Florida home sales show some resilience

The Florida Association of Realtors issued their statistics for February home sales for Florida.

Sales in the Sarasota-Bradenton market dropped 10 percent when comparing February with the same month a year ago. The number of homes sold dropped from 672 to 608.

Only two Florida markets improved from February of 2007: Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie was up 4 percent while Fort Myers-Cape Coral, a market that had the highest per-capita number of foreclosures nationally in February, was flat at 445 sales.

Prices fell 25 percent in Sarasota-Bradenton and 20 percent in Charlotte County-North Port. While sounding drastic, it was at roughly the price range that houses have held for months.

The $254,200 February median in Sarasota-Bradenton compares with $246,300 in January, $246,900 in December and $267,700 in November.

Here is an interesting statistic:
Sarasota-Bradenton's 608 sales were more than all but three of Florida's 20 largest markets: Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.

According to FAR there were only 244 homes sales in Miami. For such a large market that is amazing. I sometimes wonder about the accuracy of these numbers.

Here is some valuable information from the real estate veteran Howard Rooks of Rooks-Morris brokerage firm. "I have seen many, many cases where properties are worth less two or three years later," he said. "But they've always been higher five years later. We are going into our third year of a tough market now."

Homes are becoming affordable again. The Sarasota MLS shows 645 homes for sale under $150,000. Someone can buy a beach front condo under $500,000 again. Want a winter condo getaway in a downtown Sarasota? You can get one under $400,000. Want a condo with gorgeous water views? I just saw one close in Condo on the Bay for $340,000.