Sarasota Home Sellers Face Reality Check in Today’s Cooling Market

There’s an all-too familiar conversation happening repeatedly over the past year or so in the Sarasota area and beyond: People looking to sell their homes, and wanting a price that is out of line with today’s real estate market.  Sellers are nostalgic for the previous real estate market.

Make no mistake, the post-Covid market was an anomaly.  Low interest rates, Florida’s relatively mild pandemic restrictions and the rise of remote work alloweing more people to suddenly work from home.

As a Realtor then, it was a busy time.  Personally I was able to accrue $43 million in sales in ’21 and ’22. But that’s now old news.  “Glory days,” as Bruce Springsteen once sang.

Now people who have decided to sell their homes are getting a rude awakening when they ask for an amount similar to what their neighbor received a few years ago: They’re learning the buyers aren’t willing to pay it.

It’s a “buyers’ market” now—and there’s plenty of homes available. Sellers need to forget about that Covid price spike and think back to 2019.

Case in point—I have a seller who paid $235,000 for a condo just before the big run-up.  This year he wanted to get $400,000. (Some neighbors even got $500,000 at the peak of the frenzy.)  He had to finally settle at $330,000.  He’s disappointed  I couldn’t get him more, even though he made nearly $100,000 in a few short years.

Coldwell Broker Realty Broker Matt Day, who oversees 400 Realtors in Sarasota, said sellers are still coming out on top. “The appreciation in recent years is still favorable to the seller. You’re just in a very competitive market with a lot of other resales as well as new construction.”

Day says if you want to sell your home, you have to be realistic about the price.

Ray Collins is an award-winning Realtor, media consultant, and former local TV news anchor. www.RayCollinsRealEstate.com

Ray Collins Photos