Sarasota-Bradenton Home Sales: Signs of Hope?
In another sign that the Sarasota-Bradenton housing market is recovering faster than most parts of Florida, June home sales climbed 5 percent from the same month last year.
Florida home prices were still seeking firmer footing: the median dropped 10 percent. But the June price was on par with the last six months.
In the Sarasota-Bradenton housing market, one of only two Florida markets with June sales increases, home sales continue to run at about the rate of the pre-boom market.
“I would not expect median prices to be rising yet as there is still so much inventory, but people are buying and beginning to realize perhaps we are skidding along the bottom,” said Penny Hill, the Sarasota-based top producer for the Florida mortgage lender Chase Mortgage.
“Skidding along” might be an apt description. Sarasota-Bradenton’s median sales price:
- $292,700 in June
- $294,700 in May
- $294,800 in April
- $291,500 in March
- $294,500 in February
One sign that the recovery in Sarasota-Bradenton may be ahead of the rest of the state: In Miami, 469 existing homes were sold during June, compared to the 797 that sold in Sarasota-Bradenton.
Meanwhile, Charlotte County-North Port saw a 33 percent drop in sales, from 323 homes in June 2006 to 218. Its median price dropped 10 percent, from $222,300 to $199,000.
Only Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay had a bigger drop, with a fall of 15 percent. Tallahassee, Ocala and Fort Lauderdale all posted increases - 4 percent, 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Sales in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market dropped 35 percent.
Statewide, June sales dropped 30 percent while prices declined 5 percent to $243,200 as Florida home loan applicants remained reluctant to delve into this market.
Nationally, sales fell for a fourth straight month, dropping by 3.8 percent to the slowest sales pace in four and a half years.
Prices rose 0.1 percent to $230,300, the first year-over-year price increase in 11 months and still offering (relatively) affordable Florida mortgage payments.
After buying a Sarasota beach rental on Siesta Key at the height of the boom, Drew Squyres wants out and is now trying to unload for $899,000, having bought it for $810,000. He already dropped from $950,000.
Squyres is paying $7,000 for homeowner’s insurance; the former owner’s bill was $2,000. Then, there is his $11,000 tax bill. Adding up all his costs, “If I sell at the current asking price I will lose money.”
In Port Charlotte, investor Herschel Pollard is tired of being a landlord. The Punta Gorda resident owned a canal-front house in Harbour Heights as an investment.
After Hurricane Charley damaged his main home, he moved into the other house, then later rented it to “a succession of unreliable tenants.”
The home is 25 feet above sea level, a high elevation for the Southwest Florida housing market, and overlooks a broad canal leading out to the Peace River.
Follow the link to continue reading this Sarasota Herald-Tribune story on the rise of Southwest Florida home sales …
