Venice on the Verge (Sarasota, North Port: for sale, condos, hotel)

[MattMN]

For those interested in Venice, here's a nice article on the current and future plans for the city. It details a variety of residential builders and developments, with some notes on commercial, restaurant, hotel and hospital development.

Venice on the verge || Business Observer

Some interesting notes:

• "Venice Mayor John Holic says about 5,000 new homes will be coming in the next 10 to 20 years within the boundaries of the city. Most of those will be in the North Venice area where there’s still the most open land."
• "Who’s buying all of these homes? At Neal, 80% of customers come from outside of Sarasota and Manatee counties, and about half of all its sales are cash purchases... The Midwest has become a big source of buyers."
• "...such low inventory when it comes to resales of existing homes, new homes are where many purchasers gravitate."
• “Every 4,000 homes brings a new Publix. And every new home represents about 16 jobs for a year.”
• "The city’s median age has been inching downward during the past several years, but it’s still in the mid-60s — not exactly appealing for a restaurant or retailer that targets a younger crowd."
• new Wawa, Culver's, and Burger King coming near Jacaranda Boulevard and East Venice Avenue, with "more national chain restaurants coming to the area."

[choff5]

Very interesting. With all the planned growth, I wonder how it will eventually affect resales in the current older communities. Granted no one knows but hopefully they will at least hold their current values.

[JJGittes65]

I don't understand the comment about there being a shortage of resales. I did a search on zillow for Venice homes for sale between $250k and 500k, and there seems like a pretty substantial inventory of resales available right now. Actually, very substantial, with many on market for a long period of time.

What am I missing?

[QuilterChick]

Originally Posted by JJGittes65

I don't understand the comment about there being a shortage of resales. I did a search on zillow for Venice homes for sale between $250k and 500k, and there seems like a pretty substantial inventory of resales available right now. Actually, very substantial, with many on market for a long period of time.

What am I missing?

Most likely you are seeing 'buyer resistance' and opportunistic sellers. Substantial inventory of resales should bring prices down.

[sware2cod]

Originally Posted by JJGittes65

I don't understand the comment about there being a shortage of resales. I did a search on zillow for Venice homes for sale between $250k and 500k, and there seems like a pretty substantial inventory of resales available right now. Actually, very substantial, with many on market for a long period of time.

What am I missing?

Some of that article is specific to things going on within the city limits of Venice. This leaves out a large number of properties that have Venice addresses but they are outside of the official city limits (thus under official jurisdiction of Sarasota county). The article did mention some activity that is going on outside the city limits but they qualified it specifically by saying it was outside city limits.

Even when the article mentions demographics(age), they are specific to ages of people that live within city limits. I would guess that the larger majority of people that have a Venice mailing address actually live outside the boundaries of the city.

[MattMN]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

Some of that article is specific to things going on within the city limits of Venice. This leaves out a large number of properties that have Venice addresses but they are outside of the official city limits (thus under official jurisdiction of Sarasota county). The article did mention some activity that is going on outside the city limits but they qualified it specifically by saying it was outside city limits.

Even when the article mentions demographics(age), they are specific to ages of people that live within city limits. I would guess that the larger majority of people that have a Venice mailing address actually live outside the boundaries of the city.

Partly... Guess it depends on whether you are referring to only addresses in Venice, or if you are including North Venice. The article definitely includes the North Venice area, which doesn't have a Venice address but was annexed and is under the jurisdiction of Venice. That distinction is not totally clear to me.

[JJGittes65]

I think a lot of articles like this one are driven by the big developers. They cherry pick the stats to support their plans and requests for more building approvals. All I know is, when you enter "Venice FL" and hit search within the above price range, there are A LOT of homes for resale on the market in the area. Lots....and that's not even counting townhomes and condos which my searches exclude.

Maybe the big developers ought to start side companies that do tasteful rehabs (i.e. Fixer Upper style) to '70s-80s houses, which may be even better located than these new developments??.....just a thought.

[MattMN]

Originally Posted by JJGittes65

I think a lot of articles like this one are driven by the big developers. They cherry pick the stats to support their plans and requests for more building approvals. All I know is, when you enter "Venice FL" and hit search within the above price range, there are A LOT of homes for resale on the market in the area. Lots....and that's not even counting townhomes and condos which my searches exclude.

Maybe the big developers ought to start side companies that do tasteful rehabs (i.e. Fixer Upper style) to '70s-80s houses, which may be even better located than these new developments??.....just a thought.

I think given how many home buyers are probably retirees, it's unlikely they want a 70s-80s fixer-upper, unfortunately.

Let's look at how quickly "A LOT of homes" can get narrowed to not enough choices. For example, in our recent search we were looking for a 2+ BR house between 1600-2100 sq ft. A Trulia search returns 321 results. But we'd actually like a little newer - changing it to the homes built in the last 20 years returns 142 results, last 15 years drops the choices to 118. Now, we'd like to have a little water view, which will rule out many more. Also the cost of many existing homes is the same as new construction, so given that, many buyers will choose to build their own home with an interior they choose on a lot they choose, rather than an existing home. Additionally, many other buyers now would like to have community amenities/activities, which many older neighborhoods don't include.

Given all these factors, and how many people continue to move to SWFL, these new construction communities will definitely continue to find buyers.

[Restrain]

Look at all the new construction in West Villages. Partly in North Port, part unincorporated, but with a Venice ZIP code. Looking at the existing housing adjacent to the area, housing prices are strong.

[JJGittes65]

I agree with the above comments that people like new houses, and new amenities, and modern floorplans, and thus often gravitate toward these new communities even though they are farther out. (Of course in 10 years, these communities will be older and the cycle will continue, but even farther out, away from the coast.)


But I just don't accept the comment in the article that more development is needed due to a shortage of suburban resale inventory in Venice. If you want an 1800-2500 square foot one story resale within 15 minutes from downtown Venice (island), it looks like there are plenty of choices sitting on the market.


I have family that live in zip 92011 in California. Now that's got limited resale inventory!