Realtor/market observer Michael Moulton of Michael Saunders & Co. summarizes the real estate market’s summer performance as strong and stable “in nearly every statistical assessment.”
Wrote Moulton in his market report this week, “Prices have continued their slow and steady climb, inventories are improving, distressed inventory remains on the downswing, pending sales are stable, and construction at all price points is active.”
Like other real estate agents, Moulton says an abundance of property showings this summer is a sign that sales will be robust in the coming season.
Moulton noted:
• July was the fifth month in a row that sales hovered around the 1,000-unit mark.
• Sarasota County’s only five-month streak of more than 1,000 closed transactions was March-July 2005.
• Although Sarasota sales in July were down 4 percent from July of last year, for the first seven months of 2014, closed sales are close to last year’s pace, which was the second highest in the 91-year history of the Sarasota Association of Realtors.
• Nationally, sales fell 4.3 percent compared to July 2013.
• Distressed sales (short sales and foreclosure sales) were 19.5 percent of all sales in July, and 24.9 percent in July 2013. “That’s a major improvement.” At the bottom of the market, in 2011, 50 percent of the homes sold in the Sarasota area were distressed properties. As the distressed inventory is reduced, median prices are being positively affected.
• Median prices for all properties in the Sarasota area climbed above $200,000 for the first time since August 2008. Single-family homes increased 6 percent and condominiums 29 percent over July 2013.
