May real estate flowers
Chances are after you read to the end of this column you'll be very happy about where the real estate market in Manatee County is headed. However, you're not alone because as happy as you'll be, the property appraiser's office may even be happier, since it reported on July 1 that Manatee County's property values have risen to almost $30.6 billion, slightly more than the June 1 estimate.
May was a good month for property values, not as good as April was, but since April always reflects property closings, which were the result of the busy winter buying season, it's very understandable. During May, we closed 0.3 percent fewer single-family homes, but condo closings were up 12.6 percent. The median sale price of single family homes rose 7 percent to $275,000 from last year, and the average for single family homes rose 8.7 percent to $357,240 from last year. The median price for condos rose 4.2 percent from last year to $166,750, and the average rose 5.2 percent to $230,591 from last year.
As a comparison, in April the single family median sale price was up 8.9 percent, and the single-family average was up 13.4 percent. The condo median sale price in April was up 14.1 percent, and the average was up 58 percent, a definite outlier.
Getting back to May, active single-family listings were up 20 percent, and active condo listing were up 17.4 percent. The supply of properties for both single family and condos were about 4.6 months still below the norm, but the listing to sale price for single-family homes was 95.5 percent and for condos 94.4 percent.
Manatee County also is still doing better than the rest of the country. The national median sale price for a previously owned single-family home was $239,700, which is 4.7 percent higher than last year. Manatee County's single family median was $275,000 and 7 percent higher than last year. After years of ups and downs, the national home values have increased at a rate of about 5 percent since early 2015. In May, sales of existing homes around the nation rose to their highest level in more than nine years in both number of sales and price of properties, according to the National Association of Realtors.
And again the lingering downside of the real estate market is the low inventory that is being experienced in Manatee County, as well as around the country. This, in particular, hits first time buyers hard, as they may be priced out of the market.
The lack of inventory as well as slow financial growth, is reflected in the homeownership rate that has been declining since the peak of the housing bubble. The national rate is down to a four decade low of 63.5 percent, according to the Commerce Department. Canada, our neighbors to the North, are experiencing just the opposite with their home ownership rate of 69 percent surpassing us. In addition, the average Canadian now has about 74 percent of his home's value in equity, compared with 50 percent for the average American. Since Canadians cannot deduct interest paid on their home mortgages, they are not encouraged to borrow against their homes, therefore, creating more equity.
Nothing makes me happier then when our local government is happy. Well, almost nothing. With property values on the increase, the county's revenue also will be increasing. Let's hope all that extra money will be used wisely and some of it put away for the inevitable rainy day when property values level off.