Sarasota/Manatee Real Estate Market Update -May 2011 Part 1
Summary
Across both counties for both condominiums and single family homes, unsold levels of inventory continue to decline. Added good news is that sales levels for the past 12 months are the highest since 2005 or 2006.
All data is from TrendGraphix and the My Florida Regional MLS for the products and time periods indicated.
Manatee and Sarasota County Single Family Home Market May 2011
Unsold inventory is down 17.5% from May 2011 in Sarasota County and 22.5% in Manatee County. In the West Bradenton area inventory is down nearly a fourth over May 2011.
Sales for the past 12 months have generally been strong across both counties. Sarasota sales are up .3% for the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 month period. In Manatee County, sales have increased 8.7%.
Full price and more sales represent sales of all non-distressed property listings that sold at or above the latest asking price. I am using this as an indicator of a swing in pricing advantage between buyers and sellers. The higher this percentage, the more sellers are gaining an advantage. I exclude all distressed property sales because distressed listings regularly sell for at or more than the asking price (i.e. they are priced at or below the market price). To include distressed sales would overwhelm the statistic, making the statistic reflect simply the percentage of distressed sales during the period.
Full-price and more sales were 5.0% of total sales during the past 12 months in Sarasota County down from 7.3% in the previous 12 month period. In Manatee County, full price and more sales were 6.1% of the prior 12 month sales compared with 8.0% for the previous 12 month period. Both counties declined relatively decisively compared with last year. However, in some of the most popular areas of both counties, there were some fairly positive moves. The West of the Trail area, Longboat Key, and Lakewood Ranch all showed increases in full price and more sales.
While strength in sales is encouraging, the best news is the decline in inventory. The chart below gives a historical perspective on where we are and how we got here.
