Sarasota home prices sizzle for another month

By RICH SHOPES of the Sarasota Herald Tribune
rich.shopes@heraldtribune.com

It wasn't an aberration.The median price of a house in Sarasota held steady above $300,000 during April, the second consecutive month above that mark.A report Wednesday by the Florida Association of Realtors showed that the median hit $304,300 -- just below March's $305,400 for Sarasota-Bradenton and 23 percent higher than April 2004, when it was $246,500.Arguably, it could have been more expensive homes pushing that price up for April because data for Manatee County was unavailable and not included in the FAR report.But other communities showed the same kind of appreciation: Charlotte County-North Port surged 30 percent to $213,400.Realtors said it is the same fuel stoking the rise: retiring baby boomers streaming into Southwest Florida coupled with a yearlong shortage of available houses.The confluence is transforming Southwest Florida into a seller's market and generating among the highest price gains nationally.Only four Florida communities exceeded Sarasota in median price: Naples, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Naples, Florida's priciest market, saw a $477,100 median for April.But nowhere beyond Sarasota-Bradenton has the price adjustment been so dramatic.By the National Association of Realtors' calculations, Manatee County's housing market showed a 45 percent jump in median price during the first quarter closely followed by Sarasota with a 36 percent jump.All of this comes as home sales nationally reach record levels.On Tuesday, the NAR reported that sales of existing homes rose 4.5 percent in April -- the highest pace ever -- as sales of single-family homes and condominiums climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.18 million units.The median price for an existing home sold last month hit $206,000, up 15.1 percent compared with a year ago.In Florida, the median was $218,600, or 26 percent more than in April 2004.Sarasota's under-$1 million market is leading the region's price surge, says Barbara Ackerman, a Coldwell Banker agent who specializes in high-priced home sales."If you've got anything under $1 million, it's gone."But also contributing is the rising demand for new homes in East Manatee County and South Sarasota, Realtors said. The shortage is pushing buyers into the existing-home market.Michael Taylor, managing broker of Coldwell Banker's Creekwood and Lakewood Ranch offices, offices, said demand for new homes remains so great in East Manatee that some builders are using lotteries to decide who can buy sites.In other places, the wait for homes, which can endure for months, is frustrating buyers and prompting them to consider existing houses.All of this is contributing to the record price gains. Yet even as prices sizzle, the volume of sales in Sarasota's home market has been in a steady decline.Economist Hank Fishkind, who analyzed sales of existing homes, condominiums and new homes, said recently that the volume of sales for Sarasota-Bradenton peaked last summer and has been slipping ever since.The Florida Realtors' April report supports that claim.It shows 12 percent fewer sales closed in April compared with the same month last year, or 854 sales to 967. In March, sales volume was off 6 percent.In the Charlotte County-North Port market, the volume of sales was almost unchanged in April, declining 1 percent, from 453 homes to 448.Fishkind blames rising interest rates. Realtors say the reason has more to do with declining inventory.Yet, despite the downswing, the sharp gains in prices are putting Sarasota-Bradenton into elite company.Linda Dickinson, an agent at Michael Saunders & Co.'s St. Armands Circle office, said home buyers are expanding their search areas from Naples, Palm Beach and Boca Raton to include Sarasota."The amount of activity and interest I had in a $9 million house a year and a half ago, and a similar sale that closed in March of this year, was like night and day," she said. "There is a much higher degree of interest and activity. It was literally startling. I saw a huge difference."Other Florida communities are noticing big changes in activity, too.Tops in the state for price gains was Fort Myers-Cape Coral with 43 percent. Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie, hit hard by the state's successive hurricanes last year, came in second with a 41 percent rise.Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay reported a 38 percent increase; Orlando and Fort Walton Beach 37 percent; Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Panama City 27 percent; Lakeland-Winter Haven 25 percent; Naples and Tampa-St. Petersburg 23 percent.Several other markets in the state recorded drops in the total number of homes sold, including Fort Lauderdale, with a 19 percent decline in volume, closely followed by Pensacola with 17 percent. with drops were West Palm Beach-Boca Raton with a 10 percent decline; Fort Walton Beach with a 9 percent decline; Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay at 5 percent; Miami at 4 percent; and Orlando at 2 percent.Gainesville and Ocala, two closely situated markets, had the highest volume increases in the state at 27 percent.