Sarasota Speaks

 My good friend, Shayla Twitm has decided to join me at SKY Sotheby's International Realty. She will be working with me to assist buyers and sellers in Sarasota, Longboat Key, Lido Key, Siesta Key, Bird Key, Casey Key and Lakewood Ranch

My good friend Shayla Twit has decided to join me over at SKY Sotheby's International Realty. She is an excellent agent and I look forward to working with her. Shayla's Bio:Experienced. Knowledgeable.

A total of 9,330 existing single family homes in Florida sold this March, a 12.3% increase over February of 2008 when 8,310 homes sold. Existing condo sales rose almost 16 percent, with 3,207 units sold in March compared with 2,765 condos in Feb

Join us this Thursday from 10am to 1pm for a daytime tour of Prestancia homes for sale. The tour will feature 11 homes and villas with listing prices from $395,000 to $1,295,000. All real estate agents and prospective buyers are welcome at the event.

Want to find out what is for sale in a specific Sarasota condo or neighborhood? Now you can. I changed my Sarasota MLS search to allow you to query specific neighborhoods or condo buildings.For example, let's say you want to find out what is for sa

Noted real estate expert, Professor Karl E. Case, created the chart above showing the housing starts and recessions since 1972. Notice how every time the housing starts dip below the 1 million mark the real estate market turns around and the recess

The above chart represents housing starts from 1972 to now. Notice how everytime it dips below 1 million the market turns around?Professor Karl E. Case of Wellesley College, one of the nation’s leading housing market experts, thinks the hou

1. Hire a good Realtor.I know, it sounds a little self serving but this is a good tip. Whether, you use me or not make sure you find a good Sarasota realtor. A good agent can make a huge difference and save you plenty of time.

The bayfront Longboat Key home below is listed with SKY Sotheby's International Realty. Our company had our Tuesday morning sales meeting there a few weeks ago. The views are absolutely breathtaking of the Sarasota bay.

Below is an interesting article from The Wall Street Journal yesterday about the housing crisis. You can read it here. Read it and let me know what you think. He makes some very valid points. I would not say the mess is completely over but I don

Florida's largest private landowner, St. Joe and Company, suggests that the real estate market may have bottomed. The company owns abour 638,000 acres in the state.St. Joe announced a $32 million profit for the first quarter of 2008.

We just reduced the listing price of 1904 Hyde Park to $649,000. It has been reduced $140,000. It previously sold for $850,000 in May of 2007. This home has 3,121 square feet and was built in 2002. It is in a terrific location west of the trail.

Take a look at this Bird Key home on the water. It is located at 410 Meadowlark Drive. My firm recently listed the property. Property description:Are you looking for good bones to transform into a knockout home? Your good taste will do wonders

Above are photos from one of the penthouses in The Plaza at Five Points. This unit is located in the heart of downtown Sarasota with amazing views over the city to Siesta Key, The Ringling Bridge and Longboat Key from every room.

Aaron Kessler wrote an article in Herald-Tribune Business Weekly yesterday about the Sarasota Association of Realtors sales numbers being "confusing." The SAR stats can be confusing because there are listings and a few sales in other counties in the SAR MLS system.

Todd, a reader and commenter on this blog was nice enough to provide me the chart above. These are his views on the Sarasota real estate market. It is difficult to read because I had to shrink it to fit the page.

Here is a popular chart about the emotions one feels during a boom and bust market cycle. Any opinions on where you think the Sarasota real estate market is now?

I read an interesting article tonight on Forbes.com about 10 cities that are expected to have the largest drop in home values.10. Cleveland, OH9. Detroit, MI8. Phoenix, AZ7. Tampa, FL6. Las Vegas, NV5.

This lovely modern home on St. Armands Circle is now under contract. It is listed for $1,699,500. The great thing about this home is the location. You can easily walk to the beach or all of the amenities of St.

I was in this Longboat Key bay front home about a week ago. The 180 degree views of Sarasota bay and downtown are amazing. The home is located near the middle to north end of Longboat Key. Property description:Unrivalled contemporary bay front re

I just lowered the price of this 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo in Central Park. The price is now $269,900. If you want a nice tropical setting yet within a short distance to downtown Sarasota you should take a look at Central Park.

I took a listing in Terrace East on Siesta Key recently and I am glad to say that it has gone under contract. This condo is located in the Siesta Key village. It was priced at $899,000. It actually sold prior to going on the Sarasota MLS.

This blog looks virtually the same but it is a little different. I had my web guys move me from Blogger to their proprietary blog platform. The posts to my old blog are located under "Links" in the right hand column

Periodically, we have other real estate professionals write posts of value. Lynn Byrne of CenterPointe Realty in Daytona Beach, Florida contributed this article.Condo living is an ideal match for many people seeking vacation homes or re

The home below in Sorrento Shores just closed for $3,500,000. I like to show what has recently sold because it helps educate the market place. This home was listed by Terry Hershberger, a good buddy of mine who is nice enough to take me boating

This chart shows the inventory of single family homes in Sarasota (light green bars), homes pending (red line) and sold homes every month (dark green bars). It begins April of 2003 and goes until March of 2008.

I have not put much time to writing in this blog. I have said it before but I will make a better effort of writing about life in Sarasota. Perhaps, I am having too much fun to bother writing about it. In actuality, it has been a busy season

I read an interesting article tonight from Forbes.com about the worst cities for homeowner debt.Here are the top 50 cities for worst homeowner debt:Sacramento--Arden- Arcade--Roseville, CADenver-Aurora, COSan Diego-Carlsbad- San Marcos, CAMinneapolis-St.

I am getting the hang of this new blog platform that my web guys developed. On my other real estate site I use Blogger from Google so I am used to that one. I noticed tonight that I have blog statistics.