Sarasota Foreclosures Creeping Upwards But Market Still Tight

As of today there are 249 bank owned foreclosures ( REO's ) actively for sale in Sarasota County. This up from 120 last summer and 200 at year end. Since 1/1/2010 there have been 298 closings of REO's, so the months of inventory is still well under two months.

Also, today there are 1,076 short sales for sale in Sarasota County, 1,431 pending sales, and 307 closed sales this year. Given that there are almost ten months of short sales pending as opposed to 1.5 months of REO's pending, something is screwy. Look for a lot of the pending short sales to return to the market due to failed transactions.

Normal ( non-distressed ) sales for houses priced under $200,000 are going reasonably well. Closed sales have been 437 so far this year against an inventory of 1,900 for sale giving an inventory figure of about 9.5 months ( six months of inventory is considered normal ).

Non-distressed sales for houses priced over $500,000 continue to be very slow. There are 1,738 for sale and only 110 have closed this year. The inventory level is almost three years. Since most listings are for six months, these houses are getting listed 6 times before they are sold.