Our visit! (Sarasota, Naples: short sales, real estate, foreclosure)

[Cowboyway]

Originally Posted by blueherons

Glad you had a nice trip! We haven't found anything snooty about downtown and are actually looking to buy there. Hopefully you'll come back and get a better impression! Thanks for sharing!

I dunno....maybe we had bad timing. I certainly dont mean to generalize the way it seems i did. However when we talked to people and mentioned we would be looking at other areas like Bradenton or Punta Gorda, most people low browed the idea. We actually really liked the city, so our impression of it is actually very good but it may be better for us as a "to do" thing not a " to live" thing. That's just us, and we will be going back again for a more in depth look at all the choices. Your welcome!

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Cowboyway

I dunno....maybe we had bad timing. I certainly dont mean to generalize the way it seems i did. However when we talked to people and mentioned we would be looking at other areas like Bradenton or Punta Gorda, most people low browed the idea. We actually really liked the city, so our impression of it is actually very good but it may be better for us as a "to do" thing not a " to live" thing. That's just us, and we will be going back again for a more in depth look at all the choices. Your welcome!

Hey Cowboy! Glad you had a good time! That's right, it's just "different strokes for different folks." I am a middle-of-the-road person - a little bit bohemian-hippie, with a little dose of country girl thrown in! LOL! Sarasota is not as snooty as it was 20 years ago, and I love the town a lot. It does have it's "artsy-fartsy" element though! However I probably identify more with north Sarasota (very UN-snooty, LOL!) and even Bradenton. That's why we love living in Whitfield - smack between Bradenton and Sarasota. There is something here for everybody. I agree with Pixi's post (I usually do, ) that Punta Gorda might be the place for you. Or even Bradenton.

Anyway, most of us who live here are very friendly, the snootier people you ran into were probably not residents! Florida definitely is a melting pot, so that is just something to keep in mind.

[Cowboyway]

[quote=gypsychic;26424835]Hey Cowboy! Glad you had a good time! That's right, it's just "different strokes for different folks." I am a middle-of-the-road person - a little bit bohemian-hippie, with a little dose of country girl thrown in! LOL! Sarasota is not as snooty as it was 20 years ago, and I love the town a lot. It does have it's "artsy-fartsy" element though! However I probably identify more with north Sarasota (very UN-snooty, LOL!) and even Bradenton. That's why we love living in Whitfield - smack between Bradenton and Sarasota. There is something here for everybody. I agree with Pixi's post (I usually do, ) that Punta Gorda might be the place for you.


Thanks for the post. I'm old enough to know things are what you make of them, and it would take more than some snootiness to keep me from a place I enjoyed. We didn't check out Whitfield, but it seems interesting. Maybe next time. My hunch tells me most people are friendly like you.

[Sunshine Rules]

Good to hear you had a nice time. Perhaps you can squeeze in another visit in the near future so you can check out more neighborhoods and areas. Gypsychic is right, Sarasota definitely has variety. Some neighborhoods tend to be more reserved but there are others that have social events, block parties, etc. It's kind of hard to see everything in just one trip.

[gettinoutofjersey]

so whats the town of choice?

[Cowboyway]

Originally Posted by gettinoutofjersey

so whats the town of choice?

Still lookin......we have a year or so, and a few more trips first. Punta Gorda is def on short list tho.

[gettinoutofjersey]

i picked up a paper at the tampa boat show and they had some real cheap lots in south gulf cove for sale. maybe buy a half dozen of them and build in the middle. they got canals that hook up and eventualy get to the gulf.

bad for you, but good for the country if we get lucky and the socialist gets beat, home prices should start climbing with renewed faith and consumer confidence.

[sware2cod]

Originally Posted by gettinoutofjersey

...

if we get lucky and the socialist gets beat, home prices should start climbing with renewed faith and consumer confidence.

Home prices ( and sales volume) have already increased in FL in the past year under President Obama. This trend will continue when President Obama is re-elected.

[Cowboyway]

Originally Posted by gettinoutofjersey

i picked up a paper at the tampa boat show and they had some real cheap lots in south gulf cove for sale. maybe buy a half dozen of them and build in the middle. they got canals that hook up and eventualy get to the gulf.

Not sure where that is, but I will look it up.


bad for you, but good for the country if we get lucky and the socialist gets beat, home prices should start climbing with renewed faith and consumer confidence.

Yeah the dam of optimism will break, but a rising market helps me in the sense I get more for my place up here as we'll as our other interests (hopefully)

[Sunshine Rules]

Leaving politics out of it, the local real estate market has been steadily improving. September sales numbers should be out in the next day or two. August stats from the Sarasota Association of Realtors sold 36% more homes August 2012 vs 2011 and the available inventory of homes on the market thru the MLS dropped to yet another new decade low of 3504 (which was about 4% less than the previous month). The August numbers put the inventory of avaialbe single family listings at a 3.8 month supply and for condos the number was 5.5 months. At one point in late 2008 we had a 24 month inventory of single family homes for sale and a 41.7 month inventory of condos. Think about how many properties have sold locally in just under 4 years.

The percentage of distress properties (short sales or foreclosures) dropped to just over 16% of available properties. There was a point a couple years back when almost 1/2 of the homes for sale in our local market were distress properties.

Two stories in the Sarasota Herald this week of note:
(1) building permits in Sarasota county for the year to date are up 54% over the same period for 2011
(2) CoreLogic (the market research firm) has reported "a sharp drop" in shadow inventory.

The number of mortgages 90 days or more delinquent in our area has also dropped this year vs last year.


So we are heading into our busiest months for real estate here in Sarasota, the winter months, with strong demand and very low inventory.