The Ritter Group

Happy Summer!

We hope you are staying healthy and feeling hopeful for good things to come this Summer and throughout 2021. We wanted to reach out and give you a brief update on our real estate market and what The Ritter Group has been up to the past several months.

What is Happening with the Real Estate Market?

To say we have a “hot” real estate market in the Venice area would be an understatement. The median sales price of residential property in the Venice market has increased a staggering 26% since January. Several factors are causing this rapid increase in prices: a 34% increase in the number of sales, a 76% decrease in inventory, a slowdown in new construction, a nationwide shortage of housing, and low interest rates. A “balanced market” would be one where the supply in the market (available inventory divided by the number of sales in the last 30 days) would be in the 4-6 month range. We currently have a 2 week supply in the Venice market – a historically strong seller’s market. Although buyers certainly face immense challenges in this highly competitive market, the experience for Seller’s has also never been so complicated. Sellers face some of the following challenges:

Happy Fall!!

Dear Friends, Family, & Colleagues:

We hope you and yours are remaining healthy and hopeful during this challenging year. We typically mail an end of summer postcard to all of our contacts, however, we have decided to send an occasional email newsletter to stay in touch with you.

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Housing Update and Economic Trends

August 2020 continued a trend of declining inventory and high sales in the Venice area, fueling an already strong seller’s market. While the COVID-19 crisis slowed activity dramatically in March and April, the real estate market has rebounded in a big way. While the number of sales is only down 4.5% from this same time last year, the number of available homes has dropped by more than 35%. Inventory in the Venice area has reached its lowest levels in more than a decade, while at the same time the number of homes sold during that period is near record highs. As one might expect, the median sale price for homes in the Venice area is up 4.2% so far in 2020. Sales have been strongest in the single family home segment where median sale prices are up 6.6% so far in 2020, compared to only 1% for multi-family properties. 

Newsletter Spring 2020

This Too Shall Pass…

While we may all struggle in various ways to deal with this new reality, we wanted to share some words of encouragement and let you know “this too shall pass.” I have received calls and emails from several of you who are concerned about the effects that the coronavirus crisis will have on the real estate market. There will be some effects (that is inevitable) but I believe the real estate market will bounce back rather quickly. The strength of any market depends largely upon supply and demand. The supply of homes in our market is very low right now and demand for real estate in the Venice and Sarasota area is very high. In fact, we began the year here in Venice with the highest number of sales and lowest amount of inventory in more than ten years! In addition, mortgage interest rates are at record lows and many see real estate as a much more stable investment than the stock market.