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Sarasota Florida Real Estate Sales Expected to Begin Improving in 2008

Posted May 23, 2008

    Nationally, a flat pattern in home sales activity is expected to continue for the next couple of months before beginning to improve during this summer, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

    Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR, said the extent of an expected recovery hinges on better access to affordable mortgage loans. The availability of affordable home mortgages is uneven around the country and sometimes within metropolitan areas.  He expects to see a soft first half of the year, for both housing and the economy, before notable improvements begin in the second half of 2008.

    The Pending Home sales Index (PHSI) in the South slipped 0.1 percent to 84.9, 26.7% lower than last year.  Existing home sales are projected to rise from an annual pace of 4.95 million in the first quarter to 5.82 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. For all of 2008, existing-home sales nationally are likely to total 5.39 million, and then rise to 5.72 million in 2009.  But in Southwest Florida, bargain hunters have aleady begun to move in pushing April home sales up 5 percent in Sarasota - Bradenton and 6 percent in Charlotte County-North Port.  Even more promising, the rising sales of homes in Southwest Florida were accompanied by rising prices.  Though prices continue to be lower than a year ago, the median Sarasota-Bradenton home price was 12 percent higher in April than it was in March.

    NAR predicts that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is likely to rise gradually to 6.2% by the end of this year and then average 6.3% in 2009.

    The net of all this data is that while, in much of the country real estate sales are still in the doldrums, Sarasota real estate prices are now at or close to as low as they are going to go.

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