PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WINK)— From North Port to Naples, Southwest Florida has been home to some of the coolest housing markets in the country over the past several years. Now, a new report finds those prices are starting to stabilize.
Inventory is starting to decline, pushing Southwest Florida somewhere between a buyers and sellers market, according to economists and realtors. Florida Gulf Coast University finds the number of home listings has consistently dropped over the last three months.
In May, listings declined almost 19.3% from last year, according to the Regional Economic Indicators Dashboard. There were similar drops in April and March.
“It’s moderating,” said Amir Neto, director of FGCU Regional Economic Research Institute. “If you look into the supply and demand, I think we are moderating in both ends, and we’re finding newer equilibrium, so it’s a little bit less volatile.”
Neto said home prices are continuing to drop – but not as quickly as before. Punta Gorda-based realtor Brian Helgemo said some sellers have exited the market. He described them as people who would like to sell, but don’t need to.
“They’re saying….we’ll wait a year, two years, three years for those prices to come back up again,” Helgemo said. “And you know, in Southwest Florida, they always go back up.
Even though there are fewer listings, buyers still have plenty of options. Neto said inventory remains above pre-pandemic levels. Roughly 23,500 homes are currently listed in Lee County, according to data from Realtor.com.
Florida’s red-hot real estate boom during COVID 19 fueled more development in the region, Neto said.
Some projects took years to complete, introducing new homes into the market even as fewer people moved to Florida. Meanwhile, some people decided to leave after hurricanes increased homeownership costs. Housing inventory peaked in 2025 and has declined since, Neto said.
People are still moving to Southwest Florida. The coastal counties had 2,512 single-family home sales in May, according to FGCU. That’s a 4.2 percent increase from May 2025.
Helgemo said several properties are getting multiple offers a week, which hasn’t happened for some time.
“Buyers are having to come in a little more realistic and not just throw offers at sellers,” Helgemo said. “So that’s helping everything.”
Southwest Florida is approaching a ‘neutral market,’ Helgemo said, somewhere between buyers and sellers. But if a lot of properties hit the market this fall, Helgemo said it could swing back towards buyers.
“We’re moving closer to a buyer’s market,” Neto said. “We are much closer to a buyer’s market right now, and that is a fact that I think the inventory tells that story.”