Sarasota Housing Market “Closer to Normal”

The housing market in Sarasota had a huge growth spurt during the real estate boom, but it hit the brakes in spring of last year.

The median price for a single-family home was down 18% in the fourth quarter compared with the same quarter of 2005, the biggest drop of any metro area, according to the National Association of Realtors.

At the height of the boom, “People were buying sight unseen,” says Russ Marquardt, a Florida real estate agent at Re/Max Properties in Sarasota. “It’s not similar to that now by any means, but I would say our marketing is more attuned to what it was before the land rush. I’m thinking that we’re getting closer and closer to normal.”

Sarasota’s main attractions, of course, are the warm weather and white sandy beaches. The city, on the southwest coast of Florida about 50 miles south of Tampa Bay, has a population of about 55,000.

Even though home sales are not on par with recent years, the market is still growing. These days, Marquardt says, home sellers are more willing to negotiate, while Florida mortgage loan borrowers are out shopping for homes in good neighborhoods that might have been unaffordable before.

On a recent weekend, he says, he held an open house, and 21 people came — a good sign for this year’s spring selling season.

SOURCE: USA Today