Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
FORT MYERS Help identify driver of SUV related to Fort Myers shooting Police hope someone can help identify the driver of an SUV involved in the shooting on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Michigan Avenue.
FORT MYERS Owners of Richards Building speak out over paint job of historic property The Richards Building in downtown Fort Myers, aged 101 years, recently underwent a controversial transformation with a fresh coat of white paint, defying a stop-work order and sparking public outrage.
FORT MYERS Jake’s story: What needs to change to protect other young people? November 8, 2021, Jake Pfeiffer took his own life. His mom shared Jake’s story with WINK News in the hopes of saving another life.
FORT MYERS Man accused of fatal shooting of truck driver appears in court A man facing second-degree murder charges following an altercation with a pickup truck driver made an appearance in court.
NAPLES SUV crashes into Naples restaurant’s window; no injuries A popular Naples restaurant is cleaning up after an SUV partially crashed into it, but luckily, nobody was hurt.
PUNTA GORDA 20th annual Hibiscus Festival begins in Punta Gorda The 20th annual Hibiscus Festival at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda begins Friday morning and runs all weekend.
WINK NEWS Lehigh Acres senior caretaker accused of stealing over $70K of patients’ jewelry A senior caretaker has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $70,000 of her patients’ jewelry and pawning it.
Tim Aten Knows: Next phase of Restaurant Row Naples under way Construction of the final phase of Restaurant Row Naples was stalled for months because of financial issues but the three-building project was recently revived.
Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
FORT MYERS Help identify driver of SUV related to Fort Myers shooting Police hope someone can help identify the driver of an SUV involved in the shooting on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Michigan Avenue.
FORT MYERS Owners of Richards Building speak out over paint job of historic property The Richards Building in downtown Fort Myers, aged 101 years, recently underwent a controversial transformation with a fresh coat of white paint, defying a stop-work order and sparking public outrage.
FORT MYERS Jake’s story: What needs to change to protect other young people? November 8, 2021, Jake Pfeiffer took his own life. His mom shared Jake’s story with WINK News in the hopes of saving another life.
FORT MYERS Man accused of fatal shooting of truck driver appears in court A man facing second-degree murder charges following an altercation with a pickup truck driver made an appearance in court.
NAPLES SUV crashes into Naples restaurant’s window; no injuries A popular Naples restaurant is cleaning up after an SUV partially crashed into it, but luckily, nobody was hurt.
PUNTA GORDA 20th annual Hibiscus Festival begins in Punta Gorda The 20th annual Hibiscus Festival at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda begins Friday morning and runs all weekend.
WINK NEWS Lehigh Acres senior caretaker accused of stealing over $70K of patients’ jewelry A senior caretaker has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $70,000 of her patients’ jewelry and pawning it.
Tim Aten Knows: Next phase of Restaurant Row Naples under way Construction of the final phase of Restaurant Row Naples was stalled for months because of financial issues but the three-building project was recently revived.
Workers carry a wall frame for a home under construction at a K. Hovnanian Homes development in Plano, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. (Credit: CNN) Despite a recent drop in retail sales, softer business spending and a slowdown in job growth, the housing market keeps humming along. That’s good news for a US economy that may need housing to keep the current recovery alive. The National Association of Home Builders reported last week that builder sentiment in October reached its highest level since February 2018. What’s more, the increase in sentiment so far this year is the biggest 10-month change in more than six years. “With homebuilder sentiment so strong, it’s hard to imagine that the economy is on the cusp of a downturn,” said analysts at Bespoke Investment Group in a report. Bespoke analysts also noted that while housing starts and building permit numbers for September showed a slight pullback from August levels, the decline — which was expected — was due mainly to a slowdown in multi-family apartment units, as opposed to traditional houses. Data on permits a year ago similarly showed that starts for single-family homes rose from August as well as September of 2018. There seems to be no end in sight to the housing boom in many parts of the US. According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent Beige Book report, which looks at economic conditions in regions throughout the country, the Boston, Atlanta, Richmond, Chicago, Kansas City and San Francisco districts all have strong housing markets. Low mortgage rates could get lower thanks to the Fed The housing numbers dovetail with data that shows wages are growing at a rate higher than inflation and the unemployment rate is near a 50-year low. “There is no better sentiment than people willing to make 30-year commitments for a home,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist with TD Ameritrade. “When people have jobs, they are willing to spend money. The solid housing market is the side effect of a great job market.” Low mortgage rates are helping to convince some renters, particularly younger millennials looking to start families, to take the plunge and buy homes. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is now just 3.69% according to mortgage financing company Freddie Mac. That’s down from about 4.5% at the start of 2019 and a multi-year peak of 4.94% last November. Financing could get cheaper, too, if the Federal Reserve continues to lower interest rates, as many investors and economists expect. Lower rates could push the benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield, which influences mortgage rates, even lower. Investors have taken notice. The S&P Homebuilders ETF, a fund that includes shares of top builders and other companies with a lot of revenue tied to the housing market, is up a stunning 38% this year. Shares of home improvement retail giant Home Depot are up 38% this year as well, making them the second best performing stock in the Dow. Home Depot trails only Apple. Housing related stocks are soaring Alex Pettee, president of Hoya Capital Real Estate, which recently launched the Hoya Capital Housing ETF, said that he thinks concerns about the housing market needing to cool off are overblown — largely because of what has happened with the Fed and mortgage rates. “The weakness we saw in housing in 2018 was about higher rates. So I’m not surprised to see a re-acceleration in the market this year, although it has happened a little more quickly than we thought. But last year was not reflective of an end of the cycle. It was a rate driven slowdown,” Pettee said. He is encouraged that the strength for homebuilders has filtered down to companies like Home Depot and rival Lowe’s as well as homebuilding products and furnishing businesses like heating and cooling company Lennox, plumbing supplies maker Masco and flooring company Mohawk. In fact, Lennox reported earnings Monday that were led by a 7% jump in residential heating and cooling sales and [a] 12% increase in profits. Both were third quarter records — and Lennox chairman and CEO Todd Bluedorn said on a conference call with analysts that it was heading into the last few months of the year with healthy momentum. “The fourth quarter is off to a solid start and we look forward to a strong finish to the year. The residential market continues to look robust,” Bluedorn said. Of course, the housing market’s momentum could grind to a halt if the trade war with China begins to take an even bigger toll on the US economy. But so far, consumers are largely shrugging off the threat of more tariffs and other geopolitical uncertainties that have occasionally rattled investors this year. They continue to buy houses as well as home improvement goods to spruce them up. “I’m an optimist on the economy. We’ve had this ugly litany of news flow — impeachment, Brexit, protests in Hong Kong. But it’s remarkable that the US is now heading into the eleventh year of expansion and ingredients are still in place for a good economy,” said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist with Brown Brothers Harriman.