Bradenton-Sarasota Housing Market Improves in Q1

Looks like Florida mortgage news isn’t all bad.
The Bradenton-Sarasota housing market bounced back in the first quarter of 2007 while other Florida markets saw a slump of the number of sales.

Existing home sales were up 6 percent, according to numbers released by the Florida Association of Realtors Tuesday, while prices continued to slide.

Those declines in home prices made about 12 percent of the area’s homes more affordable than they were in the first quarter of 2006.

Still, the area is chock full of homes far too expensive for those trying to get in on the market with first-time Florida mortgages.

The median price of a home was down to $290,500, which is great compared to $331,100 during the same period last year, but still awfully high.

Sales aren’t exactly going through the roof nowadays, after all. Meanwhile condos - a lower priced alternative - appreciated by 15 percent.

The median cost of a condo was $312,600. In 2006, the median price during the first quarter was $273,000.

Across the Florida housing market, sales fell 26 percent but median prices stayed the same for condos and fell only three percent to $237,000 for existing homes.

SOURCE: Bradenton Herald