Median home-sale prices rise to record level in Sarasota County

The basic economic principal of supply and demand is demonstrating itself in the Sarasota-Manatee county real estate market as inventories of for-sale properties plummet as median prices climb – to record levels in one county’s case.

The torrid local real estate market has shown no signs up letting up, as evidenced by the May 2021 numbers from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee.

Sarasota’s median price for single-family homes climbed to an all-time high of $407,000 in May, a 36.6% increase from the same time in 2020.

Manatee’s median price for single-family homes rose to $400,000, a year-over-year increase of 23.1%.

By comparison, the median price for a single-family home for 2020 in Sarasota County was $325,000. In Manatee County, that figure was $345,000 in 2020.

Thus far in 2021, median single-family home prices in Sarasota have climbed each month: $340,004 in January; $359,900 in February; $379,695 in March and $380,000 in April. The June figures are expected in late July. 

An estate on Casey Key sold in April for $16.5 million, the highest priced sale this year and equal to the highest price sale of all time in the region. 

In June, a Bird Key property sold for $6.5 million. 

At least eight residential properties have sold for more than $10 million since the beginning of 2020.

 In the meantime, available properties for sale in the two counties have fallen, bringing with them the average time a property is on the market.

Across the region, typical properties sell in less than two weeks, down more than 78% from 2020 across both counties.

“The numbers continue to demonstrate that we’re in a historically strong seller’s market,’’ said 2021 RASM President Alex Krumm. “However, the current sales growth won’t last forever. Owners waiting for top dollar may be disappointed when the number of properties available for sale eventually start to rise. With more options available, buyers will be less willing to meet a sellers’ terms.”

In May across the two counties, 2,584 closed sales were recorded in May, an 84.7% increase from May 2020. All of those sales were at listing price or above.

In Manatee County, single-family sales increased by 66.1% to 739, and condo sales increased by 112.7% to 319. In Sarasota County, single-family sales increased by 75.3% to 985, and condo sales increased by 123.6% to 541. Cash sales also more than doubled from the previous year.

For 2021, though, March still holds the standard for closed sales. In Sarasota County, 1,169 homes and 738 condominiums were sold, eclipsing figures as far back as early 2017. In Manatee, 907 homes and 496 condos sold.