Anniversary Time

From the Brandenton Herald: Feb. home sales off in price, volume.

Pending sales may have soared in February but the number of existing-home sales in the Bradenton-Sarasota market was down 10 percent from just one year ago, according to numbers released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Nationally, sales were down 23.8 percent from February 2007, and statewide, sales were down 25 percent.

Owens' TeamWork team has 54 listings and 40 percent of those are short sales.

"I've had grown men coming into our office crying," Owens said.

Of course, today is the third anniversary of the publication of this sparkling gem from the New York Times.

In Miami, Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, predicted that a limited supply of land coupled with demand from baby boomers and foreigners would prolong the boom indefinitely.

"South Florida," he said, "is working off of a totally new economic model than any of us have ever experienced in the past."

You sure got that right, sweetpea!