Sarasota Real Estate

Pending Home Sales Improve -- again

2009-11-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

Pending home sales increased for the 8th straight month, hitting a 3-year high:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33583945/ns/business-real_estate/

Our inventory of higher-end homes is 1/3 of what it was a year ago!

Mortgage Rates - How Low Can They Go?

2009-10-08T11:24:00.002-05:00

Apparently, not much lower -- at least according to this report from CNBC:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32895358

Sarasota is the #1 Place to Buy a Home!

2009-10-06T15:28:00.003-05:00

NY Real Estate super-agent Barbara Corcoran was on the Today show this morning with her list of 10 Best Markets to Buy a Home Now.... Sarasota was #1 on the list:

NYT Discovers Siesta Key!

2009-09-09T21:43:00.002-05:00

The New York Times ran a great article on Siesta Key today: NYT Article

Make sure you click on the slide show!

Off the Fence, please!

2009-08-26T09:43:00.002-05:00

Many of our buyer clients have been "sitting on the fence" waiting for a sign that things are getting better -- or at least, that things have stopped getting worse -- in the real estate market.

Sarasota was way ahead of the rest of the country when the market was on the way up in the late 90's, and we were one of the first markets to see a decline beginning in 2005. We've been seeing positive signs for about a year now, and the rest of the country seems to be catching up as well.

Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors announced a significant increase in existing home sales, and today, the Commerce Department announced a surge in New Home Sales in July.

Pending home sales up again!

2009-08-04T09:12:00.001-05:00

This makes it five months in a row! MSNBC Article

State of Florida releases details of I-75 project

2009-06-02T14:59:00.004-05:00

I'm a little late with this one, but the State of Florida held a hearing on May 21 where they showed the design proposals for the I-75 widening project. Details are here: I-75 Project Site

The good news for Palmer Ranch residents: Central Sarasota Parkway will NOT connect to the Interstate, but Honore Avenue will be extended South to intersect with SR-681. Best of all, the one-way 681 Interchange will be upgraded to add access to I-75 Northbound.

Server crash = good thing?

2009-05-16T15:36:00.005-05:00

Thanks to a nearly catastrophic failure at our web hosting provider, I spent most of the day restoring our web sites from backup copies.

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone, so I spent a few hours updating and modernizing the sites. I think they look a lot nicer. Stop by and take a look:

www.sandsofsarasota.com

and

www.siestaluxuryhomes.com

are back up and running, no thanks to our web hosting provider! I even added a Sarasota slide show to both sites, just like this one:

Bottom already here?

2009-04-29T16:03:00.003-05:00

CNBC quotes several housing experts who think we've seen the bottom for housing prices:

"While housing prices are continuing to fall, prospective home buyers may not want to wait much longer for the market to hit bottom, experts say."

Read the CNBC Article and see what you think.

Prices up, Sales up.

2009-04-24T11:21:00.003-05:00

Even our local paper has to admit that things are looking up here in Sarasota:

Housing Prices Rise

Move-Up Math works in your favor!

2009-04-23T08:58:00.001-05:00

This nice article from MSNBC shows that depressed prices can work in your favor!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30351355/

Sarasota on list of "Hot" Florida Markets

2009-04-21T13:31:00.004-05:00

This was nice to see: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29553757

I really like the last sentence:

“Once the inventory levels are burned off in those hardest hit states we’ll have a balanced market,” Gillespie says. “And things will start to go up.”

I've been saying for months that the supply of really good foreclosures and short sales is drying up!

--Les

Stop The Presses!

2008-05-24T20:12:00.004-05:00

I had to see it for myself to believe it, but the Sarasota Herald-Tribune actually published a sort-of positive article about the real estate market. Even the headline was nice:

Real estate market perks up
(the link is clickable)

In a nutshell, county-wide sales (in number of units) and the average selling price were both up in April. Coincidentally (and adding to those "perky" numbers), Becky & I had our best month in a long time .

Time Magazine does the Math for Us

2008-02-22T11:52:00.001-05:00

We've been pounding the table on this for two years now, so it was nice to see that someone in the mainstream media also gets it.

Time Article: Ignore the Headlines

By waiting for prices to drop, you'll almost certainly pay a higher interest rate when you finally do buy -- which will cost you far more than you'll save by waiting for a steal.

Economist calls bottom

2008-01-08T09:20:00.000-05:00

We've been saying this for months, but reading it in the paper makes it official:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080108/REALESTATE/801080350

According to economist Hank Fishkind, the Sarasota market bottomed (in both price and sales volume) back in October. He is predicting flat prices through 2010.

Keep in mind that Fishkind - like most economists - is very focused on the mainstream single-family home market. We have seen dramatically increased buyer activity in some niches of the market - including the downtown and Siesta Key condo markets.

Condo market improving

2007-12-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Becky & I already knew this from personal experience, but this Herald-Tribune article confirms that our condo market here has probably seen the bottom.

If you've been putting off your vacation home purchase because you were waiting for the market to bottom, now is the time to make your move. 15- and 30-year fixed rates are now down below 6% again and our mortgage brokers tell us they have no problem getting loans for well-qualified customers.

Sarasota Sales Up, Prices Down

2007-07-27T08:19:00.001-05:00

According to the latest data, June home sales in Sarasota were up 5% over last year's figures, with prices down around 10%. More details from the Herald Tribune right here.

This is good news and it confirms the increase in activity we've been seeing in our office.

