SARASOTA, FLORIDA, July 14th, 2016 – Job seekers who have focused their searches in Sarasota and Bradenton are right on track. A recent ranking of the personal finance website WalletHub put these two areas amongst the best Florida cities to find a job in 2016.
Sarasota topped this list, while Bradenton was ranked no. 21 out of a total of 130 cities included in the analysis. This reaffirms earlier industry reports of robust employment growth in the region that in turn provides added momentum to demand on homes for sale in Sarasota and Manatee.
Where the two cities earned top marks in the WalletHub ranking’s measures are indeed encouraging for job searchers. Both got cookie points from the high number of jobs available and the areas’ favorable socio-economic factors, such as employment opportunities, industry diversity, median annual income and starting salary, time spent working and commuting, and social life.
Statistics released recently by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity showed that 5,400 new jobs were added in Sarasota and Bradenton from January 2015 to January 2016. Job creation was strongest in the tourism and healthcare industries which created 1,100 new positions. The manufacturing and construction sectors each added some 900 jobs over 2015 at the start of 2016, the department’s report also estimated.
New hotels currently under construction or in the pipeline in downtown Sarasota form one wellspring for new jobs in the region during the next few years. These hotel projects will add close to 1,000 hotel rooms at the downtown district alone.
In percentage terms, job growth in the two cities plus the gains in North Port rose year-over-year by 3 percent in January 2016 after peaking at 6 percent in the 2014‒2015 period. The January 2016 pace in the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan area was notably ahead of the 2.4 percent clip registered in the powerhouse Tampa Bay metro.
As of April 2016, the unemployment rate in Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties was estimated at 4.3 percent, better than the 5 percent level for both all of Florida and the national rate. Thanks to the strength of job creation in places like Sarasota and Manatee, over 32,000 new jobs for January 2016 alone were added in the Sunshine State to top the count in all of the U.S. Another 30,000 Florida jobs are expected to open up in the next five years.
Florida’s job uptrend at a pace faster than the national rate is likely to continue with the state’s economic growth expected to rise ahead that of the U.S. University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith in a recent lecture predicted a 3 to 4 percent increase in the state’s gross product compared to a sub-3 percent gain for the U.S. economy onwards to 2018.
Significantly, several residential property developers have a number of projects addressing workforce housing demand in Sarasota and Bradenton which could intensify with the rising employment opportunities in the region.
One of these is affordable housing advocate Harvey Vengroff who recently got Manatee County approval to convert Knights Inn in Bradenton into an apartment complex with a total of 390 units. He is also developing 393 low-cost apartments in an 8-acre property at 2211 Fruitville Road east of downtown Sarasota.
At its sprawling Waterside mixed-use project in Sarasota which broke ground in April 2016, Schroeder Manatee Ranch is allocating over 2,030 homes for households whose earnings are equivalent to 80‒120 percent of the area median income. Sarasota City approval is likewise being sought by Oaktree Development for the Enclave at Laurel Park which will consist of 17 affordably priced townhouses at 1938 Laurel Street.
Early in 2016, Rinehart Homes had the grand opening of its affordable housing project, Cortez Landings, on 11th Street East in Bradenton near Southeast High School. Prices of Bradenton homes for sale here start at $139,900. The floor plan choices range from 1,304 to 1,564 square feet designed with three bedrooms. This community is located near various amenities as well as potential sources of employment attractive for jobseekers, confirming that indeed our region is a hot spot for work opportunities.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, October 7, 2019 – Property values of communities in the Sarasota-Manatee region now face lesser threat from neighborhood eyesores brought about by abandoned, foreclosed homes. Known in the real estate trade as zombie foreclosures, these properties have shrunk significantly in the region. According to an August report of ATTOM Data Solutions, abandoned […] more>>