Woo hoo! I can’t help it. I like the look of this 5 year chart of single family home activity in Sarasota, Florida. The light green bars are the number of homes for sale, the dark green bars are the sold homes and the red line represents pending sales.

I had to shrink the graph to fit it on the page. From about February 2007 to the summer of 2008 we had single family home inventory in excess of 7,000 in Sarasota county. In some months we exceeded 8,000. Today, we have just over 4,000 Sarasota homes for sale in Sarasota county. Remember, that North Port homes for sale are in those numbers. I would love to sit down and break out the number of homes for sale in north Sarasota county.

As prices have come down buyers have been absorbing the inventory. According to the latest figures from Trendgraphix we have about 8 months of inventory based on closed sales. That is an awesome figure compared to where we used to be. Needless to say that I am pretty excited.

More Sarasota Foreclosures?

Recently, the foreclosure filings have increased and some of the local Realtors who deal primarily in Sarasota foreclosures have been reported saying that there will be another wave of foreclosures. That may be true. If it does happen the market will hopefully absorb them pretty quickly because home prices are now in line with affordability. More economists and market experts are reporting that we may be pulling out the recession. It seems a bit early to me to say that but what do I know.

Are Prices Artificially Low in Sarasota?

In some instances, yes. You can’t build some of these homes and condos for what you can buy them. Someone called me today wanting to make an offer site unseen on a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo in Bradenton priced at $25,000. You couldn’t build the place for that.

What might happen – After the majority of the foreclosures and short sales are gone and the economy is rosier I can see a small spike in home prices. When the majority of the desperate sellers are gone and Sarasota inventories are back to normal buyers will not be able to push these sellers around like they have been. The pendulum will be in more in the middle and it won’t be such an extreme buyers market. More sellers will figure the upswing is on its way and they will hold for better prices. Heck, if they have held on this long (this mess started in the the summer of 2005, it is now summer of 2009) why not wait a little while longer?

Sarasota is undervalued!

According to IHS Global Insight Sarasota was ranked as the #2 undervalued city in the country. You can read it here. That is good nice for some. It is good news for buyers looking in Sarasota right now. Keep in mind that you are not going to pick the bottom and this buyers market won’t last forever. Don’t look for property with the intention of flipping it. Those days are gone. True real estate investors who are in it for the long haul is what we need now. And, a few of them have been calling me to buy Sarasota real estate. Another good sign that the bottom is near or here.

If we can help you find a home in Sarasota or surrounding areas give us a call at 941.812.6272.