It really is "Time2Buy"

2007-05-28T08:38:00.000-05:00

We've been noticing this ourselves, but an article in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune points out that vacation home sales are still strong and are actually improving.

As you might expect, demand is being driven by baby boomers who have been planning to buy a second home for many years. Slightly softer prices -- thanks to a decrease in the number of speculator and investor buyers -- have actually made our vacation home market more attractive.

First Osprey, now Nokomis goes uptown!

2007-05-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back we wrote about Henry Rodriguez's ambitious development plan to build several hundred condos in formerly-sleepy Osprey. Now Rodriguez and another developer have their sights set on neighborhing (and equally sleepy) Nokomis.

Rodriguez and Sarasota-based Finergy Development have obtained approval to build two hotels, retail space, and condos on the corner of Albee Road and US 41, across the street from the Ford Dealership. Both properties are former gasoline stations.

Albee Road is the main access to Casey Key, which has some of the nicest (and must under-utilized) public beaches in Sarasota County.

Meanwhile, next door to the Ritz...

2007-05-19T14:02:00.000-05:00

While folks were sweating it out in the auction tent at the Ritz-Carlton (see previous post), something much more interesting was taking place next door at the former site of The Quay... they were literally bringing the house down. (See the newspaper article for some good photos)

Locals knew The Quay as that strange, orange office building on the bay at Fruitville Road. Local Realtors knew the Quay as that weird, white elephant of a property that never saw anything approaching full occupancy.

After years of planning, a wrecking ball took the first big bite out of the Quay on Friday, May 18. The re-development project by Dublin-based Irish American Management will take 3 years. When finished, $1 billion project will bring a mix of high-end retail and hi-rise condos to the bayfront.

Obviously, the folks putting up that $1 billion are making a large bet on the future of downtown Sarasota.

Auction: Success or Failure?

2007-05-19T13:34:00.001-05:00

The big real estate auction at the Ritz-Carlton took place yesterday. As was to be expected, there were relatively few bargains: Click here for Herald-Tribune article

The bad news is that only 8 of the 22 properties sold, since many of the sellers were content to hold on to their properties rather than take a (public) beating on them. The good news is that the reasonably-priced properties were the ones that actually sold and no one was giving anything away.

The bottom line is still this: If your property is priced correctly, there's someone out there who wants to buy it. If you're looking for a steal (on the buy side) or looking to make a quick killing (on the sell side), it just isn't going to happen in today's market.

Need a Job? Florida has 'em!

2007-04-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

According to Business 2.0 Magazine, 5 of the top 15 job markets in the nation are right here in Florida.

While Sarasota wasn't large enough to be considered for the list (and we're fine with that!), some nearby cities were, including Orlando (#1) and Tampa (#7). Other Florida cities on the list were Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Jacksonville.

You can read the entire article at this link

Osprey grows up - and gets a Starbucks!

2007-04-27T10:22:00.000-05:00

When we lived in Osprey back in the mid-to-late 1990s, the town was just a wide spot on the road between Sarasota and Venice. That all changed when the School Board decided to move the Pine View School for the Gifted to a huge campus on an unused piece of County-owned property back in 1997.

The school's move increased Osprey's visibility among the parents of the 1500 or so students, many of whom (like us) moved to Osprey so that we could live near the school. Several very nice developments have been built in Osprey, including Rivendell and Willowbend.

After years of planning, developer Henry Rodriguez will break ground on Bay Street Village, a mixed-use development that will include retail, professional offices, 550 housing units, and -- perhaps most importantly -- Osprey's first Starbucks.

Details from the Sarasota Heald Tribune at this link

More Sarasota News

2007-04-25T09:07:00.000-05:00

We've known this for years, but now the secret is out: Inc Magazine named Sarasota as one of its 10 hottest places to do business for 2007: click here. They also named Sarasota as one of their top 20 midsize cities , saying:

Population is expanding and the professional services sector is burgeoning--up nearly 30 percent since 2002. One key reason has been the migration of skilled workers and managers from elsewhere in the country.

Another "Best Place" for Sarasota

2007-04-25T09:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, no jokes about our demographics, please.

Money Magazine named Sarasota one of their "10 Best Places to Retire Young" for 2007. Read more at this link.

Another bullish sign

2007-04-25T08:17:00.000-05:00

We don't like to mention our competitors, but....

Re/Max International announced that they are buying back all of the Re/Max franchises in Florida:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/BUSINESS/704250771/1007

This will cost them a ton of money, so they obviously believe that the market here is heading back up. Re/Max has already begun buying back franchises in California and Hawaii. Because of the size of the deal and the potential anti-trust implications, these buybacks require approval from the Department of Justice.

Sarasota Real Estate Market turns back up

2007-04-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

We've been telling clients that we felt like the market here hit bottom back in October. Now we have confirmation that the market has indeed turned. Here's the article in today's Sarasota Herald Tribune: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/BUSINESS/704250309

Frequent H-T readers know that the paper hardly ever has anything nice to say about the market here. Here's the key quote from the article:

While national sales of single-family homes fell 13 percent and statewide
sales dropped by an even larger 28 percent, Sarasota-Bradenton saw a 16 percent
increase last month compared with March 2006. Panama City was the only other
Florida market to increase.Sarasota-Bradenton's gains raised the much-invited
prospect that at least a part of Southwest Florida might be shaking off the
hangover brought on by back-to-back years of a surging real estate market.