Sarasota's Luxury Market

For months now I have been telling people that the high-end market in Sarasota is going to be less susceptible to the impending "correction" than other market sectors. The investors that I have had the pleasure of working with over the past year will tell that I always counseled them to avoid multiple "small" deals and pursue the market segment above the million dollar mark. The reasoning behind that is simple- every mom and pop operation in Sarasota and from everywhere else it seems invested in condos and lower end homes to flip. Speculation in the high end market is also fierce, but by virtue of the numbers, there are simply fewer players on the investment side. In a market where sales are slowing, I have long seen and forecasted that our luxury market would not feel as much of a correction as other market segments. No one can argue that inventory in the luxury sector is up greatly over last year, but what is impressive is that benchmark sales are occurring with some regularity.

Take for example these recent sales:
A home sold this week on Westway Drive on Lido Key set a regional record for a sale of a home on a single parcel- the home sold for $13.1 million dollars and both sides of the deal were handled by my firm, Michael Saunders and Company. Our office also has a very dominant presence on Casey Key which has been the subject of many discussions about the vibrance of the local real estate market. A deal recently went pending in my office for the sale of a Casey Estate that has a list price of 10.5 million dollars. There are currently 20 pending sales of properties valued from $3 million to $14 million in the Sarasota MLS, a bold statistic in a faltering market.

There are many reasons for this, but one is that buyers from markets like California and Naples are realizing the opportunity that Sarasota provides- and that luxury estates here are still priced fairly well- especially in a "buyer's market."