Single-family home prices in the Naples-Marco Island area are the highest in Florida

Single-family home prices in the Naples-Marco Island area are the highest in Florida — and still have room to climb, researcher Local Market Monitor said.

Prices in Cape Coral-Fort Myers will also stay on a tear for the next few years, the Cary, N.C.-based firm forecasted.

Ingo Winzer, the firm’s president, is bullish on Southwest Florida because of strong job growth, particularly in tourism and retail; incomes that rank among the highest in Florida; and continued interest from investors.

“Combine speculative interest with good fundamental economic demand and you have a lot of people who want to buy property,” he said Wednesday.

In its residential real estate report for the second quarter, Local Market Monitor said single-family home prices for the Naples area reached a median of $276,086, the highest in any of the 20 cities they tracked in Florida. That’s an 8 percent bump from the same quarter a year earlier, the Naples Daily News said.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers was ninth on the list, with prices reaching a median of $184,976 for the quarter, a 12 percent jump from the year before.

Both markets will experience double-digit growth over the coming year, Local Market Monitor predicted, and that only means nothing but good things for Southwest Florida.

Prices in Naples-Marco Island are expected to rise an additional 11 percent by the second quarter of 2015, while Cape Coral-Fort Myers is expected to rise another 12 percent.

By the second quarter of 2017, cumulative price increases for the three-year period will have reached 29 percent in Naples-Marco Island and 31 percent in Cape Coral-Fort Myers.

Despite the predicted increases, Winzer is confident Southwest Florida isn’t headed for dreaded bubble territory.

Given rising demand and the healthy local economy, “prices are 20 percent lower than they ought to be,” he said.