Something seems to be happening in Sarasota, Florida. Two articles this week in the Sarasota Herald Tribune were uncharacterisitically positive. The first article was titled "Pending Home Sales Rose in March" and the other was titled "Low Home Prices Spur Return to Bidding Wars." 

The first article spoke about how March was a very good month for the Sarasota real estate market. Pending home sales in Sarasota and Manatee counties are currently very high. Right now we have roughly 2,500 single family homes under contract and 750 condos under contract.

2008 vs 2009

I ran a search this morning for all sales from January 1st to April 30th for both 2008 and 2009. 2009 sales were higher while the economy is much worse. This is due to falling home prices. Many believe (not just the Realtor cheerleaders) that home prices are bottoming out. Currently, our overall market has a 10 month supply of homes. Industry experts believe that 6 months is a balanced market.

This could be the start of a market shift. Time will tell.