Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Sarasota real estate market cooling off?

More houses in region hitting the market, tempering prices

By RICH SHOPES
rich.shopes@heraldtribune.com

Home prices edged off an August high by nearly 4 percent last month, another possible signal that Southwest Florida's scorching housing market is shedding some heat.

The September snapshot of Southwest Florida's housing market comes as more and more houses are going up for sale during the traditional off season and helping to stabilize and sometimes lower prices.

Though the total number of houses moving during September was still down 6 percent from the same month last year -- speaking to a tight supply -- it was the third straight month where inventory loosened.

In July, there were 28 percent fewer homes sold than in the same 2004 month, but in August that figure was only 9 percent fewer. Statewide, the number of sales during September rose 33 percent to 20,368, the Florida Association of Realtors reported.

Still, the median sales price of $334,100 during September was 27 percent more than $263,900 the year before.

That shows that Sarasota-Bradenton remains a very hot market, real estate agents say.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.sarasotaherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051026/BUSINESS/510260560

The market is still hot but just not as active as it was a few months ago. You just cannot expect the market to continue go up at these rates forever. It will interesting to see what will happen when the hurricane season is over, it gets colder up north with plenty of snow storms and the snowbirds return to the area. This could be the calm before the storm. With an increase in inventory and buyers having a little more leverage this could be a great time to buy. Go to my Sarasota real estate page to search for homes and condos on the market.

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