‘A lot of people are afraid to look at houses.’ COVID-19 slams Bradenton home sales
New pending sales of existing single-family homes in Manatee County fell 33.4 percent in March, compared to a year earlier as the coronoavirus pandemic spread across Southwest Florida.
Last month, there were 492 new pending sales in the Bradenton area, compared to 739 in March 2019, making that statistic a leading indicator of what is happening in April.
“March started strong with a lot of activity, as indicated by the rise in closed sales and dollar volume across the two counties,” David Clapp, 2020 president of the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, said in a press release. “Sales prices continue to go up across all markets, and most closings have stayed on schedule.”
In March, the association reported 658 Bradenton area single-family home sales, compared to 629 in the same month a year earlier, and the median sales price increased to $319,500 from $312,000. Manatee condo sales were also up year over year with 160 sold in March 2020, compared to 146 in March 2019. The median price for Bradenton area condos was up 5.7 percent to $215,000.
Sarasota single-family home prices increased by by 10.5 percent to $315,000 while Sarasota condo prices increased by 7.5 percent to $245,000.
The market slowdown comes as no surprise during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The market has slowed in response to COVID-19 but has by no means come to a halt,” Clapp said. “And while these numbers are down, we fully expect this to change with more new listings coming onto the market as we come out of this pandemic.”
Beth Barnett, real estate sales associate with Coldwell Banker based at Lakewood Ranch, said she has seen a tremendous slowdown in the market.
“A lot of people are afraid to go look at houses, and a lot of people don’t want their houses shown because they are concerned about the coronavirus,” Barnett said.
Greg Owens, broker and operating principal of Keller Williams on the Water, said some sellers are taking their properties off the market out of concern about the pandemic.
“There are still buyers out there but the inventory is dropping exponentially. We knew we were going to take a hit in a shifting market and tightened our belts. The key is when the governor and the counties lift the stay-at-home orders. There will come a point when you could see a flood of properties come back on the market, and that will affect pricing,” Owens said.
The month’s supply of single-family inventory also declined in response to shrinking inventory and a rise in sales in March: 19 percent in Manatee to a 3.4-month supply, and 30.2 percent in Sarasota to a 3.7-month supply.
The inventory of condos fell in Sarasota by 28.1 percent to a 4.6-months’ supply and in Manatee by 8.3 percent to a 4.4-months.
“Buyers are still buying, and sellers are still selling. I want to encourage all customers who are actively transacting real estate to work with their Realtor to conduct safe business practices by following all CDC guidelines,” said Clapp. “Today, Realtors are using technology to conduct virtual showings. Most buyers are only visiting properties in-person to finalize their purchase decision and closings can be conducted remotely or with very minimal contact.”
COVID-19 and new home construction
The coronavirus has also affected, but not stopped, the new homes market and construction business in Manatee County.
Cresswind Lakewood Ranch took the sales process completely virtual with 360-tours, agent FaceTimes, and remote closing technology. In addition, Cresswind’s programming and events went virtual too, where homeowners in the 55-plus community are now doing cooking classes, yoga and continued education from home.
John Barnott, director of Manatee County’s Building and Development Services, said in an email that his entire staff is working from home.
“Since this event has occurred we are accepting an average of 100 permit requests per day and issuing an average of 150 to 200 permits a day. We are also completing an average of 550 inspections per day,” Barnott said. “Inspection numbers are about the same. Permits are down slightly, maybe 15 percent.
“Of course we have about 40 plus in the field every day, code enforcement and inspectors. We decided to implement our work remotely plan and our customers never knew we left the building. We worked very hard for the last eight years planning and preparing for a situation where we would be required to work remotely and we never had a problem. I’m proud of Team BADS for what they have done to be able to keep at least one segment of the workforce going during this difficult time” Barnott said.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 1:16 PM.
