My friend Brett Ellis of Fort Myers, FL who is a member of the CyberStars organization that I also belong to recently posted in his blog that sales were up 80% in July when compared with July 2007 and up even more sharply when compared with the previous year. Furthermore, this is not a flash in the pan one time event sort of thing as their market has for three straight months exceeded 2006 & 2007’s units sold.

Why are the real estate market trends in Fort Myers pertinent to our Gatlinburg real estate market? The answer is simple – we tend to follow their lead. The southwest Florida market started to crack in March of 2005 and trended lower in 2006 and even lower in 2007, just like our Sevier County real estate market did, preceding ours by just a few months.

Our markets are also similar in some other ways. Both areas have a large number of second home or seasonal owners and while their run up was sharper than ours in the 2003 – 2005 period we did have a similar, if smaller, price appreciation during that period. Like our market, the SW Florida market is currently experiencing a large number of foreclosures as is our market here in East Tennessee. If history holds, our market should begin its recovery over the next few months. Stay tuned, we’ll have the numbers, good or bad and without any glossing over the facts, right here…