The statistics presented here represent a comparision of real estate activity that has taken place through the Naples MLS for the month of February and calendar year-to-date for 2006 and 2005:

Closed sales - single family homes in Feb. '06 were 206, while in Feb. '05 there were 372. Closed sales for condos in Feb. '06 were 181 versus 348 in Feb. '05. Closed sales for single family homes on a year-to-date basis for 2006 is 440 versus 695 in 2005. Condo closed sales on a year-to-date basis is 427 in 2006 versus 708 for 2005.

Pending sales of single family homes for Feb. '06 was 230 compared to 634 in Feb. '05. Condos respectively were 198 versus 680 for the month of February. Year-to-date single family pending sale are 439 versus 1,143 and condominiums 391 versus 1,219.

Real estate activity is down from last year - closings in total down about 32% on a year to date basis, while pending sales are down about 36% also on a year to date basis.

The pending sales show a slight upward trend from January pending sales. This is a good sign, that real estate transactions are starting to pick up.

Another key indicator of the market is to look at median prices of both closed sales and pending sales to get a further idea of where property values are going. This analysis will be presented in another article.

####