Sarasota region housing stock grew 10.9% from 2010 to 2020

Housing in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metropolitan statistical area has experienced explosive growth since 2020, but the decade between the 2008 recession and COVID-19 had already been trending upward here and in many higher-growth states and regions.

Compared to a national average of 6.5% growth in new homes from 2010 to 2020, the local metro area saw 10.9% growth in total housing units during the past decade, reports real estate investment company Stessa.

At the same time, like the rest of the country, new housing has lagged behind population growth. The local metro area added 18.5% in population during the past 10 years, compared to a growth of 7.4% nationally. Of the top 10 states for housing growth over the past decade, only North Dakota, South Dakota and Delaware added housing faster than they added residents.

Underinvestment in new housing since the bubble burst of the late 2000s is largely to blame for the national shortage. Spending on residential construction peaked above $1 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars early in 2006 before the housing bubble burst, when spending plummeted by more than two-thirds in throes of the recession.

Residential construction spending was slow to rebound during the recovery, growing gradually from 2012 to 2018, before falling again amid interest rate hikes. It was not until the pandemic-fueled housing frenzy that residential construction began to accelerate, with spending up 33% since March 2020, now approaching previous housing bubble levels.

As explosive as housing growth appears locally, the metro area does not rank among the nation's top 15 midsize metros. Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware added 382.2% new residences 2010-20 to rank as the nation’s fastest, with Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington experiencing 22.3% growth. Only one Florida midsize metro area made the top 15: Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, at 25.3% in growth.

Among small Florida metro areas, Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin ranked fourth at 65.3% growth, and The Villages No. 7 at 50.5%. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford ranked the highest among Florida’s large metros at No. 9 with 14.9% in new housing growth, and Jacksonville No. 12 at 11.8%.

The data used in this analysis was culled from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2020. View Stessa’s full report.