David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

I recently was sent a notification from a Trulia blogger that blindly and breathlessly proclaimed that listing prices in our area are up significantly over last year. Big deal. Listing prices are meaningless as a measurement of the health of a real estate market.  If 5 canal front homes went on the market on the same street this year, but there were only non-canal front homes for sale the year before, then yes, listing prices probably went up.  Zillow in particular loves to use listing price data scraped from public websites to misinform the public about the health or weakness of real estate markets. The Sarasota and Bradenton real estate market is thankfully healthier than our neighbors to the north and south, but regurgitating misleading or irrelevant information will only scare potential buyers away from our area if these buyers feel there are other options based solely on price.

I've provided some new content on my real estate website, www.davidbarrhomes.com, to further assist buyers looking for property in my service area of Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte Counties FL. First, I've added a "Best Deals" page, where I select 4 properties in 4 different categories that are important to home buyers in today's market:  best luxury, best new home community, best condo, and best income producing:  http://bit.ly/tf4SOz Secondly, I've added a separate page for Bradenton FL condos, based on Google analytics showing buyers were conducting searches for this:  http://bit.ly/tMACYM Third, again based on analytics, I've added a page for beachfront condos from Anna Maria Island south to Englewood: http://bit.ly/uaX4ZI You can also Make an Offer http://bit.ly/w4LR40 and Schedule a Showing http://bit.ly/uyMiJt