February homes sales fall 22% in Naples area

February home sales in the Naples area fell 22 percent, year over year, but the median sale price increased, the Naples Area Board of Realtors reported.

The Realtors also reported that the number of Naples-area homes listed for sale increased 27 percent to 5,510 in February from 4,343 a year earlier.

“After two years of rapid sales, it looks like the Naples-area real estate market is going through a natural correction process to a balanced market,” Rick Fioretti, president and broker associate of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Florida Realty, said in a prepared statement.

The number of Naples-area home sales fell to 518 in February from 668 in the same month last year, the Realtors reported, and the median sale price rose, anyway, to $323,000 from $290,000.

“February had the lowest number of closed sales on record of any month since November 2013,” Bill Coffey, broker-manager of Amerivest Realty Naples, said in a prepared statement. “And the highest inventory level in two years. If we continue to see a dramatic increase in inventory each month like we did for February, then we may eventually see it affect median closed prices.”