In the Know: Collier house prices surpass $615,000 median; a better deal in Lee at $360K

Fewer homes. Higher prices.

That's the real estate market simplified in Southwest Florida right now.

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The newest numbers released Friday by the Naples Area Board of Realtors show 76% fewer abodes for sale than a year ago when there were 5,287 from which to choose. Today, you get your choice out of 1,251 properties.

“We know demand is strong, but at the current inventory level, it’s hard to sustain the level of sales we have done in previous years,” said Adam Vellano, a Naples sales manager at Compass Florida.

If a good one goes up, it disappears quickly.

Three months had been typical for average days on the NABOR market in September 2020. We're down to 24 days.

And in Lee County, it's quicker: 18 days for a condo and 17 days for a single-family, according to the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association.

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As snowbird shoppers arrive, that number could drop even more.

"As competition for inventory gets even more fierce and days on market continue to drop, we’ll likely see an increase in the number of homes that don’t even appear on the MLS until they are sold," Broker Jeff Jones of Keller Williams Naples said of the multiple listing service.

In Lee, you're going to get a better price, even if the cost is 25% more than a year ago. The median sale price for single family was $360,000 while condominiums and townhomes stood at $255,000.

In Collier, it's up 30% for single-family: from $473,000 to $616,000. A condo? From $287,000 to $355,000.

Collier's overall sales dropped 18.9%. Lee's dip: 8.6%.

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.