Home Sales Rise in Bradenton-Sarasota Housing Market
Sales of existing homes nationally are expected to drop 4.6 percent this year to 6.2 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday - a stark contrast to the Bradenton-Sarasota market, which has seen sales gains the last two months.
Two months ago, the National Association of Realtors had predicted a 2.2 percent decline for the year. Sales of new homes nationally are forecasted to drop 18.2 percent to 860,000 compared with an earlier estimate of a 14.2 percent decline, the national association said in a statement.
Locally, April marked the second month in a row that saw existing-home sales in the Bradenton-Sarasota market increase. In April, there were 796 Realtor sales in this market, up 16 percent from April 2006 - the same increase as in March. It was the only market in the state that showed a positive change, according to numbers released by the Florida Association of Realtors.
“We’re not as bad as everybody else in the state, maybe even in the country,” said Ron Cornette, Wagner Realty’s marketing and training coordinator.
Manatee County’s Multiple Listing Service showed sales in west and northwest Bradenton have tripled in the second quarter compared with the sluggish first quarter. It’s an area where Florida mortgages have been in demand.
“Manatee has really been doing much, much better,” Cornette said.
On Wednesday, there were 97 new listings in Manatee and 94 price reductions, according to MLS. Last week, Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors, told local Realtors that Florida will have the highest price growth in the long term.He cautioned that full recovery may be six months to a year away but that it is inevitable.
“People should not bet against this region, the Bradenton-Sarasota-Punta Gorda area,” Yun said at the District 13 Technology and Business Expo in Sarasota.
The NAR also predicts the median price of existing homes, which make up about 85 percent of the market, will fall in 2007 for the first time since the 1960s, when the group began keeping records.
To date this year, a surplus of existing homes in Bradenton-Sarasota has contributed to pushing down the median price of such homes. In April, the median sales price fell 2 percent locally to $294,800.
The predicted decline comes after a 1 percent gain in home prices last year and an increase of more than 12 percent in 2005. While bad news for sellers, those seeking a Florida mortgage can at least take solace in future deals at these rates.
Next year, though, the NAR expected the market to rebound, and existing-home prices are forecasted to rise 1.7 percent. In a statement, Yun said that sales have been stronger in lower-price markets, dragging down median prices, an effect he described as a “temporary distortion.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that the residential real estate slowdown “appears likely to remain a drag on economic growth for somewhat longer than previously expected,” but he added that the problems don’t seem to spreading to the broader economy.
In February, the largest lenders tightened standards for borrowers as more homeowners with the weakest, or subprime, credit began to have problems keeping up with monthly bad credit Florida mortgage payments.
Subprime lenders have seen a spike in defaults on payments, and many of those lenders have filed for bankruptcy while larger financial institutions have sold their subprime lending divisions.
SOURCE: The Bradenton Herald
