Cape Coral housing has gone from bad to worse
National news headline today:
CAPE CORAL, Florida (Reuters) - Phone books that were delivered but never opened rot away next to empty driveways and overgrown lawns, telltale signs that once-booming southwest Florida is now the center of the U.S. housing storm.
Until two years ago, middle-class retirees vied with property speculators for houses and apartments in Cape Coral, a town near Fort Myers on Florida’s sun-drenched Gulf Coast. Now almost every other house on some of its streets has a for-sale sign outside.
With a bloated inventory of unsold homes and a growing number of homeowners forced by mortgage delinquencies to sell — thanks to the subprime crisis and ensuing credit crunch — southwest Florida’s once warm clime for property has turned stone-cold.
(Full article)
Man … we got out of there in the nick of time. Must have been Jehovah’s spirit! 
Seriously, I am trying to sell a house here. You’re comment made me laugh out loud like an idiot here at work. It does show that your family has been blessed.
Being a Cape Coral home owner this is pretty grim news. But you have to admit anyone with even a little foresight saw this coming. I don’t plan on moving for another 2-3 years, so I am hopeful that the market will re-correct and I can at least break even on my house. At that time, we will also have freshly installed city water and new streets in my neighborhood. This should help my curbside appeal just a lil’bit. If not, then I guess I will be stuck in the cape until a ripe old retirement age.
Hey Jim …
Yer right. It was looming on the horizon. Kind of a SW Florida version of the dotcom crash. A little over correction I s’pose.
I know you’ll pull out of it alright. You have a good situation going from our conversations. And aren’t just a flipper – which got so many people in trouble in the first place.
In the meantime you need to be planning a trip to Asheville. We’ll have fun.
Hey Don;
Regarding “getting out of there just in time”! No kidding, never did see what everyone saw in that SWAMP anyway. Nothing but bugs and water you can’t even drink! It however is a perfect place for some people. Hah Hah.:)
The market has softened in most inflated areas.. It cycles… Same thing happened in the 80’s..