Monday, June 11, 2007

Townhouses sold at 50% discount in Fort Myers, FL. - local area homeowners outraged.

Fort Myers, Florida

Homebuilder Levitt and Sons auctioned off 50 townhouses in Fort Myers on Thursday night. Fisher Auction Co handled the red-hot bidding process selling homes at 50% less than what they sold for between 2003-2006. San Simeon-area homeowners who purchased similar townhouses at nearly double prices just a few years ago were outraged.

A report and video from Wink News: “The two and three bedroom townhouses in the San Simeon development, which is off of Winkler Avenue, were selling for prices we haven't seen in Southwest Florida in quite some time. And that was the whole point. Marketing reps with the developer, Levitt and Sons, say they're trying to quickly unload the fifty homes. Most of them were left over after people and investors backed out of deals when the housing market changed. Levitt and Son's Jama Shaw said, ‘This is our aggressive approach in moving onto our next phases and new floor plans.’”

“Greg Toher was outraged when he heard the prices some of the homes were going for. Walking out of the auction room, he told us, ‘$145,000! Unbelievable! We paid $300,000! They just got rid of at least four for $145,000!’ He says he closed on his three bedroom San Simeon townhome in December, ‘You've got to be kidding me, that's not fair.’”

“New buyers may be getting a steal, but current San Simeon homeowners, like Greg, tell WINK News they feel like they've been ripped off. Tara Gionpalo said, ‘I feel really mad, really sad, hurt.’”

“Victoria Toher said the developer went back on their word, ‘They promised us they were not going to go below market value.’ A Levitt and Sons representative told WINK News on Thursday night that the homes did go for fair market value...as determined by the hundreds of bidders at the auction.”

Full article can be found here.





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3 comments:

Unknown said...

145k sounds about right for FL.

I mean the only jobs are waiters right?

Siobanyan said...

These "outraged" homeowners get no more sympathy from me than the outraged subprime borrowers do! One's home is 'worth' what the market will bear -- no more and no less.

These folks don't "deserve" to have paid a better price, or "deserve" to have neighbors who paid the same outrageous bubble price that they CHOSE to pay, any more than totally unqualified borrowers "deserve" a government bailout on the toxic loan they CHOSE to sign up for.

The sense of indignant entitlement with all of these people is just incredible!

Anonymous said...

Serves them right. Kharma Greg, kharma coming back to bite you both in the a_ _. Ha! Finally getting what you deserve.