Palmer Ranch Tracks Energized Home Market


 

SARASOTA, FLORIDA, April 12, 2013 – Current home market activity in Palmer Ranch, one of the largest master planned developments in Southwest Florida, reflects the energized mood of the residential property sector in the region, Sarasota Bay Real Estate reports. The full service real estate firm noted that there’s a good number of pending sales as well as new listings in this development consisting of some 25 communities.

This uptrend mirrors the upbeat home demand in Southwest Florida, Sarasota Bay Real Estate observed, adding that some builders had experienced traffic to their developments increasing by up to 25% so far this year. In the resale home market, the forward-looking indicator of pending sales for previously occupied residences also rose in all regions in the U.S., as per the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The association’s pending home sales index in January was reported to have risen 4.5% to 105.9 from 101.3 in December 2012. This index, which is a good indicator of sales in succeeding months, was also up by 9.5% from January 2012.

Market readings on the local level in Sarasota are even more definitive, Sarasota Bay Real Estate said. The continuously rising fortunes on Sarasota homes for sale, it added, can be gleaned from a recent report of the Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) showing that pending sales in its area this February hit its highest level since March 2011. SAR reported that sales-listed homes in Sarasota that came under contract in February 2013 rose to 1,138 from the 1,047 total in January.

More listings as prices accelerate

Rising Prices

SAR also noted an increase in the average sale prices of single family homes in February to $184,500 from $183,800 in January. Recovery in condo median sale prices was likewise observed at $173,000 in February compared to the $130,000 level in January this year. On a year-over-year comparison, average condo prices rose 15% from the $150,000 average a year earlier.

These prices gains have apparently helped accelerate new listings among Palmer Ranch homes for sale which for the first weeks of March accounted for 30 out of some 300 available existing residences in the development, Sarasota Bay Real Estate said. At the county’s flagship golf community, the Country Club of Sarasota where there are 10 current sales-listed properties, two new listings were among these added offerings. This pair is priced in the $300s, featuring three bedrooms in floor areas of 2,000-plus square feet.

Arbor Lakes’ rising choices

Buyers keen on new builds and move-up homes in Palmer Ranch likewise stand to have some fine choices in Arbor Lakes, a new community which will have its ground-breaking this spring, per a recent news report from the Herald-Tribune. This development is a project of national homebuilder Taylor Morrison and is geared for 267 large and upscale single family homes. Resort-style amenities are on the drawing boards for this community which will occupy a 213-acre site that Taylor Morrison purchased this March in Palmer Ranch.

Notably, Taylor Morrison also has a major project in Lakewood Ranch, another large master planned Southwest Florida development. This is the Esplanade Golf and Country Club which the homebuilder has complemented with a namesake Sarasota neighborhood, the newly opened Esplanade by Siesta Key with 267 single family homes.