While nationally the real estate market remains mired in trouble, the Sarasota real estate market is showing significant strength as it continues to recover from the low of the past few years.
Sarasota area home and condo sales have remained above 500 units in every month so far in 2011 while the inventory of unsold homes, another key indicator of real estate market strength, has fallen consistently to just over 4,400 properties (2,817 single family homes and 1,591 condos) as of the end of August. At the lowest point in the housing collapse in March, 2007, there were 17,102 properties on the Sarasota real estate market.
The Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) reported “As a result of consumer demand and dropping inventory, the median sale price for single family homes and condos has recovered from the lows reached in February 2011, when both categories showed a median price of $137,500.” “The latest monthly figures show a median price of $165,000 for both single family homes and condominiums, a 23% improvement from the lows of only 7 months ago,” SAR reported.
“We’re starting to see a definite trend line developing, and it’s very positive,” said SAR President, Michael Bruno. “No one has a crystal ball, and it wouldn’t be wise for anyone to make a solid prediction on the future of our market,.” he said. Nonetheless, the normal market forces of supply and demand seem to be coming back into balance. “Sarasota is becoming a seller’s market, in which price appreciation would be expected.” President Bruno added.
Equally positive is the fact that in October, we are moving out of the slow “summer season market” and into the period when home and condo sales normally pick up as snowbirds return from up North. Many of them are expected to realize what is happening in the Sarasota real estate market.
Wise snowbirds will contact a professional Realtor like Brian Ward, an Accredited Buyer Representative soon to find their own “piece of paradise” here on the Florida Sun Coast before prices creep higher.
If you are returning to Florida for the Winter season, I invite you to E-Mail Me or fill out my brief Request for Sarasota Real Estate Information so I can send you the most pertinent information to guide you in your Sarasota or Bradenton area home-hunting adventure.
For even more immediate action, call me directly at 941-228-2321. I would be delighted to be of service to you.
