Sarasota Real Estate Blog

The Sarasota Association of Realtors just released their October results. In it, they reported total home and condo sales for October of 577, essentially unchanged from the September volume of 570. This October total consisted of 412 single-family homes and 165 condos.  Last year at this point, there were only 487 home and condo sales. This is more evidence that the slump in Sarasota and Manatee County home sales is coming to an end after 5 long years. 

The median single-family home price also rose from $147,500 in October, 2010 to $149.838 this October.  Still working off the supply of condos on the market, the median condominium sale price, as expected, dropped slightly from $158,500 last October to $143,000 this month.

There were two other positive signs of the overall improvement of the health of the Sarasota real estate market. The first was the drop in the inventory of unsold homes.  This month, there were 1,601 homes and 2,924 condos on the market versus 2,170 homes and 3,899 condos on the market in October of 2010.

Second, the “months of inventory” statistic, which measures how many months it would take at the current sales rate for all homes currently on the market to be sold, showed dramatic increases.  For single-family homes the “months-of-inventory” dropped from 11.1 months in October, 2010 to just 7.1 months this month.  Equally impressive, the “months of inventory metric for condominiums dropped from 15.9 months last year at this time to only 9.7 months in October of this year. 

Historically, a reduction in the inventory of homes for sale eventually leads to increased prices as buyers begin to "compete" for the most attractive properties in the most attractive locations and Sarasota certainly ranks as one of the most attractive places to live.

In summary, the Sarasota real estate market has continued its strong recovery in spite of the economic uncertainties caused by the situations in Washington, DC and the Eurozone.

If you are considering a visit to the Sarasota-Bradenton area to find that retirement dream home, don’t wait. Whether you are seeking a home or condo for immediate use or to generate some income until you ready to retire, there’s no sense waiting any longer.

Let me help you make your “Little Piece of Paradise” here on the “Florida Gulf  Coast” a dream come true.