October Home Sales Indicate a Move Toward Pre-Pandemic Levels

SARASOTA, Fla. (November 18, 2022) – The latest data for the Sarasota and Manatee housing market has continued to show healthy growth, with closed sales and the months’ supply of inventory more comparable to pre-pandemic levels. According to the data from Florida REALTORS®, the median price for single-family homes in Sarasota County has reached a record high of $537,500 in October. The housing demand reflected in October could be due to many factors, including buyers coming from areas that were more heavily impacted by Hurricane Ian.

The total number of closed sales across the region was 1,542 in October, a 24.3 percent decrease from last year. When compared to September 2022, closed sales for both property types in the two-county region increased by 22.1 percent due in part to Hurricane Ian’s disruption at the end of September, pushing more sales into October.

Closed sales for single-family homes in Manatee County decreased year-over-year by 14.9 percent to 572 sales and in Sarasota County, single-family sales decreased by 34 percent to 520 sales. For condos, Manatee closed sales decreased by 22.5 percent to 200 sales, and Sarasota sales decreased by 21.6 percent to 250 sales.

“After a seasonal drop in closed sales in September, single-family home sales in October saw a very healthy bounce back,” said Tony Veldkamp, 2022 President of the REALTOR® Association of Sarasota and Manatee and a Senior Advisor at SVN Commercial Advisory Group. “While closed sales are not at 2020 to 2021 levels, October 2022 is very comparable to 2018 to 2019 levels.”

For single-family homes, the median sale price in Manatee County increased year-over-year by 29.3 percent to $549,444 and in Sarasota County, the median price increased by 31.1 percent to $537,500. This is the highest reported median sale price for single-family homes in Sarasota County since July of 2022. The median sale price for condos in Manatee County increased by 32.6 percent to $368,700, and the median price for condos in Sarasota is now $386,580, a 16.1 percent increase from last year.

“The growth in sale prices continues to amaze us,” added Veldkamp. “There is no reduction in median prices this month and we continue to have a very strong market. With our good job market, we expect that trend to continue over the next few months and as interest rates begin to stabilize and even drop, 2023 will see an increase in activity in our real estate market. It remains a great time to sell.”

In the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA, new listings for single-family homes decreased year-overyear by 24.4 percent to 1,213 new listings for single-family homes, while new listings in the condo market decreased by 6.7 percent to 574 new listings.

The months’ supply of inventory continues to steadily increase month-over-month in the North PortSarasota-Bradenton market. In the single-family home market, the months’ supply in Manatee County increased by 250 percent to a 2.8-month supply. In Sarasota, single-family supply increased by 175 percent to a 2.2-month supply. Manatee County’s condo supply increased year-over-year by 283.3 percent to 2.3-months, while Sarasota’s condo supply increased by 157.1 percent to a 1.8-month supply.

In the single-family home market, the median time from listing date to contract date is beginning to reach levels that were reported in October of 2020. The median time it took for single-family homes to go under contract was 20 days in Sarasota County and 24 days in Manatee County, a year-over-year increase of 185.7 percent and 300 percent respectively. As for condos, the median time to contract in Manatee County was 22 days which is 15 more days than the same month last year. In Sarasota County, the median time to contract increased by 22 days to 28 days in October, which has not been reported since January of 2021.

At the end of October, there were 4,568 active listings reported across the two counties, a 156 percent increase from last year. For single-family homes, active listings increased by 123.8 percent in Sarasota County and by 201.6 percent in Manatee County. For condos, the active inventory in Sarasota increased by 109.5 percent, while the inventory in Manatee increased by 217.5 percent. Monthly reports are provided by Florida REALTORS® with data compiled from Stellar MLS. For comprehensive statistics dating back to 2005, visit www.MyRASM.com/statistics.