Sam Hague's Blog: All Categories

....Florida Gators Mens Basketball - reigning National Champions...

...Florida Gators Football - National Champions.....'nuff said

(he writes as he does the Gator Chomp)

The next installment in our look back at the local real estate market with final 2006 figures will be our look at how the market performed each month compared to the same month in the prior year.  Click on the image at the left for a large look at the Median Single Family Home sales presented in this manner. The media is fond of quoting the changes in the median prices using this comparison method.  Looking at January 2006, which showed a little residual upward momentum, and forecasting what January 2007 will most likely look like, one can only hope that the newsies do not choose these figures (or even a quarter that includes January) for one of their beloved banner headlines touting the end of the world as we  know it.  The good news is that even if they…

As we here in the Gator Nation prepare for tomorrows night's National Championship Championship game against Ohio State, we have reason to celebrate another local champion!  Rachel Chambers RD, a dietitian  at Venice Regional Medical Center (VRMC) competed in the 2007 Walt Disney World Marathon held today and finished 4th overall in the womens division and was the #2 American runner!  Her time was 3:05:21.    Click on the link below, courtesy of the Venice Herald Tribune, to read more about her inclusion on the Florida's Finest Team.

I have known Rachel since I moved to Florida and have found her to be passionate about her work, her excercise and life in general. She is an inspiration to all who know her.  A few years ago, when Rachel was just beginning…

Congratulations are in order for our friend Ann Roggero.  She has been named the Campus Executive Officer (CEO) at the Manatee Community College (MCC) Venice Campus.   

I first met Ann when she was the Vice President of Human Resources at Bon Secours-Venice Health care Corporation and worked out of Bon Secours Venice Hospital.  One only needs speak with Ann for a few minutes to sense her passion for people, her love of life and her commitment to our beautiful community, not to mention her considerable intellect, management skills and technical ability.  She is well known in south county for her participation in many area service organizations and as a gifted speaker.  In fact, it was listening to speakers like her that prompted me to join our local…

I have just watched the news conference announcing the resignation of Bill Cowher as the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers!  I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, left in 1992 and returned to the area for a year in 1994. I watched with my game jersey and terrible towel. As a Steeler fan, this decision disappoints me much more than our less than stellar performance this season.  Cowher, another born and raised Pittsburgh guy, is 49 years old and says that is time for him to enjoy his family. 

He said, among many other noteworthy things, that "...you can take a person out of Pittsburgh, but you cannot take the Pittsburgh out of a person..."  He made a career of hard work fueled by passion for what he did and went on to show genuine humility and gratitude…

Sarasota county and City of Venice have approved a joint planning agreement that outlines components of future annexation by the city for the next 25 years.  The county and the City of North Port reached a verbal agreement on Thursday, but that was not enough to prevent a referendum.  What this means is that the voters will get to decide in March of this year how future growth in south county will be handled, and who will be calling the shots.  The current real estate market notwithstanding, our area continues to be a prime vacation/retirement/investment/living area with or without the estimated 50,000 new single family homes that the Sarasota County Economic Development Council forecasts by 2025. The issue is balancing the growth with the developers,…

As Promised, we will now begin to post the final 2006 Venice real estate market activity reports.  We prepare these reports using data from the Venice Area MLS.  This data is aggregated into a spreadsheet and we use it to educate our customers on the current activity in the Venice Market.  Click on the graphic below for the first of our series of exclusive market monitors :

Median Home Prices '03 to '06

As the data we have been tracking clearly shows

• this is not a "normal" period in the history of our market, and
• in this dynamic time and place, being able to make effective decisions on pricing, with
• the knowledge of what the market is currently doing...

...is an invaluable tool that we provide exclusively to our customers.  There…

Venice Area Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

1553 Single Family Homes/Active

57  Single Family Homes/Sold 12/1/06 - 12/31/06

850 Condos/Active

22 Condos/Sold (12/1/06 - 12/31/06)

90 Expires Listings  (12/1/06 - 12/31/06)

73 Withdrawn Listings (12/1/06 - 12/31/06)

As you can see, our inventory remains a historical high levels for both Single Family Homes as well as Condominiums, both at over twice the number that this market has typically seen.

Properties that care coming off the market without selling also remain at historical highs. 

We will be posting our comprehensive Market Activity Report later today.