Inflation, Uncertainty, and my favorite word Unprecedented. News articles all over the country are telling you all the bad things that are happening with real estate. Well we are here to just just go over the facts.

We have to remember that real estate is ultimately hyper local. You can have a terrible real estate market in one state, while another state has an increasing population leading to a great real estate market. So while we pay attention to the big national trends, we want you to be aware of whats happening in your neighborhood.

So lets start with Closed Sales for the month of May we saw closed sales drop (-7.5%) year over year however they increased nearly (+6%) from April. Its a number we will want to keep a close eye on.

One stat that shows confidence in the Sarasota and Manatee Markets was the amount of Cash Sales. Cash sales were up nearly 8% (+7.9%) from this time last year. Nearly 50% of all the sales in Sarasota and Manatee counties were cash.

That confidence goes into the Median Sales Price so far year to date we are up (+28.8%) to $495,000 if the market is slowing down we will still see these increases come across but they should start to slow down.

The List to Sales Price and Time on Market are 2 stats we look at to see if the market is softening up a bit they both came in with no change at 100% and 6 Days to contract. We will watch these closely though over the next few months.

One of the big jumps we saw in May was the number of New Listings that came on the market. That number is up 17.2% to crest 2000 for the first time in since January 2019. This could be people starting to realize that the market has started to peak and they are trying to catch the end of the selling wave.

With all of those new listings hitting the market our Inventory was up 71%! From this time last year. That seems like a massive jump, however when you look at the actual figures it only takes us to 1.2 months of inventory. Meaning we are still well into a sellers market. A healthy balanced market would see that number in the 3 to 4 months range.

For the Sky is Falling people out there we only saw 3 Foreclosure sales in the month of May down from 10 last May. People have alot of equity, so if they get in a bad spot they still have the option to sell.

The Sarasota/Lakewood Ranch Market is still going strong and we expect this trend to continue through 2022.

If your a buyer and you have been waiting, now may be the time to start looking again as inventory rises you may be able to negotiate a bit more or find yourself not competing against multiple offers.

If your a seller the market is still hot for you, be cautious though. The days of throwing out the insane price and waiting for the market to catch up is over. Price your home competitively and it will stand out. Go for the crazy price and you may be the one buying your own home back.