Report: Home and condo prices keep falling across the region

Home and condo prices across the west coast of Florida fell in April, continuing a steady downturn from just a year ago.

According to the real estate research firm Homes.com, the average home price fell — again — in Sarasota/Bradenton, Tampa Bay and the Fort Myers and Naples markets. 

Michelle Rumore, senior director of market analytics at the CoStar-owned Homes.com, says properties are sitting on the market longer. That is leading to sellers making concessions, especially in new construction, and price cuts on existing homes.

But buyers are not rushing out.

“Despite these pricing improvements, mortgage rate volatility over the past 45 days has kept some buyers on the sidelines, dampening demand,” Rumore says.

According to the data, in Tampa Bay, the average median home price in the market declined in Tampa by 2.7% over this time last year to $365,000. Fort Myers saw a 7% year-over-year drop to $376,000.

Sarasota/Bradenton and Naples saw far steeper drops, with the median home price falling 13.8% from a year ago to $405,000 in Sarasota and 14% from a year ago to $620,000 in Naples.

In the case of condos, where prices have taken a bigger hit, the number of units on the market has been growing across the state for 18 months as rising insurance and association and assessment fees have gone up in the aftermath of new safety regulations that increased reserve requirements.

The median price of condos fell 10.9% from this time last year to $205,000 in Tampa. 

Fort Myers saw a 20% drop from a year ago to $300,000 while both Naples and Sarasota saw 20% drops.

The median price for a condo in Sarasota fell to $320,000 and in Naples it fell to $500,000.