Home sales surge in Sarasota-Manatee region

Despite a tightening stock of homes on the market, home sales surged 38% last month in the Sarasota-Manatee region.

Local buyers closed on 1,695 existing single-family homes in October, 465 more than one year earlier and 108 ahead of September, according to a report on Thursday from the Florida Realtors trade group.

Home sales in the twocounty region are now 5% ahead of year-ago levels, a show of resilience from the real estate market after several months of plunging sales early in the coronavirus pandemic.

“The October numbers help us realize just how crazy our market has been over the past several months,” said David Clapp, president of the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee. “Closed sales are up by 34% among all categories, and this extremely strong market does not appear to be ending anytime soon, as new pending sales are up by a combined 39.5% compared to last year in October.”

Homes are trading at a fast pace as the number of homes for sale continues to shrink. The combined inventory of active listings was down by 35.1% over the year in Sarasota-Manatee.

“As we go into year end, we continue to be challenged with a low supply of inventory,” Clapp said.

“The lack of inventory, and highly competitive bidding for existing inventory, has discouraged some buyers from buying now. It is our hope and expectation that supply will increase after the holidays and going into the new year.”

The median sale price for an existing single-family home in the two counites rose 16% over the year to $351,851, topping the record of $340,000 set in July and August.

Looking at third-quarter data, Sarasota County home prices have finally recovered to their pre-Great Recession levels, said Robert Goldman, an agent with Michael Saunders & Co. in Venice. “It has taken 14 years for home prices to claw their way back,” he said.

Real estate database CoreLogic disagrees, saying Sarasota-Manatee prices as of September remained

7.3% lower than their prebubble highs, the 28thlargest margin of peak-tocurrent among the 404 U.S. metro areas it studied.

Condo sales also jumped in the two-county area. The 715 units closed marked a 33% gain over the year, with year-to-date sales now nearly 11% ahead of 2019.

Condos traded for $260,000, up 19.4% in October, and they have now climbed 9.1% for the year.

Pending sales – a good measure of future closings – rose in Sarasota-Manatee for the fifth straight month, with homes up by 38% in Sarasota and by 33% in Manatee.

Material from the Associated Press is included in this report.