We continued to see the same pattern in Manatee this month as new listings exceeded closed sales, so our inventory continued to expand. While we are still in a seller’s market, the trend is towards market balance. The median sales price decreased by 13% in October, which was the largest decrease we have seen in years. Busy season is now upon us, so the next few months will be telling. It certainly seems like a reasonable time to be either a buyer or seller in Manatee, although the low transaction volume will likely cause sellers to have to be a little patient. The infographic below from Florida Realtors has more information for October.
Category: Home Prices
September ended up being a solid month for closed sales of single-family homes in Manatee County. It has been a long time since we saw YoY growth of transactions as high as 47%. That said, it doesn’t mean that the seller’s market is back. Rather, balance still rules the day. It looks like we are continuing to see steady inventory growth as we are heading into our busy season in Florida. As long as that holds, it is shaping up to be a reasonable time to be either a buyer or seller in Manatee through Q4 23 and Q1 24. The infographic below from Florida Realtors has more details.
In 2023, the performance of existing single-family home sales in Florida has generally fallen short of the pre-pandemic transaction levels. Furthermore, throughout the year until August, Florida’s 2023 real estate transactions lagged behind those of 2022, though they have been gradually catching up. Notably, in September, closed sales of single-family homes experienced their first year-over-year increase in 2023, rising by over 6%.
Single-family home transactions slowed down more YoY in Sarasota County than Manatee in August. It isn’t very often that you see closed sales down, inventory up, and the median sales price rise materially. What I believe it is telling us is that the higher end of the market is relatively stronger now than it was last year when compared to the lower half of price points. The percentage of cash sales rising tends to reinforce that belief. The infographic below from Florida Realtors shows more detail from Sarasota County in August.
August was rather uneventful for single-family home sales in Manatee County. While closed transactions were up YoY, pending transactions were down. All that led to rather flat results in terms of both price and inventory across the county when compared to August of 2022. Overall, I continue to be pleased with the market overall as the balance between buyers and sellers is reasonable. The ultimate question is still around what the market will look like as we head into our busy season in a few months.