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Tag: Manatee County real estate market

Cool market, maybe?

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand, Real estate | Development.

All national and local publications and real estate websites cover the real estate market. And as I’ve said many times, all real estate is local, so a small town on Big Sur in California will be wildly expensive compared to a small town in Tennes­see. It doesn’t mean one is nicer than the other, but it does mean that one area may be preferred over another.

Therefore, when you look at national statistics, keep this in mind. The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index measures home prices across the country. In the 12 months they analyzed, ending in July, home prices rose 1.7%, which was down from 1.9% from the previous year. This was the weakest price increase since July 2023. Based on this report, their conclusion is that the housing market has downshifted to a lower gear, and has essentially stagnated.

New York City, of course, leads the pack with an average 6.4% rise for the year in home prices. Chicago and Cleveland are next highest in increases. By contrast, sev­eral Sunbelt and West Coast markets that were recently red-hot are now faring far worse. Our neighbor, Tampa, fell 2.8% for the year, coming in at the bottom of the list of 20 metro areas surveyed. Phoenix, also a hot western city, last year recorded lower prices for homes compared with the same months a year earlier.

Nevertheless, there are signs that the American housing market picked up later in the summer. Sales of pending homes rebounded in August ahead of the Federal Reserve interest rate cut, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Talking about local listings and sales, let’s look at the September statistics published by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee:

Single-family homes closed 24.4% more properties than last year, and cash sales were up 40.4%. The median sale price was $470,000, exactly the same as last year, and the average sale price was $593,139, down 5.6% from last year. New pending properties were up 9.6%, and the median time to contract was 60 days compared to 47 days last year. Finally, the month’s supply of available properties was 4.2 months compared to 3.9 months last year.

Condos closed 31.7% more proper­ties than last year, and cash sales were up 55.6%. The median sale price was $296,500, down 7.3%, and the average sale price was $306,864, down 12.7%. New pending properties were up 3.7%, and the median time to contract was 92 days compared to 73 days last year. Finally, the month’s supply of available properties was 6.3 months compared to 6.0 months last year.

The Realtor Association sees a steady momentum with buyers return­ing after a flat 2024. It does look like a slight change going on and as the Case-Schiller National Home Price Index indicated, there seemed to be the beginning of a rebound in August.

Closed sales are up for both single-family and condos in Manatee County, likely reflecting lower list prices. However, what interested me the most was the increase in cash transactions compared to last year, 40.4% for single-family transactions and 55.5% for condo transactions.

You should live where you and your family are comfortable and happy, and if you happen to accrue some equity, that can’t hurt either. Not everyone can live in Big Sur, but Florida also has some amazing views.

Murphy’s laws in full operation

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand.

We’re living through the time of Murphy’s Laws. Murphy’s Laws encompass a series of life’s lessons, all of them meant to be a warning not to get too comfortable with the way things are.

Florida residents were victims of some of Murphy’s Laws last year. One of them, “Nature always sides with the hidden flaw,” and “If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will go wrong is the one that will cause the most damage.”

Did we on the central west coast of Florida get too comfortable with our relationship to hurricanes, and did we start believing the old Indian sacred burial ground stories? Maybe, but as Murphy’s Laws state, “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”

Now in the aftermath of the storms and the effort to rebuild, we have a new set of issues to deal with. Hiring workers to help rebuild has become a cottage industry for island and coastal residents trading stories, names and phone numbers. The first call I received from a neighbor after the storm passed was did I know a sheetrock contractor, the first of many who would ask that question.

Practically everyone I know is looking for painters, finishers, shutter repair companies and, most of all, hairdressers who are open and running. Even after the electricity was restored, Wi-Fi was slow and intermittent, preventing residents from researching and filing claims. Parents with school age children had additional stress when AMI Elementary was closed.

In the midst of all this uncertainty, most of us still had to deal with the normal everyday issues of life; shortages in the grocery stores, car breakdowns and relatives who want to come down for their winter vacation and don’t or can’t really appreciate the level of damage we were living through.

The first day of the California wildfires, I was sitting in my living room looking at my still not fully repaired loft ceiling feeling sorry for myself and was suddenly jolted into reality about the important things in life. Unfortunately, Los Angeles County has experienced possibly the worst human tragedy imaginable. As terrible as a strong hurricane is, at least you have a home or part of a home to go back to. Californians in most of the fireball areas have literally nothing to go home to.

In my mind, everything is always about real estate, and I’m not far off since homes represent the majority of wealth that Americans accrue. Many of the residents of these burnt-out properties will eventually sell to developers and investors, which will change the complexion of their neighborhoods much like I expect Anna Maria Island will change.

In addition, Los Angeles is victim to another of Murphy’s Laws, the one that says, “In any field of endeavor, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Again, unfortunately for the residents of Los Angeles, their elected and appointed officials appear to have dropped the ball in several areas. We in Manatee County should forever be grateful for the fast action of both the county and the state governments in getting us back to normal quickly. I won’t forget how I felt a couple of days after the storm when I saw our governor standing next to 5 feet of sand in Bradenton Beach.

Finally, Murphy’s Law says, “Left to themselves, things always go from bad to worse.” The lesson here is to take action and control in order to get your lives back. The real estate market will come back with a vengeance because we have something to sell that few areas do.

Thoughts and prayers to the residents of Los Angeles.