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A RECORD MONTH FOR HOME BUILDING IN LEE Lehigh
leads permit boom - Cheaper land attracting buyers Lee County issued a record 746 single-family home permits in January as construction took off like a rocket in Lehigh Acres. Cape Coral also saw a dramatic increase in January: a record 601 single-family permits, compared to 438 in January 2004. January's permits for the county, which also includes Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Springs, were a 36 percent increase over January 2004. The previous record was set in December with 698 permits. In Lehigh, "It's a frenzied phenomenon like I've never seen before," said real estate broker John McWilliams, of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties, who has been selling houses there for 24 years. "We have five times more buyers than we have property for sale." Of the 7,124 permits issued for single-family homes in 2004, 3,166 - 44 percent - were in Lehigh. The number of permits in Lehigh more than doubled over 2003. "We're seeing an explosion in Lehigh Acres because of the land affordability," said real estate broker Frank D'Alessandro, of D'Alessandro & Woodyard, Commercial Realtors, who also is a real estate columnist for The News-Press. "A lot of the prospective home builders who used to build in Cape Coral are now opting to go to Lehigh. They're buying more houses because the land costs less." Right now, a non-waterfront, 80-by-120-foot lot with water and septic costs about $27,000 in Lehigh as opposed to $40,000 to $50,000 for the same thing in the Cape. Both those price ranges are far above those prevailing even three years ago, when the same land was available for $3,000 to $5,000 in the Cape and $2,000 to $4,000 in Lehigh, he said. Elsewhere in Southwest Florida, there wasn't as much activity. January in unincorporated Collier County, for example, saw 172 permits worth $36.9 million issued compared to 200 worth $41.1 million in January 2004. In Lee County, however, the boom carries with it some problems for the construction industry. Michael Reitmann, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, said the county is "experiencing a major shortage of inspectors and plan reviewers," although permits still are being issued within one day of requests. Also, he said, the amount of work is causing problems for builders who are having trouble getting enough skilled workers and construction materials such as cement. Some of that was caused by Hurricane Charley last summer but the sheer volume of work is also to blame, Reitmann said. Mary Gibbs, director of Lee County's Community Development Department, said Wednesday she will soon be asking the county commission for 23 more employees in her department, which already has about 200 workers. "A month ago, I was thinking 12." The crush of work - 1,400 inspections per day - is taking its toll, she said. "People are being delayed. It's taking us three or four days to call people to come and pick up plans when they're ready." For example, the target time for processing a development order - an application to build a large development - is 64 days for a large project compared to the department's target time of 21 days. Twenty-three more people, Gibbs said, is "a lot, but when you look at the numbers, whoo, is it ever going to stop?" For those wanting to buy a house, it's a seller's market, said McWilliams, the Lehigh real estate agent. Developers typically, he said, "are doing it on a reservation basis. They're very cautious about offering an initial price because prices are increasing so much. I took a prospect to one development and asked, 'Do you have houses for $250,000?' Well, yes and no." The builder wouldn't be pinned down and told the customer to check back later when the home's actual price was set, he said. Often, McWilliams said, a house comes with strings attached: The builder requires that the buyer pay a percentage back to the builder if the house is resold within a certain period. That is to prevent buyers from immediately "flipping" a house back on the market at a higher price and competing with the builder, who still may be selling houses in that neighborhood. Oliver Conover, executive director of the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce, said the flood of new homes is both a blessing and a curse for his community, which has about 60,000 residents. Only 3 percent of Lehigh is zoned commercial, for example, only about half what it should be, he said, and it will take action by the county commission to remedy that. If a sewer system isn't installed for the new houses, Conover said, many septic tanks will end up polluting the groundwater. The
bottom line, he said: "This growth is happening without the controls
that we should have in order to do smart growth." |