Downtown Sarasota Condo Market Update First Quarter 2011
Condos inventory in ZIP code 34236 slipped to just 301 units, a decline of 10 units from last month and 87 units from the same month last year. You have to go all the way back to December 2002 to find the last time inventory levels were lower than this. And in 2002, there were about 25% fewer condos constructed in downtown than there are today. By the time you separate this inventory by location (say near Main Street vs. Lido), price point, and size to find residences that meet a specific buyer’s criteria, each individual buyer will have few choices.
By price point, half of the March 31, 2011 unsold condo inventory in downtown Sarasota had an asking price under $500,000. Last year at this time just 46% of the inventory was priced under $500,000.
Sales in the first quarter dropped 13 units to 74 units down from 87 units during the same quarter last year (down 16%). But with the 22% decline in inventories discussed above, the market showed huge strength by not falling further. As I mentioned above, there are very few choices for any combination of location, price point, and size (not to mention other variables like view and condition).
Sales in excess of a $1,000,000 in ZIP 34236 dropped from 12 in Q1 last year to just 6 this year. However most of the decline was in Lido. Last year there were 5 sales on Lido in excess of $1,000,000 (The Beach Residences and Orchid Beach Club) while this year there were none. Million dollar sales in the true downtown area were down just 1 unit (roughly 14%).
Over all we still have over 12 months of supply on hand based on annualized first quarter sales. Inventory in the higher price points is a particular concern with the $500k to $1MM category having about 18 months of supply and the $1MM plus category having over a 3 year supply. It's going to be difficult for inventory to get much lower, so we are going to need some sales to put upward pressure on prices.