Heron Creek in North Port offers remarkable home choices around a beautiful golf course.
The city of North Port—Florida’s fourth fastest growing city and fourth largest in land area—is strategically located midway between Tampa and Naples. This thriving young community was founded in 1959 and has the amenities and assets that make it an attractive location for new businesses, industrial projects, office development and quality city living. Over the past ten years, North Port has experienced a steady increase in population, and in July of 2008 became the largest city in Sarasota County. Additionally, impact fees, utility and land cost in North Port are among the lowest in southwest Florida.
Sales Activity – North Port
Properties throughout North Port are selling faster than they are coming onto the market, indicating a shift in inventory that has been long needed. Within the past 30 days, there have been 11 closed deals in North Port, and only four newly listed properties. (more…)
Our market’s recovery continued moving forward in April. Inventories of available properties continued to decline throughout Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte Counties; while sales were up by more than 27% in Manatee County, 19% in Sarasota County and 17% in Charlotte County. Pending sales, a strong harbinger of closed sales to come in the next 30 to 60 days, were also up significantly. Pendings were up 52% in Manatee County, 27% in Sarasota County and nearly 10% in Charlotte County.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA – (May 19, 2010) – Michael Saunders & Company recently closed the highest waterfront sale in Sarasota County year-to-date for 2010. The property—located on Westway Drive—is set in an exclusive enclave of stately residences on Lido Shores, just north of St. Armands Circle. The lot offers 150 feet of waterfront with a dock, boat lift and direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. This landmark estate closed for $8,400,000. Linda Roe Dickinson of Michael Saunders & Company represented the buyer.
A consumer survey released in April by a large nationwide real estate firm—combined with recent trends in local sales—helps explain why home buyers continue to flood into our market, anxious to buy; not at all deterred from doing so by having missed the April 30th deadline for the first time home buyer tax credit. Nearly two-thirds of the current home shoppers questioned in the survey said that the expiration of the tax credit will have little or no effect on their determination to move forward with an eventual housing purchase.
To be sure, the tax credit helped re-ignite the real estate market; even as it benefited quite a few buyers with added savings or the ability to bid-up on desired properties. Locally, it helped unleash a backlog of pent-up demand that not only chewed-up a sizeable portion of our swollen inventory of properties priced below $300,000, but also helped stabilize free-falling prices. The inventory of available properties is now at its lowest level since late summer 2005.
All these benefits were what the government had in mind when it first launched—then extended—the popular tax credit. But let’s face it. No incentive on earth, however well-intentioned, is going to motivate people to buy overpriced properties; or ones they don’t really want or need. The tax credit simply sped-up purchases of desired, well-priced properties that probably would have sold anyway. For this reason, we should not be surprised to see a dip in sales in the months immediately following the end of the tax credit. Buyers who absolutely needed the credit in order to move forward are gone. But the absence of the tax credit—in and of itself—won’t stall our market’s recovery the way an unusually large glut of new foreclosures might.
David Ramsey, the noted financial author, radio host and TV personality who guests on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, 60 Minutes and The Early Show believes that a good broker or financial advisor must possess the heart of an educator. Not a salesman.
That sentiment applies to real estate agents as well. For ours is the moral and fiduciary obligation to keep our clients and customers as well-informed as possible regarding trends in the market that will likely impact their decision to buy, sell or wait.
We were reminded of our role as educators recently when a local debate broke out involving the frustratingly slow market for properties priced above $1 million. Does the upper tier need a downward price correction like the one that helped re-ignite sales of properties priced below $300,000? Or is the luxury market, as the other side contends, largely immune to the depth of correction that was needed to breathe new life into the lower tiers of the market.
The best way to settle this argument is by referencing Trendgraphix, whose unbiased reports reveal actual market trends based on actual market sales. Among other useful data, each new Trendgraphix report furnishes the most up-to-date snapshot we have of exactly what is selling in our market; and how much buyers are willing to pay relative to what sellers are hoping to net.
The red and green arrows are pointing in all the right directions; signaling a sustained recovery in progress throughout Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte Counties. Inventories of available homes were down significantly in March thanks to sales and pending sales that are up by as much as 50% versus last March.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on April 8, 2010
Image courtesy of floridarealtors.org
Look for balloons flying in neighborhoods all across the region this Sunday to signify one of the biggest open house parties Florida will ever see. To offer home buyers the convenience of touring dozens of different homes in a single timesaving weekend, the Florida Association of Realtors is hosting this weekend’s first-ever Florida Open House Weekend.
Tens of thousands of homes across the state are open for viewing this Sunday, April 11th with at least 175 of them listed locally by agents of Michael Saunders & Company. Many of the homes are pictured here. The rest can be previewed by visiting michaelsaunders.com. All are open Sunday—from 1:00 until 4:00 p.m—and marked by blue balloons.
Anyone interested in purchasing a home in the near future—perhaps even before the first time home buyer tax credit expires—should not miss this opportunity to preview and compare many different properties on a single day.
With less than three weeks remaining to earn the tax credit, you will find yourself in something of a sprint to cross the finish line. But getting in under the wire is still do-able if you place a home under contract by April 30th; and have cash or financing in place to meet the June 30th deadline for closing. To learn if you qualify for the tax credit, visit Realtor.org.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on March 17, 2010
In Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte Counties, sales and pending sales for the month of February continued to paint a picture of sustained recovery across all three areas. The number of homes for sale declined by as much as 24% (in Sarasota County) versus last year, while sales were up by as much as 27.2% ( in Manatee County); and pendings up by as much as 57.3% in Charlotte County.
Mother Nature has been exceedingly generous in the amenities she’s bestowed on Southwest Florida. Our top-rated beaches and magnificent web of pristine waterways—enjoyed amid abundant year-round warmth and sunshine—are why so many newcomers choose Sarasota County over all other possibilities in the Sunshine State.
The amenities we should be proudest of, however, are the ones we’ve bestowed on ourselves. These, of course, include an impressive list of educational and cultural amenities; which continuously attract newcomers wanting more on their family’s horizon than a picturesque sunset. As a community striving for a better brand of economic stability than we’ve gotten of late from tourism and development, it will ultimately be the quality of our public schools that will attract the businesses that help us diversify. Virtually any town on Florida’s two coasts offers plentiful recreational amenities; but the decision of where to re-locate a business—or start a new one—is more apt to turn on the quality of an area’s school system rather than the sum of its beach and boating opportunities.
We should congratulate ourselves therefore for the steps we’ve taken over the years to improve the quality and output of our schools. In a state not renowned for the scintillating quality of its public schools, the voters of Sarasota County have gone to the polls time and again to reject mediocrity in their home district. Most recently, in 2006, we voted “Yes” to renew our 2002 pledge of setting aside one mill in annual property taxes to preserve our top-ranked schools.
On Tuesday, March 16 we are being asked to renew this pledge again at a time when its critical funding has never been more urgently needed. Please join us; first by showing up at the polls to have your voice heard on this important issue. Then if you believe as we do in the power of good schools to bring prosperity to a region, please vote “Yes” for another four-year continuation of the one mill. Early voting for the referendum commences Monday, March 1st. To learn more about the absentee and early voting schedule; or to preview a sample of the referendum ballot visit srqelections.com.
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