Housing market slows down on the Suncoast

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Realtors across the Suncoast said even though the market is still booming, they are starting to see a little bit of a slowdown.

The Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee released their 2022 market statistics. They reported that closed home sales are down from 2021. But interestingly enough, the price of homes has increased.

Closed sales in Manatee County were down 30% from a year ago in December—while prices increased by 10%. In Sarasota, the sale of existing single-family homes was down 42%-- with a 16% increase in price.

This combination has led to an increase in inventory for realtors like Andrew Haddad.

“We saw inventory at two weeks of inventory on the market. Right now, we have two and a half months of inventory on the market—which is still a heavily a seller-favored market. A normal market would be six months of inventory,” said Haddad.

Michael Munoz said he doesn’t feel the slowdown at all.

After moving from Sarasota to Dallas a few months ago, he’s already decided to come back. Unfortunately, the market from when he bought his Sarasota home a few years ago is a lot more aggressive.

“We were looking at a house just last week and were like, “Oh this is perfect!” This is exactly where we wanted to be, it checked all our boxes, and we were ready to make and offer. Before we knew it the house was already pending,” Munoz said.

Another big factor Munoz and his wife have had to take into consideration with finding the perfect home are the high-interest rates.

“It is tough seeing those high interest rates. Committing to that amount of mortgage and saying, ‘ok what’s the plan?’ Because long term we don’t want to be stuck—right now somewhere around the 6′s-6.5%. That’s a lot compared to where we refinanced a few years ago at 2.99%. It’s crazy to see how much that’s jumped,” said Munoz.

You can read the full report here.

Copyright 2023 WWSB. All rights reserved.