Wow! Check out this beautiful french provincial home I just put a contract on. This lovely Lakewood Ranch CC golf course home is, 3400 sq/ft, 4 bedroom, pool /spa and, a built in outdoor kitchen. You can still find some good deals in Lakewood Ranch despite the fact there are only 51 homes in Lakewood Ranch Cc for sale above $500k. Year-to-date, there have been 31 homes sold compared, to just 19 homes sold during the same time periord last year.
You know the saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good”. Well, this is what happened with my clients who just purchase a 4000 sq/ft home in Prestancia. My UK clients came to Sarasota last August to buy a winter home and fell in love with this home in Prestancia, they actually wrote a contract on it. But, because of a health issue they cancelled. Well, fast forward to this week when they returned for their second visit and , the home is still on the market. So, we made another offer, I might add, for less money, and it was accepted and, everyone is very happy!
Historically, Prestancia has always been a little more expensive than areas like Lakewood Ranch , and Laurel Oaks because of it’s proximity to the beach. But, over the last year and half, home prices have leveled out thus, if you want to be in an updated luxury golf home for around $700k, you don’t have to go east of I 75. There are still 3 or 4 homes in Prestancia that have some very motivated sellers. Please contact me if you or, someone you know is considering a move.
When it comes to trying to find a canal front home for sale on Siesta key and your budget is somewhere between $600 (entry point for a canal home ) to $900, it can be a frustrating experience. Why? Because most sellers think just because they are on “water” they can over charge for their home. The problem lies in the fact that, most of these homes were built in the 70’s and have low ceilings , and poor floor plans with walls everywhere, thus they need a $150-250 worth of work to bring them up to par. Having looked at every home between $600-900 on Siesta Key , we were only able to find one that truely represent a “good value”.
Below is a home that I sold this season for just over $800. It’s a three bedroom/ 3.5 baths with close to 3000 square feet of living space highlighted with porcelain tile, walnut wide plank wood floors,recessed lighting, granite, custom cabinets, electric fireplace, and French doors.
The nation seems to have finally caught what Southwest Florida has been enjoying for the last few months: people getting off the fence and signing home sales contracts.
An index that tracks the number of so-called “pending sales” rose to its highest level in nearly two years last month, the latest sign the battered housing market is slowly improving.
Pending sales — a leading indicator of properties that have gone under contract but not yet sold — numbered 1,191 in the territory covered by the Sarasota Real Estate market, a 12-month high.
In Manatee County, pending sales for homes were up 29 percent from a year ago and up 18.5 percent for condominiums.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that its index of sales agreements increased 4.1 percent during March to a reading of 101.4. That is the highest since April 2010, when buyers could qualify for a federal home-buying tax credit. A reading of 100 is considered healthy.
Contract signings typically indicate where the housing market is headed. There is a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed deal.
The figures “bode well for existing home sales over the next couple of months,” said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist at Deutsche Bank. “We believe housing has now entered recovery.”
More signings are among recent evidence of a slight pickup in the housing market. New home sales fell in March but have risen over the past year. Builders are also more confident.Some measures of home prices are stabilizing.
January and February made up the best winter for completed sales in five years. Sales fell in March, but Thursday’s report suggests that drop will likely be temporary, LaVorgna said.
Even so, cancellations of sales contracts are running higher than normal, as many buyers struggle to obtain mortgages. That has made the pending home sales figure a less reliable indicator.
Sarasota came out on top of a list of best places to retire that was produced by a national website, with Venice not too far behind at No. 9.
The top cities in the nation for retirement, according to TopRetirements.com and MarketWatch:
1. Sarasota
2. San Antonio, Texas
3. Naples
4. Tucson, Ariz.
5. Asheville, N.C.
6. Beaufort, S.C.
7. St. Augustine
8. Fort Myers
9. Venice
10. Prescott, Ariz.
The list by TopRetirements.com — a website managed by John Brady, a retired executive vice president of a business information publisher — was cited in a recent national report by MarketWatch, part of Dow Jones & Co.
In Sarasota’s favor at the No. 1 position, Brady cited the city’s cultural distinctions, reasonable home prices (especially at this snapshot in time), its general living costs and its warm winters.
On the other side of the ledger, Brady cited a crime rate that is higher than the national average, lots of tourists and traffic in winter, hot summers and an unemployment rate that continues to run above the nation’s.
In making his choices, according to MarketWatch, Brady looks at good weather, health care, property taxes and “a certain ‘wow’ factor.” He also considers “adult education, cultural activities, job opportunities for older Americans, low housing costs and income-tax rates, low crime rate, and good walkability and livability.”
Venice got props for a nice downtown, plenty of active adult communities with golf courses, reasonable housing prices, low taxes and low crime.
On the downside, Brady and MarketWatch, dinged the community for a lack of “walkability” for those who don’t live downtown, an extremely old retiree population and a lack diversity.
Other Florida communities dominated the list of cities, including Naples at No. 3, St. Augustine at No. 7 and Fort Myers at No. 8.