer. There are gulf access lots, which tend to be in high demand along with the lifestyle this area has to offer. If you look at the skyline, the high rises at Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour are lit, beacons of the area's growth. Bellagio has been seeing a transition where people are less concerned to be on the water, but they do want to be near the activity. That trend in combination with motivated sellers could be maintaining decent sales volume in this particular geographic area.

Bellagio has seen more interest now that prices are down (relatively speaking) and interest rates are still low. When it was a seller's market, buyers were frustrated because shopping for a home or lot was like being in an auction. A rush of investors bought numerous condos, lots and the cheapest waterfront available, but the people that were going to buy new homes to live in slowed down. The frenzied flipping has come to a standstill, so the inventory that investors bought is still going to flood the market for some time, which offer home buyers a wide selection at realistic prices.

"When things were running up so fast, people had unrealistic expectations," said Rita Clarke, the broker for Bellagio Real Estate Corp. "They didn't want to come down in price. You can't have homes go from $500,000 to $800,000 within six months. That's not realistic. Anything that grew too fast, fell too fast. We need more absorption and less homes being listed for sale. The people that need to sell will come down in price. The people testing the water will be shaken out."

"Five years ago we didn't have million-dollar homes or high rises in this part of the city," Clarke said. "The appeal is waterfront property. The properties that didn't see the slowdown didn't see the increase either. A sailboat access lot on a wide canal has premiums that are always held. Prime views maintain their price. Unfortunately all you hear about is the high inventory and investors, but we have seen some signs of a turn around in the past 30 days. After prices increase again we will be hearing people say they would have, should have, could have purchased."

Despite the localized uptick over the past 90 days, Clarke says predicting if this activity can be sustained is like predicting hurricanes. "Nobody has that crystal ball," she said.

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