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Florida County Sees Housing Doing Better Than Rest of the State
While Florida is among the areas of the country that have been hardest hit by the housing downturn, builders in one southwestern county in the state are letting prospective home buyers know that conditions have starting turning around in the local market.
“Several sales managers are reporting an increase in sales,” said JoAnn Orr, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association. “They are slowly pulling back on the incentives they were offering — including golf memberships and master association dues for a year — and are slowly raising prices. And some of the builders are actually pulling permits due to the lack of inventory.”
The association attributes the recent turnaround to an aggressive public relations campaign reminding consumers that the lifestyle in southwestern Florida is unparalleled and now is a great time to buy property there.
Developing the Web Site
To begin its “Buy Now in Southwest Florida” campaign, the BIA set up a Web site with partnering builder and associate members.
A “Good News” link on that site shares positive stories from media and industry sources about the local and national markets. Included are headlines such as “Survey Finds Consumers More Bullish on Homeownership as Spring Arrives” and “Improvement in Mortgage Market Bodes Well for Housing in 2008.”
A “Facts” link explains why Lee County is faring better than the rest of the state. The county is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation and future its population increases are projected to exceed the national average. Also, the housing supply is decreasing as foreign investors are taking advantage of the weak dollar to invest in property in the resort area.
Partnering With Local Media
The association held a meeting with the membership to pitch the campaign idea. Once support and funding were granted, production on the campaign began and a theme was chosen.
Local news media outlets including television, radio and newspaper were invited to a breakfast outlining the campaign and were asked to submit proposals for advertising opportunities. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and the association secured nearly $400,000 worth of advertising for only $80,000.
Television, radio, newspapers and a local billboard company stepped up to the plate and offered two-for-one ads, free advertorial space and commercials, and free billboards placed in three locations along I-75, the main highway between north and south Florida. The association also negotiated with the Southwest Florida International Airport near Fort Myers and had all of the LCD projectors located in the baggage claim area displaying the campaign ads at a significant discount.
One-on-one relationships were also formed with local newspaper editors. “I contacted the editor of the real estate section of the News-Press and submitted an article to him and he printed it,” said Orr. “I also invited him to take a tour with me to visit Paseo, one of our new developments, and the subsequent coverage in the paper was highly positive.”
Markets across the nation can help turn the tide locally, like Lee County, using the information and resources available from NAHB to combat negative media stories and restore the confidence of hesitant buyers. Read their stories or access the Myth Buster resources by going to www.nahb.org/mythbuster.
For more information on the Myth Buster resources, e-mail Gwyn Donohue at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.
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