‘The curve is flattening’ on Bradenton’s housing market, new data shows. Here’s the latest
No longer are Bradenton home sellers always able to hold out for their original asking price.
Or hope that competing buyers might bid up the price, as was sometimes the case during the pandemic-induced housing rush.
The reason? Sharply increased inventory compared to a year ago.
In August, there were 1,642 active listings of existing single-family houses in the Bradenton area, a 191% increase from the 564 that were on the market a year ago, according to the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee.
And there might be a little more room for bargaining on price. In August, 98.6% of sellers got their asking price, compared to 100% a year ago.
Even so, the median price remained high at $525,000, a 22% increase from the $430,000 selling price a year ago.
The Bradenton housing market still has a ways to go to achieve parity — a balanced market favoring neither buyer nor seller — with only a 2.5 month supply of inventory of homes. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market.
The month of August also saw fewer houses changing hands, 576, compared to 694 last year.
In the Bradenton townhouse and condo market, a similar scenario prevailed with 11% fewer sales, but a higher median price, $352,495, up 11% compared to a year ago. Active inventory was up 121% to 481 units.
In Sarasota County, existing single-family houses were selling for a median $475,250, up 22% from a year ago, but were taking longer to go to contract, 14 days, compared to six days a year ago.
The Sarasota townhouse and condo market saw 13% fewer units change hands, but the median price rose 19% to $375,000, compared to a year ago.
“As expected, and as it’s been trending all year, the residential real estate market seems to have peaked, and the curve is flattening out,” Tony Veldkamp, Realtor association president, said in a press release.
“We see very similar numbers between July and August in relation to number of closed sales, pending sales and active inventory, indicating a steady but leveling market,” said Veldkamp, a senior advisor at SVN Commercial Advisory Group.
“The velocity of the market is still here, and it is still an excellent time to sell,” he said.
New listings for single-family homes, which had seen a steady increase since the first of the year, has been declining since June in Sarasota and showed a drastic drop from just last month in Manatee County, he said.
“This is partly due to the time of the year but can also be indicative of a ‘wait and see’ mentality among sellers,” Veldkamp said.
For more information on real estate sales visit MyRASM.com/statistics.
This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 4:16 PM.
