Sarasota/Manatee Real Estate Market Update -June 2011 Part 2
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Sarasota/Manatee Condominium Market
The condominium market is the same story as the single family market, but with more robust sales. Unsold condo inventory is down everywhere from June of last year, more that 20% in most places. The most amazing story is Lakewood Ranch where, at the end of June, there were only 36 condos listed for sale.
Area-wide inventory levels are roughly half as large as when they peaked in 2007. The current number of condos listed for sale is roughly equal to the number on the market in October 2005.
Sales for the past 12 months have been up across both counties. Both Downtown Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch saw sales slow in the last 12 months by 6% and 16%, respectively, compared to the previous 12 months. The results from those areas could be caused by the lack of inventory, especially Lakewood Ranch where there is only a 4.3 months of supply.
The barrier islands (Longboat and Anna Maria) both have had nice increases in sales over the past 12 months, especially Anna Maria with a 46% improvement. But as with single family home inventory in these areas, there is still too much condo inventory available for the current level of sales.
Stratifying the market base on the age of buildings shows interesting results. The vast majority of condos in both counties are over 30 years old. Most buildings in the area were constructed in the 1970’s. Newer condos are scarce over all.
The chart above shows sales and inventory for each county stratified by age. Notice the relatively larger light orange (Manatee) sales volume bar compared to the dark volume (Manatee) Condos Listed for Sale in the same age category. In this case, 20% of the listings are driving 30% of the sales. This could account for the low volume/ high rate of sales in Lakewood Ranch, where most of the condominiums were constructed after 2001.