Lakewood Ranch Real Estate 2010 Review
Lakewood Ranch Homes Sales and Unsold Inventory
With the exception of a minor uptick in 2007, home sales in LWR have declined every year between 2004 and 2009. This year sales also experienced a minor uptick increasing from 415 unit sales in 2009 to 467 sales in 2010.
In March 2007, the levels of unsold inventory peaked at 1,283 homes but inventory levels steadily declined to roughly 300 units in August 2009. Inventory levels have been holding steady at around 300 units since then. For the past 3 months, unsold inventory levels have hovered between 270 and 275. These are the lowest levels since August 2005.
The relationship between sales and inventory is still not very strong. The 275 units of unsold inventory still represents nearly 8 months of sales. Anything above 6 months is considered a buyer’s market.
However, a very positive sign of an improving market in the Lakewood Ranch area is the increase in new construction sales. The Lakewood Ranch website reports that 250 new homes were built in 2010. The number for 2009 wasn’t quoted, but the projection for 2011 is 350. County-wide (Manatee) MyManatee.org reports that there were 1108 residential building permits issued in 2010 compared with 831 in 2009 (21% increase).
Lakewood Ranch Foreclosures and Short Sales
Like most areas of the county, there is a huge demand for distressed property in Lakewood Ranch. During 2010, 69 homes owned by banks sold while another 127 homes sold as short sales. Total distressed sales were 193 units or about 41% of total sales. These figures represent an increase in sales from 2009 when only 62 bank-owned homes sold and 100 homes sold as short sales. The total of all distressed property sales as a percentage of total sales in 2009 was 40%, roughly the same as 2010.
However, there is virtually no unsold inventory of distressed property. There are only 11 bank owned homes in the current inventory and 52 short sales listed. This total of 63 distressed properties listed for sale is only about 22% of total inventory. This means that there is only about a 6 month of supply in distressed properties or roughly 25% less than non-distressed. With nearly 6 bank owned homes per month selling, there is only a 2 month supply of bank-owned inventory.