Pending home sales rose in March

From today's Sarasota Herald Tribune:

By Aaron Kessler
Published: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.

Pending home sales rose by an unexpected 3.2 percent in March, adding to mounting evidence in Southwest Florida that the housing market might be turning the corner.

The National Association of Realtors said that home buyers taking advantage of bargain prices, low interest rates and a tax credit for first-time buyers pushed the seasonally adjusted index of pending sales to a level that beat analysts' flat expectations and that was 1.1 percent above last year's levels, the first time that has happened since December.

Pending sales were up 8.5 percent in the South and 4 percent in the West, but dropped elsewhere.

Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index serves as a barometer for future home sales.

The national and regional results mirrored what parts of Southwest Florida has been experiencing. Pending sales for the territory covered by the Sarasota Association of Realtors numbered 817 in March.

The last time the figure was above the 800 mark was in March 2006. The 817 figure was 21 percent higher than the level a year earlier.

"Prices have come down, and buyers are jumping in," said Marc Rasmussen, an agent with Michael Saunders & Co. "A lot of people that have been waiting on the sidelines for a long time are getting in now."

The Sarasota Multiple Listing Service showed 2,400 single-family homes under contract to be sold, along with about 720 condominiums.

April and May traditionally have been a strong season for sales in Sarasota-Bradenton. As the season closes, buyers get motivated to take action.

"A lot of people start their search early in the season and decide for sure on what they want towards the end," Rasmussen said.

The driving force this time is price, he said. As sellers adjust themselves to the realities of the current market, buyers are responding.

A month-to-month increase in pricing during March, coupled with historically low mortgage rates for the region, has bolstered the notion that buyers arrived.

Realtors are also seeing what seemed a bygone boom phenomenon: multiple-offer situations.
"They're coming here and they want to secure something now," said Kathy Marlowe, a Lakewood Ranch-based agent for Keller Williams Realty. "People are saying they might not move here for 10 more years, but they want their property now."

Marlowe recently had one buyer from Ohio who chose eight properties to view, and by the time he flew down four had been sold. He put in offers on two of the remaining properties, but lost both to higher bids.

"He had to go up against four other offers, and wound up having to pay $5,000 over asking price to secure the property for himself," she said.

The region also has been experiencing something of an extended season, said Deborah Beacham, a Longboat Key-based Michael Saunders agent specializing in high-end properties. Sarasota-Bradenton could see a busy summer if the momentum holds, she said, noting that there were 19 sales pending for waterfront properties priced at $1.5 million and above.

Besides the pending sales figures, the Commerce Department reported that construction spending increased 0.3 percent in March, the best showing since a similar rise in September. Economists had expected spending to drop 1.5 percent for a sixth straight monthly decline.
New home sales have plunged 74 percent from their July 2005 peak. Sales of new homes hit a record low in January, posted an increase in February and then edged down 0.6 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000 units.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
This story appeared in print on page D1