'Wealth Gap' Hits Florida West Coast

Naples, Florida is typical of second-home communities suffering from the "wealth gap." Says an article in USA Today, "investors and vacation-home buyers helped drive up the median home price to $446,900, second-highest in Florida after the Keys." Prices are dropping but not enough for people who work in the region. More than 80% of the workforce is employed in the four lowest-paying industries: construction, retail, agriculture and services (pool cleaners, for instance, and golf instructors). Median income for a family of four: $66,100. That would qualify you for only about a $350,000 house, nearly $100,000 below the median.

Economy.com Forecasts Major Florida Price Plunges

For those who own vacation homes or investment property in Cape Coral, Sarasota and Naples, Florida, fasten your seat belts -- you're in for a bumpy ride. Moody's economy.com projects more than an 18 percent decline in prices by February in Cape Coral, 14 percent in Sarasota by March and almost 13 percent in Naples by March. Note: numbers based on media existing home prices.

Bias in Second Home Sales?

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a disturbing article about minority second-home buyers who were either blackballed or otherwise discriminated against when they tried to buy a vacation home. Where? In "Palm Beach County, Fla., there were 144 race-based housing complaints made to the local chapter of the nonprofit National Fair Housing Alliance in 2005, a 30 percent increase over the previous year, with many of them being filed by first-time second-home buyers. Bias claims are also up in Naples, Fla., and San Diego County, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development." The article included a tale of an African-American doctor who had a deal on a house in Sedona, AZ that was suddenly cancelled. Do you know of a bias case? Let me know.

High Winds Blow NYC, DC No Good, Sez Expert

Thinking about buying a pied-a-terre in New York City or Washington, DC? Or a second home in Naples, Fla.? Keep your checkbook in your pocket, says real estate consultant John Burns. His "barometer" of housing affordability blows these cities off the charts in terms of bubbledom. "Nine markets have even worse affordability levels than when mortgage rates were 18%+ in the early 1980s: New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Baltimore, Edison (New Jersey), Nassau (Long Island, NY) and Naples," says Burns's latest newsletter.

You Paid Too Much

If you just bought a second home in Naples, Fla. you probably paid nearly double what the property is really worth.

A Barron's study based on info from National City, a Cleveland banking and mortgage outfit, says homes there are overvalued by 96 %. Second on the list is Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, Fla. Top 10 overvalued cities include Tucson, Prescott and Phoenix in Arizona; Bend, Ore.; Napa, Calif.; Barnstable, Mass.; and Ocean City and Atlantic City, N.J.