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Real Estate Listings Up on Island

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tilde Herrera, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Feb. 22--ANNA MARIA -- In the not-so-long-ago island real estate market, sellers had to do little negotiation and buyers had little power. But a larger inventory and leveling listing prices are more signs the real estate frenzy here is balancing out.

The number of active real estate listings jumped to 632 as of Feb. 13, compared to 431 at the beginning of the year, according to the Anna Maria Island Property Sales Report, which is produced by island publishers and Realtors Dantia and Barry Gould.

Current listing prices have stabilized, or in some cases, fallen slightly. For instance, the average listing price of the 250 single family homes on the market is about $1.12 million, compared to $1.13 million a year ago.

The average listing price for condominiums has fallen nearly $20,000 from $819,339 in January to $799,575 in mid-February.

"It is clear at this point that while we don't see a broken bubble, where prices drop precipitously, we do see a flattening," said John van Zandt, a sales associate at Island Real Estate in Holmes Beach. "The rising tide is at least catching its breath."

Pending sales during the month of January were significantly lower than the year before. But there's still activity, Barry Gould said.

For instance, there were 13 pending sales last month, seven of which had listing prices of $1 million or more.

"We're not going to have that frantic pace of sales that were abnormal, almost freakish," Barry Gould said.

But that doesn't mean the area has lost any of its desirability, particularly now, which van Zandt characterized as a "heavy looking period." He said the market still affords plenty of opportunities for smart, flexible sellers and buyers.

"Actually, interest is picking up," van Zandt said. "As traffic picks up in our streets, so does the traffic in our sales office. A lot of people want to live here . . . It is a desirable place to live."

Gould believes the current slowdown will be beneficial in the long run.

"We'll look back years from now and realize it was a very good thing of getting more toward a level playing field for sellers and buyers," he said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

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