Today – one week after the storm – we walked the beach of Longboat Key. The Gulf of Mexico is quite calm, the sky is blue, the shorebirds are fishing, and it seems like nothing ever happened.
In Sarasota’s Downtown and Barrier Islands, Hurricane Ian caused very little damage to building structures. I want to expand a little bit about that. Most homes that people are purchasing today are effectively built after 2000. (For an in-depth conversation about how the county calculates an effective build date please give me a call @ 941.587.0740) What this translates to is that they are built to the highest hurricane codes and have tremendous resilience to storms like this. So, most of the damage in our area was to some trees and powerlines. Most structures went unscathed.
Sarasota’s Q3 Real Estate Sales
So, how are the numbers for the third quarter of 2022?
We were not able to complete the month of September as many closings could not happen or have not yet been reported due to the disruption of the hurricane. This will have had some impact but I can’t say exactly how much. That said, here are the numbers:
- Sales are down 26% in the third quarter compared to the same period a year ago.
- Luxury sales have gone up from 7 ¾ to 10 ¼ percentage points as a percentage of total sales.
- The median price went up 20% from the third quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022.
Our market continues to be strong, however, I think the median price may have peaked in June of this year. It dipped in July and August but then rose again in the month of September. While our median price is significantly higher than it was last year, though it is just slightly higher than the median price of real estate in Florida. In my mind, this makes sense as Sarasota offers much more in terms of natural and cultural amenities than most other cities throughout the state.
My prognosis for the rest of the year is that we will have a very, very tight supply. We may have an increase in demand because of the tragedies to the south of us. So much inventory along our Gulf Coast is not currently sellable, which I suspect is going to put pressure on already reduced inventories. More people are likely to be coming to our area looking for real estate both for renting and buying. So, I would say here in Sarasota things look very bright indeed for our community.
If you are a property owner and want us to give you a video walk-through of your personal residence to see how it did in the storm let us know and we’re happy to do that.
When you have a question specific to your situation, please give me a call @ 941.587.0740.
