From the Bradenton Herald
Home sales keep rising locally
MANATEE — Local home sales rose slightly last month as falling prices attracted more buyers but the area’s condo market remains in a free-fall, according to figures released Wednesday.
Realtors sold 511 pre-owned single-family homes in the Sarasota-Bradenton market in January, a 4 percent rise from the 490 sold in January 2008, the Florida Association of Realtors reported. It was the second straight month of increased sales activity compared to the same month a year ago.
The median sales price — the point at which half sold for more and half for less — fell to $144,800 last month, the lowest since late 2001, the association said. The median has fallen by nearly $102,000 in a year’s time, driven down by “distress” sales of foreclosed homes or properties under threat of foreclosure.
That, combined with mortgage rates hitting record lows in December, spurred the uptick in January sales, local real-estate agents said.
“There are bargains out there. That’s the reason sales are up,” said Lee Forbes, broker/associate with RE/MAX Alliance Group in Bradenton . “There are many bargain-hunters (and) investors with cash out there.”
Banks are selling properties for about half of the outstanding balances of loans they’ve foreclosed on, creating an artificial price floor that likely won’t drop much more, said Matt Augustyniak, owner/broker of Horizon Realty.
“The bottom is what the banks are selling their foreclosures at and we’re at the bottom,” he said.
“Once the bottom-feeders are through, we’re going to start seeing an immediate jump in (price) appreciation.”
There are signs that’s already happening, said Forbes, who said the state Realtors group’s methodology understates median home prices because it includes sales of vacant single-family lots and manufactured homes.
Forbes said his analysis of Multiple Listing Service data showed the median sales price of single-family homes in Manatee County rose from $185,000 in December to $203,000 last month.
Also, the supply of homes for sale has been declining since July, reaching normal levels in the under-$150,000 market, he said.
While the local single-family home market is showing signs of stabilizing, its condo counterpart remains tepid.
Just 116 existing condo units were sold in January, a 34-percent drop from the 176 sold in January 2008, while the median price fell by almost the same percentage to $156,700 last month, the state association said.
Sarasota-Bradenton was among eight of the 19 Florida markets surveyed to see a decline in condo sales.
“There’s still some corrections to be made there,” Forbes said.
Statewide, home sales rose by 24 percent — the fifth straight month it has risen compared to the same month a year ago, the Realtor trade group said. Condo sales were up 13 percent, driven by higher sales along Florida ’s east coast.
Florida did better than the nation as a whole, where home and condo sales fell 5.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million units, the National Association of Realtors said. That’s the lowest sales pace since mid-1997.
Sales were down by 5.7 percent each in the South and Midwest and by 14.7 percent in the Northeast and unchanged in the West.
For more information on the Sarasota and Manatee County real estate
contact Daniel Hilts & Christine Huxtable Team GRI, CFIC, ABR, REOS
Phone (941) 360-7777 Fax (941) 360-7678
Direct Line (941) 809-8448
or visit their website with over 10,000 Manatee County area
real estate listings for sale at www.yourfloridahome.net