With a headline like this you already know realtors have been busy helping people find their next home or allowing investors to make money in this market. According to the monthly statistics from Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) This February we have seen an astounding 24% increase in sales from last February’s production. In January 2013 we saw a 22% increase in sales from January 2012! The Sarasota market has been full of activity and if the increase continues to perform at the same rate for the months to follow, we will have a sales year that will break serious records.
The numbers from SAR are really quite impressive with a total of 733 properties sold in February 2013, 504 of them being single family homes and 229 of them being condominiums. These numbers have improved considerably from last month’s total of 626 closings. Looking back at February 2012, there was a total of only 591 closings, 414 of them single family homes and 177 of them being condos. Sarasota is certainly seeing another year very similar to the real estate boom of 2005. We can’t wait to see what the next few months of activity will look like while we are in the height of our season.
A message from our SAR President, Roger Piro: “These statistics continue to demonstrate a healthy, energized real estate market. We had the fourth highest sales year in 2012, and the sales for 2013 are already topping last year’s monthly numbers by 23%. The pending sales figure also indicates strong sales continuing in the next term, so we could see yet another historic sales year. The pending sales are a statistic that represents the number of properties that went under contract used to predict future sales. In February they were at 1,138 which is an increase over the previous month’s 1,047. The last time we saw figures this high was 2 years ago in March 2011.
All of the bustle in the market has home owners seeing a very important benefit for them as well – an increase in property value. February 2013 brought in a median sales price increase of single family homes to $184,500 from February 2012’s median price of $167,500. This number has only slightly risen from January’s median price of $183,800, but at this rate you can clearly see why sellers are excited to be participating in the benefits of our active real estate market. Condo sellers also have good news coming their way as well with a median sales price of $173,000 for February 2013. This time last year we only saw a price of $150,000 and a decline in January 2013 of $130,000. We have still seen a 15.3% year-to-year increase in condo sales price.
With all of this commotion in the market, we are seeing a decrease in distressed properties. The action is allowing troubled home owners the opportunity to sell their homes faster before being forced to go forward with a short sale, or even worse, a foreclosure. The numbers have been reduced down to 27.5% of all sales in February 2013. This is a drastic decrease from the previous month’s sales of 35.4% being distressed properties and even a more radical diminution from the fourth quarter of 2010 at a whopping 51%! It is reassuring to see that Sarasota home owners are able to be successful when attempting to rid of a financial hardship.
What does all of this activity really tell us? We live in an amazing location and more people want to own their piece of paradise or find an opportunity to make a profitable investment. We are seeing sellers benefitting by receiving closer to their asking price, buyers making more determined decisions so they don’t miss out on a great deal and moving faster to a contract and the closing table, and we are seeing investors putting their hard earned dollars into our housing market to make a beneficial money making decision. With this median price increase on the rise, we are going to see a reduction in all of those great deals that were once a “dime a dozen”.
For more information about the Sarasota real estate market, or available listings, please don’t hesitate to Contact us at 941.284.4474 or Toll free 941.404.4737. One of our qualified Sarasota agents will gladly get back to you.
