Sarasota market - strong

Sarasota remains a strong market especially since 'Big Al’ (Alan Greenspan) dissuaded the notion of a “housing-bubble’ break for the Florida markets. In fact, a majority of experts see Sarasota as under-valued in comparison to other cities such as Naples, Boca Raton, and Miami.

Baby Boomers will surely remember when a 12% mortgage was a ‘good buy’. This occurred in the early 80’s during and after the Carter administration. The current mortgage rate is under 6. The Fed would have to increase the short-term rates 24 more times to approach the Carter-era levels.

The more likely scenario will be a leveling off of the growth rate. Sarasota has seen a 30% growth in the last year. I look for a more moderate appreciation factor of 7-12% annually for the real estate-investor side of the market.

In regards to the Baby Boomer demand, the attraction to the Sarasota market is not going to change. It will only get better if for no other reasons than it will keep ‘snowing in Buffalo’ and Sarasota will continue to develop as the ‘Crown-jewel of the South’ as described by Southern Living magazine.