How much condominium will $250,000 buy?

What you can buy for $250,000.
By Pat Middlekauffspecial.
News-press.
Originally posted on July 16, 2006
How much condominium will $250,000 buy?Agents say there's plenty of inventory at $250,000 now compared to this time last year.Today's buyer can choose from new units as well as resales — and even some waterfront properties at this price point.
Cape Coral
Scanning the Multiple Listing Service, Century 21 Sunbelt Realty's Lenora Marshall found 21 condos available between $248,000 and $252,000. They range in size from 994 to 1,536 square feet, and were built between 1979 and the present.
"Fourteen of these are on the water," Marshall said, "and 12 actually have Gulf access ... one (even) has a garage.""The big news here," she added, "is that now there are all kinds of opportunities for buyers."
"Unfortunately, for that price you can't get both new and Gulf access, but you can get either one or the other."For example, there's a two-bedroom, two-bath 1984 unit in Country Club Place looking out on the 200-foot-wide Rubicon Canal with Gulf access. There's a common boat dock included for $249,900.A new unit in Van Loon Commons with 1,503 square feet and loads of amenities is available at $249,900.
Another in Baruna Bay on Southwest 47th Terrace also has Gulf access. This two-story 1987 complex with 65 units has dockage on a first come, first served basis.And Marshall has a 1999 two-bedroom, two-bath on Chiquita Boulevard. It's close to Cape Harbour, but this is not waterfront.
For the buyer wanting a master-planned community, The Bonita Bay Group's first with a Cape Coral address — Sandoval — opened in January 2005. Phase I, with 565 carriage homes, villas and single-family homes, has passed the 75 percent-sold mark, according to Kitty Green, regional vice president of The Bonita Bay Group.Pulte Homes, a preferred home builder in Sandoval, offers carriage homes priced from the mid-$200,000s.
Fort Myers
In Whiskey Creek, one of the oldest planned communities in Lee County, the popular Village Green built in the 1970s and '80s has condos for about $250,000.According to MLS data supplied by Bob Oxnard of Century 21 Sunbelt Realty No. 1 Inc., there are 14 active listings of these duplex villas, with eight either pending or sold within the last three months. Average square footage is around 1,500 and these units have either one or two garages.
"This kind of low-density won't be built again," Oxnard said.In the heart of downtown Fort Myers, Century 21 AAIM real estate agent J J Cochrane pointed to the historic and restored Earnhardt Building where a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 15-foot ceilings and original wood floors is listed at $254,900 and sold for $238,000. A similar unit of 950 square feet is listed at $260,000.
Just east of downtown, close to the new high-rise luxury condo project The Oasis, Cochrane turned up what may be a real sleeper.River Garden, a small older complex of 48 units, sits right along the Caloosahatchee River with two of the buildings directly on the waterfront. With units available for $239,900 and under, Cochrane feels these are undervalued. "There is no place to go but up for this complex," she said. "It's a bargain today."There's also nearby Palm Beach Landings, nestled between the new developments of Alta Mar and The Oasis. Here there are units for $250,000 with partial river views, a marina and lots of amenities.
"In these areas of Fort Myers," Cochrane said, "the river is king, and proximity to the water is a driving force in sales price. The good news is that there are choices."Just recently, agents Linda Yeager and Tina Giufre of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate co-listed an investor-owned two-bedroom, two-bath unit — never lived in — in the Lennar community of Riverwalk, near College Parkway in south Fort Myers.
Four units in this complex sold in May, with three in the $250s and one over $275,000. With developer units going in the $260s, Yeager and Giufre expect this unit will appeal to buyers at $249,900.
North Fort Myers
In Bay Harbor, a riverfront condo along North Key Drive in North Fort Myers just west of U.S. 41, broker-owner Cindy Roberts of Realty World Roberts offers a first-floor unit with single detached garage and extra storage at $249,900.At the tip of North Key Drive is Schooner Bay, where a two- bedroom, two-bath unit is in MLS at $249,000. Both of these complexes were built in the 1970s and are minutes from downtown Fort Myers.In the planned community of Moody River Estates south of Hancock Bridge Parkway, new carriage homes are being advertised in the mid-$250s.
Naples
Naples broker associate Keith Marvelle, with John R. Wood Realtors, turned up a variety of listings.
"There are some good choices and good variety for people looking to buy now, where in 2005 there weren't," he said.There's a unit in the Blue Heron off Davis Boulevard for $254,500, one in Woodmere Lake Club near Rattlesnake Hammock Road for $249,900 and one in the Abbey at Berkshire in Berkshire Village, again off Davis, at $249,900. The oldest of these, all two-bedroom, two-bath units, was built in the 1980s.
Estero
Joe Pavich, broker-owner of Realty World-Florida, has lived in Estero for almost 20 years.
For someone wanting to live in Estero, Pavich said he would take a buyer with $250,000 to Breckenridge, "... historically the best entry-level condo since the early 1990s."A three-bedroom, two-bath 1,326-square-foot unit there is in MLS at $250,000.Bella Terra, where units were sold by lottery last year, now has a big inventory owned by motivated investors, Pavich said. A two-bedroom, two-bath 1,170-square-foot unit, for example, is in MLS at $249,000, while the builder, Lennar, shows units on its Web site from around $270,000. This community is east of Interstate 75.
Bonita Springs
Looking further south, Pavich likes the Tides at Pelican Landing, in front of Walden Center off U.S. 41. A two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 1,093 square feet is available for $249,000 with a water view.
Pavich also pointed to The Gardens of Bonita, a rental conversion on Matheson Avenue. There's a two-bedroom, two-bath listed at $249,900.Another conversion, The Sanctuary at Imperial River next to the bridge at U.S. 41, has a desirable end unit available at $249,000.
"The good news is, one year ago there was nothing for $250,000," Pavich said.