Momentum, Stability, and Clarity: Your SW Florida Market Update

If you have been wondering whether the Southwest Florida real estate market is starting to move again, the short answer is yes. And the longer answer is even better. The last 30 days, from mid December through mid January, show a market that is stabilizing, finding its balance, and picking up momentum right on schedule as peak season gets underway.

At the same time, there is an important topic starting to make waves in legal and title circles that has not fully hit the mainstream radar yet: the new FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule. I want to break it all down in a clear, practical way and explain why this is actually good news for our market.

The Market Right Now: Solid and Improving

Over the last 30 days, active listings across Southwest Florida declined to 18,873, down from 19,694 just weeks earlier. That tells us buyer demand is absorbing inventory faster than new listings are coming on.

Months of inventory is also moving toward balance.

Lee County is now at 7.3 months and Collier County at 8.2 months, a noticeable improvement from the buyer heavy conditions we saw late last year.

Homes are also moving faster. Average days on market dropped to 93 days in Lee County and 95 days in Collier County, a clear seasonal signal that buyers are back and engaged.

Sales Momentum Is Building

December closed stronger than many expected.

• Naples recorded 790 closings, up 29% year over year

• Bonita Springs and Estero posted 159 closings, up 21% year over year

• Cape Coral and Fort Myers closed 470 sales, up 12% year over year

Even more telling, pending sales increased 28% in the final 60 days of 2025. Those contracts are now feeding directly into January activity. This is real momentum, not speculation.

Prices Are Adjusting the Right Way

Prices remain elevated by historical standards, but the market is behaving rationally.

Median pricing softened slightly year over year, with Cape Coral and Fort Myers around $330,000 and Naples around $550,000. At the same time, values across the region remain stable after earlier corrections.

There were 1,176 price reductions in the past week, and that is not a negative. It shows the market self correcting. Homes priced correctly are selling. Homes that miss the mark are adjusting and then moving. That is exactly how a healthy market should function.

Let’s Talk About FinCEN and Why It Matters

If you have been following the news, you know transparency is becoming the new currency in real estate. While there was early talk about these rules starting last month, the Treasury Department has officially pushed the go live date to March 1, 2026. That gives us a valuable window to prepare for what is essentially the biggest shift in real estate reporting in a generation.

So what is actually changing?