It was good to see continued year on year growth in single-family home transactions in Manatee County in November. Further, as inventory grew at a slightly higher pace, the market continues to look like it is in balance heading into our busy season in Florida. It is still a reasonable time to be either a buyer or seller, but a little patience goes a long way in this market. The infographic below from Florida Realtors has more information.
Inventory rapidly expanded in Sarasota County in October. While increased transactions in Q1 2024 should slow down the inventory expansion, we will likely continue to see the median sales price trend down for the next month or two. Sarasota continues to be a seller’s market, but it is closer to being in balance than Manatee. Cash is still king in Sarasota as almost half of transactions in October were in cash. As with Manatee, it looks to be a reasonable time to be on either side of a transaction in Sarasota at the moment. Let’s hope it stays that way through our busy season.
We continued to see the same pattern in Manatee this month as new listings exceeded closed sales, so our inventory continued to expand. While we are still in a seller’s market, the trend is towards market balance. The median sales price decreased by 13% in October, which was the largest decrease we have seen in years. Busy season is now upon us, so the next few months will be telling. It certainly seems like a reasonable time to be either a buyer or seller in Manatee, although the low transaction volume will likely cause sellers to have to be a little patient. The infographic below from Florida Realtors has more information for October.
September ended up being a solid month for closed sales of single-family homes in Manatee County. It has been a long time since we saw YoY growth of transactions as high as 47%. That said, it doesn’t mean that the seller’s market is back. Rather, balance still rules the day. It looks like we are continuing to see steady inventory growth as we are heading into our busy season in Florida. As long as that holds, it is shaping up to be a reasonable time to be either a buyer or seller in Manatee through Q4 23 and Q1 24. The infographic below from Florida Realtors has more details.
In 2023, the performance of existing single-family home sales in Florida has generally fallen short of the pre-pandemic transaction levels. Furthermore, throughout the year until August, Florida’s 2023 real estate transactions lagged behind those of 2022, though they have been gradually catching up. Notably, in September, closed sales of single-family homes experienced their first year-over-year increase in 2023, rising by over 6%.