It’s all we Realtors® can talk about – a severe lack of home inventory and an unprecedented influx of buyers from all over the country. When there are fewer listings and plenty of buyers, your dream home may be a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opportunity.
Where Are All These Home Buyers Coming From?
While most cities are experiencing the same issues of low inventory as sellers hesitate to put their homes on the market, there’s one huge exception: big cities. The shifting product needs of these customers (more space), along with the desire to escape urban areas, combined with the Florida tax advantages, created this perfect storm for buyers coming to Sarasota and the Suncoast. Remote work also means that many people can move to an area they love like Longboat Key, not one that is convenient for a commute.
A Pew Research Center study recently released found that 3% of U.S. adults have moved permanently or temporarily due to the COVID-19 crisis. That would translate to 7.7 million Americans on the move.
Florida, including Sarasota County, served as a top draw for high–taxed areas like New York, Boston, California and Chicago, according to the New York Times. In addition, Times’ cell phone data shows about 420,000 people left Gotham between March 1 and May 1, and many headed to Florida’s Gulf coast. The state’s population has grown by about 343,000 in the last year, to about 22 million residents.
Sarasota County, Florida Population Growth
Year
And while a large number of them broke the snowbird rule of staying here well past the established Easter exodus, they’ve been helping drive residential sales, often preferring new over existing with single-family homes “the soup du jour,” accounting for 80% of residential transactions during the first six months of 2020.
Recent data published by the nationwide moving outlet, HireAHelper, reveals just how popular Florida really is. The report also calls out specific cities, Sarasota among them, as top destinations.
Cities People Moved To The Most In 2019
How are Buyers Purchasing
Because of restrictions and difficulty traveling, it’s no surprise that 84% of new homebuyers say information they found online was crucial for their research to purchasing a new home. Your realtor® should be utilizing a multi-faceted internet marketing strategy when it comes to getting your property in front of these prospective buyers.
Bruce Myer understands the importance of a customized marketing strategy in selling a home. Every property receives a fully customized visual presentation – there is no one size fits all. From virtual tours to single-property websites, and from digital ads to social media posts, your home is expertly presented to potential buyers, no matter where they are in the country or the world. Call us and learn more about our dynamic and effective digital marketing program.
