Home sales are still accelerating in Florida’s Lakewood Ranch, up 20% this year

Home sales in Lakewood Ranch are still accelerating in the fastest growing area of Manatee County.

In the first six months of the year, Lakewood Ranch sold 1,227 new homes, 20% more than in the first half of 2022.

Nationwide, Lakewood Ranch trailed only The Villages, a 55-plus community near Ocala, as the number-one selling master planned community.

But among all-ages communities, Lakewood Ranch continued to lead the pack, real estate consulting firm RCLCO reported Tuesday.

“We have seen consistent sales growth since the beginning of the year,” Laura Cole, senior vice president of LWR Communities, LLC, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Helping maintain sales growth was the opening of three new entry-level villages and two new luxury villages in the second quarter of the year, she said.

Also important was builders listening to what local employers are requesting in the housing market, Cole said.

High on the employer want list are homes priced below $500,000 for hospital, school, other essential workers and young professionals, Cole said.

“All of the demographic segments, from active adults to retirees and the move-up market, are performing well,” Cole said.

Builders at Lakewood Ranch are providing a full spectrum of choices, she said.

“Lakewood Ranch also distanced itself from other regional master-planned communities, with more than two-and-a-half times the sales of Babcock Ranch, and almost three times as many sales as Wellen Park, the only other two master planned communities in Southwest Florida to rank in the top 15 positions on the list,” Lakewood Ranch Communities LLC said in a press release.

Lakewood Ranch, Manatee County’s largest master planned community, also has extensive new development in Sarasota County with its Waterside villages.

Since its 1994 groundbreaking, Lakewood Ranch has continued to grow.

In March, Manatee County commissioners approved plans by developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch to build homes near the historic DeSoto Speedway, past the county’s development boundary line, which protects agricultural land to the east.

SMR’s Taylor Ranch, a 2,307-acre development, is planned at the southeast intersection of State Road 64 and Bourneside Boulevard, and is planned for 4,500 units as an expansion of Lakewood Ranch community.

Florida, Texas lead in sales

Sunterra in Houston, Texas, was ranked third in the country with 669 sales — a 26% increase over the same time period last year.

The state of Florida represented about 42% of sales among ranked communities, followed by Texas at nearly 38%, RCLCO said.

“Master-planned communities remain a safe haven for consumers amid elevated interest rates, high prices, and fears of a possible recession,” Karl Pischke, principal at RCLCO, said in a press release.

“Top communities sold 7% more homes in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year, when supply chain issues and limited inventories placed significant downward pressure on sales performance. High interest rates and affordability issues continue to be a concern,” Pische said.

Existing home sales

The existing single-family home market has also continued to be been strong in the Bradenton area, and across the U.S.

The Bradenton area had 17.7% more sales during the month of June with 759 existing single-family homes sold, compared to 645 a year ago, the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee reported recently.

In June, the median price for existing single-family homes in the Bradenton area fell 4.5% from $550,000 to $525,000, compared to prices for the same month a year ago.

In May, 803 existing single-family homes changed hands in the Bradenton area, the most in any month since June 2021.

It was a different picture in Sarasota County, where sales fell 4.1%, but the median price was up 4.5% to $522,500.