Deganit Shemy & Company - "Arena" performance at the Ringling Arts Festival. Photo: ringlingartsfestival.org
It was nice to hear someone else say it for a change; someone who is both in the loop, professionally-speaking, and who spoke from a place well outside our market area.
That “someone” was Barbara Corcoran, long familiar to regular viewers of the Today Show as the program’s resident expert on all things real estate. What Corcoran—who built a small empire selling properties in New York City, the Hamptons and Palm Beach—said in an interview with Al Roker confirms what hard-core statistics have hinted at for some time now. There’s absolutely no time like right now to jump in and take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that await homebuyers in Sarasota’s value-laden real estate market.
Said Corcoran moments before revealing the top ten U.S. markets in which prices have dropped the most, but come back strongest over the last quarter: “If you can time a real estate market—which you can’t often do—this is the time to buy in these particular places.” She then placed Sarasota squarely atop her list of the nation’s best-priced real estate markets; based on actual sales statistics compiled monthly by the National Association of Realtors. What these statistics don’t necessarily reveal is that only the most aggressively priced homes in every price range are moving into the sold column.
“The Florida markets were hit early,” Corcoran said in explaining why Sarasota is out in front of the real estate comeback. “Last year alone, prices went down by a full third in Sarasota. But prices are already up 13%. So it’s moving fast as buyers snap up bargains.”
That’s not all Ms. Corcoran had to say about Sarasota being a most attractive place to buy. When the affable Roker mentioned that Sarasota is also prized for possessing some of the country’s best beaches, Corcoran concurred, but went a step further. “It’s a beautiful beach,” she agreed offhandedly. “But on top of that,” she emphasized, “it’s a sophisticated city. It’s an urban city, with all the things that sophisticated people like to find there.”
Wow. Talk about winning the trifecta. Any one of these three positive attributes—great prices, awesome beaches and a richly cultivated lifestyle—is enough to lure most discerning buyers to Sarasota. Yet, even if you never plan to set foot on a beach or attend a live music, theater or dance performance, you still have unlimited recreational opportunities, great retail, restaurants, nightlife and—of course—low prices to take advantage of.
(More …)
