Growth in Bradenton-Sarasota home prices slows

Home prices had their slowest appreciation nationwide in August in nearly two years, industry real estate analyst CoreLogic said Tuesday.

Home prices increased nationally by 5.5 percent year over year from August 2017, while in the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port region they grew by 3.95 percent, the report said.

Looking ahead, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that the national home-price index is projected to continue to increase by 4.7 percent on a year-over-year basis from August 2018 to August 2019.

“The rise in mortgage rates this summer to their highest level in seven years has made it more difficult for potential buyers to afford a home,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic.

“The slackening in demand is reflected in the slowing of national appreciation, as illustrated in the CoreLogic Home Price Index. National appreciation in August was the slowest in nearly two years, and we expect appreciation to slow further in the coming year,” he said.

According to the CoreLogic Market Condition Indicators (MCI), an analysis of housing values in the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas based on housing stock, 38 percent of metropolitan areas — including the Bradenton-Sarasoa area — have an overvalued housing market as of August 2018.

Greg Owens, president of the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, said that he doesn’t see slowly rising prices as a bad thing.

“The higher prices go up, the more people are priced out of the market. The amount of inventory available in this market under $500,000 is not huge,” Owens said.

“If people can’t get into an entry level house, it’s harder for other people to move up. You don’t want to see a spike in prices,” Owens said.

The MCI analysis categorizes home prices in individual markets as undervalued, at value or overvalued, by comparing home prices to their long-run, sustainable levels, which are supported by local market fundamentals, such as disposable income.

The analysis defines an overvalued housing market as one in which home prices are at least 10 percent higher than the long-term, sustainable level. An undervalued housing market is one in which home prices are at least 10 percent below the sustainable level.