Downtown Sarasota Condo Update for April 2011
The downward trend in inventory accelerates. The number of unsold condos in ZIP Code 34236, which includes not only the downtown area but also all of Lido, dropped to just 276. The last time inventory was that low, fully 20% of the units that currently exist in downtown hadn’t been built yet. This is off-the-charts low.
Sales were also reasonably strong in April more or less flat with last year which was also good. May, however, is shaping up to be one of the strongest months in years, for everywhere, not just downtown. We could break through 40 units of sales in May. Only 5 times since January 2005 have more than 40 condos sold in one month. Of those 5 times, 4 were related to the closings on new construction (i.e. an entire building closing over 100 units in 2 months).
Inventory by Price Point
The bulk of the inventory and sales in priced under $500,000. For this category, inventory dropped 17.6% while sales for the past 12 months increased 5.6% over the previous 12 month period. The months of supply statistic declined 20% to just under 8 months.
There were larger reductions in the other price categories which to a certain extent, had to limit sales, especially in the 500k to $1MM range where inventory declined nearly 40% over last year.
Inventory By Building
There were no big changes from last month but several buildings have had huge reductions over last year, including Rivo, the Ritz Tower Residences, and 100 Central.