LEE COUNTY, Fla.- Home builders in Southwest Florida believe region finally is emerging from the recession, and people are actually buying new homes again. It's quite a contrast from 2 years ago, when virtually no one was building new here.

"We are optimistic, the bottom was last year, and we are on the rise, we are looking for this next cycle in housing to be good," said Bob Knight, vice-president of Paul Homes in Lee County.

"We are finding that the pioneers braved the market and built new a year ago. They showed it could be done, and now we are finding other people who are willing to buy new. Those people had been just sitting on the sideline since the market went down," said Knight.

"Cautious optimism are good words for how I feel," said realtor Marc Joseph. "I worry because there are so many foreclosures in the court system. We have to work through those before we have a full recovery in housing. And we still need jobs here. People have to be able to support themselves and make their payments. Not everyone is going to be retired."

Lee County still has about 8,100 foreclosure cases in the courts. That number has been growing in recent months.

"What we are seeing is that builders have brought down their costs and they are pricing their new homes at a point, that they can compete with the short sales and the foreclosures and the re-sales," said Joseph.

However, some question the wisdom of buying new, when there are so many empty homes.

"I am concerned about the vacant places because they can lead to crime. People steal the air conditioners and appliances, and neighborhoods can become sort of slums with all the vacant homes. So building and buying new? I have to say that makes no sense to me," said Gerry Delaney, a homeowner in Lee County.