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We Explore the Current State of the Southwest Florida Real Estate Market

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According to the statewide organization Florida Realtors, Florida’s housing market reported higher median prices again in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same quarter last year. The median sales price of single family existing homes rose 9.7 percent. The statewide median price for condos and townhomes rose 7.8 percent over last year. While prices of existing homes continues to increase, so does the rate of new home building, especially here in southwest Florida. New communities continue to spring up, and new commercial development is on the rise. So, we’re bringing back in our panel of real estate experts to get their sense of where the market is currently, and where we’re heading going into the summer months.

 
We're joined by David Cobb, Regional Director for South Florida with Metrostudy; Brad Dohack, the Qualifying Broker of Gulf Pointe Properties in Fort Myers; and Denny Grimes from Denny Grimes and Company.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.