The housing market in Sarasota and Manatee counties continued its cooling trend in June, with sale prices dropping, inventory climbing and homes sitting longer before closing. According to the latest data from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, the shift marks a more favorable landscape for buyers than at any point in recent years—even as prices remain well above pre-pandemic norms.

Single-family home prices fell sharply in both counties year-over-year, with Manatee County posting the steepest decline. There, the median sale price dropped 15.2 percent, to $440,000, while in Sarasota County, it fell 8.1 percent, to $455,000. Despite the declines, both figures remain roughly 35 percent to 55 percent higher than in 2019—a year often considered a “healthy benchmark” before pandemic-era spikes took hold—when the median single-family price was $325,000 in Manatee County and $291,925 in Sarasota County.

“There’s less urgency now,” says Inbal August, a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman. “Some sellers are still comparing the market to the pandemic, while buyers are waiting for 2008-level pricing. Right now, buyers are seeing reductions, but they’re scared to settle. They want to wait to see if it will get lower—and that’s part of what’s leading to longer days on market.”

Indeed, the time to sale has stretched across both counties. In Sarasota, the median time to sale was 99 days; in Manatee, it was 109 days—both longer than the 90- to 105-day timelines typical in mid-2019, despite faster contract periods back then.

Inventory also continued its upward spiral. Sarasota’s single-family listings rose 23.2 percent year-over-year, to 3,955, and Manatee’s rose 27.4 percent, to 3,196 — nearly double the inventory levels seen in 2019. That growth pushed the months' supply to 6.3 months for single-family homes and 8.3 months for condos in Sarasota, and to 5.2 and 7.4 months, respectively, in Manatee.

“Sellers have to adjust,” August says. “We’re in a buyer’s market now. There’s a huge amount of inventory to choose from, and people are no longer making random offers. They’ll pay full price—but only if comps support it.”

That is happening less, though, according to the numbers, which showed sellers receiving less than their full asking price. The median percent of original list price received was 92.2 percent in Sarasota and 94.3 percent in Manatee, down from 93.6 percent and 95.5 percent, respectively, a year ago.

Still, despite the shifting dynamics, the volume of deals held steady. Sarasota’s single-family sales rose 1 percent, to 699, while Manatee’s dipped by 3.2 percent, to 705 year over year. Cash deals remained substantial—35.8 percent in Sarasota and 28.9 percent in Manatee—though both were down from a year earlier, when cash transactions made up 43.3 percent of sales in Sarasota County and 34.2 percent in Manatee County.

The condo and townhome market followed a similar, if slightly more tempered, path. In Sarasota, median prices declined 3.2 percent, to $371,750, while sales rose 2.5 percent. Manatee saw condo prices fall 9.2 percent, to $312,900, with sales down 5.3 percent. 

August notes growing hesitancy among condo buyers due to post-Surfside collapse legislation and new requirements that have, in some cases, doubled monthly fees. “There’s a saturation with condos,” she says. “People who bought with $1,300-a-month assessments are now seeing $3,000. Many can’t rent them out, either, due to restrictions. It’s a great lifestyle, but I wonder if we’ll see some short sales happening.”

On the ultra-luxury end of the market, however, August says investment interest remains strong—especially on the waterfront, where many properties damaged by a brutal hurricane season are now on the market as sellers are forced to choose between selling or embarking on costly rebuilds with the potential for yet another storm battering. “Savvy buyers are still parking money in places like Casey Key," she says. "It might look messy now, but long-term, [buyers] believe in the growth here. [Many homes] have already been sold to developers.”

Even with recent reductions, August emphasized that the market is not crashing— it’s adjusting. “The market has appreciated wildly since 2019; this is just a correction to a baseline,” she says. “People need to stop comparing everything to the pandemic. That wasn’t normal. If you want to see 'healthy,' look at the pre-Covid years. That’s where we’re returning.”

Thanks to those reductions, some buyers who had been priced out during the boom are now stepping back in. “A house that was $700,000 may now be $550,000," August says. "You can refinance [an interest rate], but not a purchase price, so there are more opportunities."

Still, uncertainty looms. “We’re holding our breath through November,” she adds, referring to the end of hurricane season. 

She points to some sellers, particularly on the coast, who are delaying listings in hopes that a quiet hurricane season could boost prices by winter. “Buyers and sellers are waiting to see how the hurricane season plays out," she says. "If we don’t get hurricanes this season, they think they can increase prices for high season this winter.”

Either way, she says, “if the pricing is aggressive enough, you’ll still get people at the table. But if not, we’ll keep seeing reductions.”