Florida is like Summer Camp ONLY in the Winter plus Real Estate Market News
While we were enjoying an outside concert at Downtown Wellen Park a snowbird friend proclaimed with glee, “I feel like I am at the best summer camp EVER!” That seems to be a common sentiment the snowbirds have about being in Florida for the winter, “Best summer camp ever”.
And why wouldn’t they love it here? The weather is wonderful, concerts and live music everywhere, theater performances to attend, yoga on the beach, bike trails to ride, water sports of all kinds, golf courses galore, shopping at local boutiques and a foodie’s nirvana. Naturally this year also brought many discussions with our snowbirds about the scars they were seeing caused by Hurricane Ian. They also saw the determination of the us locals to put our little piece paradise back together again. This year's “summer camp” is winding down and our snowbirds will be returning to their natural habitats over the next few weeks. Ray and I will say, “See ya’ next year!” to our friends. And as always, we locals will comment on enjoying shorter wait times at our favorite restaurants, the beaches being a little less full and traffic less congested. But truth be told, we enjoy the fun energy our snowbirds bring to the area and we look forward to their return.
What are the takeaways from the real estate market as this year’s snowbird season draws to an end? Just as was anticipated, we moved away from the frenzied real estate market of a year ago. We have moved into a much more balanced real estate market where there are months of inventory on the market. Homes are staying on the market for 45 days and 60 days. If you follow the market you probably noticed prices being adjusted and reduced. For instance in Venice there were 65 price reductions in the last seven days out of the 369 houses on the market, in Port Charlotte there were 116 out of 707 and Sarasota 79 out of 659. The reason is simple: with inflation everything costs more, interest rates are in their new range of six-ish percent leaving Buyers budgets a bit tighter. For Sellers the prices they would have listed and sold for at the end of 2022 is most likely not the starting point for the second quarter of 2023. The new base for listing prices is being set after the history making fast-paced selling boom. The incredible thing to remember is right now homes are selling for about 25% more than they were at this time in 2020. And currently sellers are getting about 97% of their list price.
Here is a funny analogy to explain why the price adjustments are happening. If you wear make-up or love someone who wears make-up (they can explain it to you) you’ll get the idea. When you are at the beach and in the sun for days and days you need to adjust your makeup because your sun kissed skin tone has changed. Then, when your beach days are over and your sunny glow begins to fade you have to adjust your makeup shade again. That’s what is happening with the listing prices in this market. The market is finding its new base for pricing in each neighborhood since the hot pace of the market has cooled. This is what was projected to happen, and the good news is that experts do not see any signs the bottom is falling out of the housing market.
Check out these articles. One is about how Baby Boomers are the current buying force. And then this one about the importance for Sellers to disclose.
April Market Stats and Data
Above I provided the number of homes on the market that have reduced their price in the last week. I also said homes are selling. Let's look at the numbers in each county and see if the data supports my statement.
For the data I used single family homes between 1400 and 2500 square feet, a pool and at least a 2 car garage. Price point from $250,000 to $1,000,000
Manatee County: Active listings: 116 The lowest price being $399,000 Pending sales: 133 Sold/closed sales in the last 30 days :76 Manatee County Market Report
Sarasota County: Active listings: 210 The lowest price being $299,900 Pending sales:195 Sold/closed sales in the last 30 days:128 Sarasota County Market Report
Charlotte County: Active listings: 286 The lowest price being $299,900 Pending sales:168 Sold/closed sales in the last 30 days :132 Charlotte County Market Report
Check out this Market Report for a specific community. Within the report you will see the details of the single family home market in Gran Paradiso, one of Wellen Park's resort style living communities. Click HERE
So, yes the data does support Buyers are buying and Sellers are selling. The real estate market is moving along and that is a good thing.
