Home prices in Florida are anticipated to decline further in 2026, with Southwest Florida potentially seeing some of the steepest drops. This is according to . However, local realtors in Cape Coral have a different outlook.

Realtor.com predicts a 10.2% decrease in Cape Coral home prices and an 8.9% decrease in North Port. But Sam Yaffey, a realtor with over 20 years of experience in Southwest Florida, is skeptical of these projections.

“For some reason, they’re picking on us, and I don’t quite understand it,” said Yaffey.

She believes the market is already showing signs of recovery with more buyers entering the scene.

“The reality that it’s that things have dropped like already that amount and that we are now starting to bump up a little bit. We have more buyers,” said Yaffey.

According to Jose Torna, a long-time Cape Coral realtor with Coldwell Banker, Cape Coral has experienced only about a 1% drop in home prices year-to-year. 

“Our market is very unique,” said Torna.  We have gone through once again major storms, major catastrophic events, and we have recovered. Here in Cape, we’re still having a huge amount of sales, not as good as they were in 2022, but we are holding strong.”

Both Yaffey and Torna believe a rise in home prices is on the horizon for 2026, driven by potential decreases in interest rates.

“All indicators are telling us, those of us that have been in the business for a long time, is that interest rates, obviously, are going to come down,” said Torna. “We’re possibly looking at half a point by the end of the year, and several next year reductions, and that’s going to bring in a lot of buyers. So instead of prices going down– that makes zero sense to me– I believe that actually prices may go up.”

“When interest rates go down, prices go up, demand goes up, which is also another conflict with this article from Realtor.com,” said Yaffey.

Realtor.com also forecasts that median sales prices for existing homes and condos across Florida’s largest metro areas will fall an average of 1.9% next year, which is below the national expected rise of 2.2%. They attribute the projected dip to a growing supply of homes for sale and fewer people looking to buy them.

“For those that have to sell, I feel bad for them, because they’re not going to sell for their asking price right away,” said Chuck Davis, a Cape Coral homeowner. “For those that don’t, and they can hang on to their property, they’re going to do fine.”

Davis, who has owned a home in Cape Coral since 2017, expressed concerns about the current housing market dynamics.

“There’s too many houses on the market,” said Davis. “And with that many houses on the market, yes, it’s a buyer’s market. But like I said, with interest rates the way they are, buyers can’t, can’t afford to buy those houses.”

Yaffey said while she does anticipate a bump in home prices next year, it won’t be huge.

“It’s not 2021 or 2022. We won’t see a market like that probably until there’s some other driving force that causes it,” said Yaffey.

Across the street from where WINK News interviewed Yaffey was a Cape Coral home valued at around $1.5 million. A home, which she said is a great example of why buyers will continue to turn to the Southwest Florida market.

“You go over to Palm Beach, that same house is $3 million. If you go down to Miami, it’s probably three or four. If you go up to Tampa, it’s more money. If you go up to Sarasota, it’s more money. We are really one of the best places in the world, if you want to have this kind of living,” said Yaffey.