Bradenton’s torrid housing market steamrolls to $400,000 median price again in May
For the second consecutive month, the price of existing single-family houses in the Bradenton area broke a median price of $400,000 in May.
The median price, the exact midpoint price for all houses sold, was $75,000 greater than a year ago.
Buyers snapped up houses at such a frenzied rate — 739 closed sales, compared to 445 in the sale month a year ago — that there was barely a half month of inventory, putting the ball squarely in the seller’s court.
Dollar value of all those sales, $419.4 million, more than doubled the $182 million realized in May 2020, when the local real estate market was just recovering from a COVID-induced slowdown.
The median time to contract was six days, compared to 39 days a year ago. The median time to sale was 50 days, compared to 84 days a year ago, according to the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee.
For the Manatee townhouse and condo market, the Realtor association reported 319 sales in May, compared to 150 a year ago, and a median sales price of $243,595, compared to $229,950 a year ago. The median time to contract was nine days, compared to 41 days a year ago.
Similarly, in Sarasota County there were 985 single-family house sales in May, compared to 562 a year ago, and the median price rose to $407,000, compared to $297,995 in 2020.
Sarasota’s single-family home dollar volume topped out at $584.9 million, up from $220.6 million in 2020.
Condo and town home sales in Sarasota totaled 541 in May, compared to 242 a year earlier, and the median price reached $312,500, compared to $241,750 a year earlier.
A significant number of sales in both counties were all cash deals. In the Bradenton area, 242 of the single-family sales were all cash, and 196 condo-town homes sold for cash.
In Sarasota County, 442 of the single-family sales were for cash, and 316 town homes/condos sold for cash.
“The numbers continue to demonstrate that we’re in a historically strong seller’s market. However, the current sales growth won’t last forever. Owners waiting for top dollar may be disappointed when the number of properties available for sale eventually start to rise. With more options available, buyers will be less willing to meet a sellers’ terms,” Alex Krumm, broker owner of NextHome Excellence and president of the the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, said in a press release.
“The last ten years have proven–and decisively so–that real estate is one of the best investments in the world. Even buyers who bought at the highest point before the Great Recession have been made whole again, and in most cases are turning in a profit,” he said.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 10:03 AM.
