There is some scuttlebutt around the country that the high end market has leveled off, and prices are starting to come down. Of course, you can define high end in a variety of ways. High end in New York City is not exactly the same as high end on Anna Maria Island, however, the general consensus is there has been a correction in the upper end of the market. If there is a correction in asking prices on Anna Maria Island and in Cortez, you can't tell by what is currently on the market over $1,000,000, so let's have a look at what a million dollars will buy you.

This analysis represents the number of properties in the three cities on Anna Maria and in neighboring Cortez over $900,000. As I stated last week when I analyzed closed properties, I include properties above $900,000, since many of them are very close to the million dollar mark. The properties are either available or pending at the time of this writing on the realtor.com website, which generally reflects properties listed on our local multiple listing service. Properties that may be available for sale directly from the homeowner or for some reason not placed on multiple listing are not included.

There are 10 properties in Cortez ranging from $1,800,000 to $1,139,000. Two are currently in a pending status. In July of last year Cortez had only four properties listed over a million dollars.

The city of Anna Maria has 57 properties listed over a million dollars, ranging from $5,995,000 to $1,000,000 with four of them pending. There are also eight properties between $900,000 and a million dollars. Last July Anna Maria city had 42 properties listed over a million dollars.

Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach are listing 79 over one million dollar properties for sale ranging from $3,595,000 to $1,029,000; eight of these properties are marked pending There is also a property listed for $12,000,000, which is a resort. In addition, there are 16 properties listed between $900,000 and one million dollars. Last July, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach combined had 42 properties listed over a million dollars.

What does this all mean? Basically, it means that the growth in listing price is substantial and has hit all of Anna Maria Island, as well as Cortez. In Cortez, the over one million dollar properties available have more than doubled; in Anna Maria city they have increased about 35 percent and in Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach they have increased almost 30 percent.

This is all great news if everything is selling, but I'm a little concerned that so few properties are marked pending meaning sold. Cortez actually has the highest percentage of properties pending at 20 percent. It also has the least expensive listings. Anna Maria city's pending properties are only 7 percent of available properties. It also has the most expensive listings. And the combination of Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach is about 10 percent pending of available properties.

Anytime you do a statistical analysis it represents a moment in time and can easily change within a few weeks. However, I would feel more confident if a higher number of these properties were pending, especially since we're starting to approach the traditional end of the busy real estate selling season.

We certainly aren't seeing a correction in the asking prices of properties in our area. They just seem to be going up and up. That said, keep your fingers crossed that the only correction on our horizon involves the sunset.