Newsletter 115

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST …..

MAYOR REQUESTS MASS INNOCULATON EVENT

The city of Sarasota wants to vaccinate 8,000 people at a two-day event in February and is asking the state for help to pull it off. The city has sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis requesting he send the enough doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for the two-day mass vaccination – and a follow-up four weeks later – that would be held at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The letter, mailed Friday, was signed by the city’s mayor, interim city manager, several medical professionals and the director of the Van Wezel. Hagen Brody, the city’s mayor, said there had been no response from the governor though it was likely that he hasn’t even received it yet. An electronic copy of the letter will be sent Tuesday. To read more on this story, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, please click here: Mayor Seek Mass Innoculations

YEAR IN REVIEW: HOME SALES, PRICES REBOUND

The coronavirus pandemic sent a tsunami of disruption through the real estate market in the spring, but prices and sales recovered in the summer and fall.
Interest rates hit historic lows and Southwest Florida continued to attract retirees as the area landed on several Top 10 best-places-to-live lists. In March, the Sarasota-Manatee area ranked 128th lowest for the annual increase in single-family home prices among the 403 metro areas studied by CoreLogic. In June, following two months of steep drops, home sales leveled off. Analysts predicted that the real estate market in Southwest Florida and across the country will feel the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic well into 2021. For more on this story, please click here: Home Sales Rebound

HOME SALES SURGING

Local real estate sales continued to trend upward in November and analysts predict 2020 will end up outperforming last year despite the pandemic. Closed real estate sales in Sarasota-Manatee increased 40.2% in November compared to the same month in 2019, according to data compiled by Florida Realtors and provided by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee. Closed sales of single-family homes increased by 36.7% to 850 sales in Sarasota, and by 40.3% to 717 sales in Manatee County. Condo sales were up 34.8% in Sarasota to 422 sales and up by 58.9% in Manatee County to 332 closed transactions. There’s more on this story here: November Home Sales Surge

HOME PRICES SOARING

Homeowners in Southwest Florida continued to see sales prices increase as the year ended. According to CoreLogic, single-family home prices in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area increased 7.57% in November compared with November 2019. Prices were up 0.68% from October’s values. Real estate analysts expect the trend to continue despite economic difficulties and unemployment caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Nationally, home prices increased 8.2% in November compared with a year ago, marking the largest annual appreciation since March 2014. Spurred by record low interest rates, U.S. home sales for the year are expected to finish above 2019 levels. Demand has increased and inventory is down during the pandemic. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Home Prices Soar

LAKEWOOD RANCH #2 BEST SELLING COMMUNITY

Two Southwest Florida developments ranked in the top 5 best-selling master-planned communities in the nation. Lakewood Ranch in Manatee and Sarasota counties and Wellen Park in North Port were ranked No. 2 and No. 4, respectively, on John Burns Real Estate Consulting and the RCLCO lists of the 50 top-selling master-planned communities in the country. Lakewood Ranch ranked second in the nation with 2,149 home sales in 2020, up 30% from the 1,648 sold in 2019. The 33,000-acre community features miles of trails and paths, parks offering a disc golf course, watercraft launches and dog parks along with nationally recognized sports venues like the Premier Sports Campus and the Sarasota Polo Club. There’s more on this story LWR #2 Best Seller

VISIT FLORIDA EFFORTS PAYING OFF

A new state report says Visit Florida provides a good return on investment, even as the tourism-marketing agency faced years of efforts by House leaders to shut it down. Florida took in $3.27 for every dollar the state spent on tourism marketing over a three-year period, before cuts in funding for the agency and before COVID-19 sent the travel and leisure industries into a tailspin, according to the report released recently by the Legislature’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research.
The return over three fiscal years that started July 1, 2016, was more than in the three preceding fiscal years, the economic research staff determined. Please click here for more: Visit Florida Paying Off

HOMEOWNERS HIT WITH INSURANCE RATE HIKES

Sarasota homeowner Richard Lipov got an unpleasant surprise when he received his property insurance bill last month. His insurer, Edison Insurance Co., had increased the premium from $1,000 to $1,545 for his home, which was built in 2003 and is valued at $360,000. Lipov said neighbors in his Villa Rosa subdivision and other friends in Sarasota were reporting similar increases. He reached out to his agent but had not heard back. Edison was the first of several insurers in the state to apply for a rate increase. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved a 21.9% average increase in December. The new rates go into effect Feb. 15 for new policies and March 24 for renewals, according to the Insurance Journal.
Property owners throughout Florida are seeing their insurance rates soar, as companies had rate increases approved ranging from from 12% to 31%. Insurers point to high rates for reinsurance, which is basically insurance to back up insurers, and claims for water damage from leaks that are not hurricane-related. Click here for more: Property Insurance Rates Skyrocket

ST. ARMANDS BREATH OF FRESH AIR

As the new year begins, St. Armands Circle is launching a marketing campaign to draw more business to the tourist-heavy shopping and dining destination.
Those who have been on the Circle over the past few months – and judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic I had to endure there in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, that would be many of you – probably have noticed some tenant and branding changes. There’s more here: St. Armands Rebranding

SRQ TRAFFIC DOWN IN 2020

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport was setting passenger traffic records this time last year, but, ultimately, COVID-19 dragged down the number of travelers significantly compared to the year before. Passenger traffic in 2020 fell 37% at the airport compared to 2019, according to statistics from the airport released on Friday. In 2020, 1,236,986 passengers traveled through the airport, compared to 1,966,950 the year before. In December, 119,114 people traveled through the airport, 52% of the 228,015 that came through in December 2019. Last month’s figures, however, were 12% higher than November. Please follow the link for more on this story: SRQ Traffic Down

RESIDENTS SLAM HOTELS EFFORT ON SIESTA KEY

A consortium of homeowners associations, condominium councils and residents on Siesta Key are calling on Sarasota County officials to closely scrutinize the collective adverse impact of large-scale hotel proposals on the barrier islands.
The Siesta Key Coalition wants the county to deal with the three "precedent-setting applications" at one time, rather than separately. This comes after two of the hotel developers have requested that Sarasota open an unscheduled, or "out of cycle," revision of the county’s long-range growth map. This would allow the three hotel proposals to circumvent or customize certain protective policies on the barrier island – which could have countywide implications if approved by the County Commission on Jan. 26. If you’d like to read more, please click here: Siesta Key Hotels

VENICE GETS MONARCH CITY DESIGNATION

The city of Venice was recently named a Monarch City by the national organization Monarch City USA. That means the city is committed to both preserving the monarch butterfly population, as well as fostering its growth. Monarch City USA was created in 2015 in Maple Valley, Washington, according to its website. It is a nonprofit corporation under the Washington State Department of Revenue. Please click here for more on this story: Venice Named Monarch City

LA NINA PORTENDS DRY WINTER, FIERY SPRING

Florida is on pace for the warmest year on record, climatologists say, and La Niña’s cooler Pacific Ocean waters near the equator foretell a warmer, drier winter and fierce fiery spring. "It continues a trend of increasing temperatures here in the state over the five past years," David Zierden, state climatologist at Florida State University’s Florida Climate Center, said of La Niña. "The silver lining is most of the state was much above normal for rainfall this summer and through the fall, with these tropical systems." There’s more on this story here: 2021 Weather Predictions