Due to the typical length of time it takes for a sale to close, economists consider pending sales to be a decent indicator of a potential future-closed sales. Florida Realtors displays the pending sales for single-family homes in Sarasota in the chart above. The highest pending sales were seen May 2015. It is important to know that not all pending sales will be closed successfully which indicates that the effectiveness of pending sales as a future indicator of closed sales is susceptible to changes in market conditions.  

A solid school system and low crime rates make a Sarasota Community one of the best places in Florida to live, according to a new list published by Niche, a a website that analyzes data on education resources around the country.

Niche ranked South Gate Ridge as the No. 3 community in which to live in the state of Florida and Sarasota as the No. 11. “These new rankings explore cities, towns and suburbs to find the best places to live in the US based on crime, public schools, cost of living, job opportunities and local amenities,” says Jessica Hair, Niche marketing outreach coordinator. “Our team of data scientists analyzed data from the US Census, FBI, BLS, CDC and other sources to calculate these rankings.”

Making this kind of list always boosts interest in real estate, according to Linda Formella, president of the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee. “It’s a verification of what locals already know and it’s reassuring to potential buyers that what they are looking at has validity,” she says. A list that puts a priority on education should prove especially valuable for potential buyers looking to move their family or start a family in a home. As for crime rates, real estate agents don’t typically advertise those figures and refer buyers instead to law enforcement agencies, but when a list like the one on Niche denotes an area as low-crime, that’s good for the neighborhood.

The Niche list looked closely at the South Ridge Gate area, a two-square-mile area around Proctor and Beneva roads served by both Suncoast Polytechnical High and Riverview High and includes Wilkinson Elementary. Just under 6,000 people live in the suburban neighborhood. Terri Thacker, a real estate agent with Michael Saunders and Company, recently sold a home in the neighborhood and says the region serves young families well for a number of reasons. The area is filled with homes built in the 1960s or 1970s and which typically include 1,200–1,400 square feet of space. Costs run from a $170,00 area for most homes, with the highest-end homes in the area costing maybe $250,000. South Ridge Gate was the only community to crack Niche’s top 10 for Florida that wasn’t in the major metropolitan areas of Miami, Orlando or Tampa Bay. No. 1 on the list was Pinecrest in Miami-Dade County and No. 2 was Doctor Phillips in Orange County. Coral Gables in Miami-Dade was No. 4 and Maitland in Orange County was No. 5.

As for Sarasota listings, Niche looked at data for within the municipal limits of city of 53,000. The list noted a 76 percent graduation rate for schools in the area and a low dropout rate of 2.1 percent, and while those numbers trail national averages slightly, the list also looked at the $11,440 revenue spent per student in the Sarasota County school district.

See the full list here: https://local.niche.com/rankings/places/best-places-to-live/s/florida/ 

DC Metro-based DAI Solutions is expanding into Florida with the opening of several satellite offices. The Florida services are focusing on the B2B community, helping clients establish their organization in the federal market and identifying how their services and products align with what the federal government wants to buy.  

DAI Solutions

RE/MAX Platinum Realty has made the Tampa Bay Business Journal list of top real estate companies, ranking 16th among the area residential real estate firms in 2015. The firms were ranked by gross volume closed and this shows the reflection of the productivity and professionalism of their associates and staff.  

Platinum Realty Florida

Formerly with Keller Williams Realty of Manatee, realtor Ellen Sackett has joined the University Park office of RE/MAX Alliance Group. Sackett specializes in boating and new-home communities and has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry serving as a title closing agent, mortgage loan officer and realtor.  

RE/MAX Alliance Group

Selah Freedom has announced Marc Hanson as its newly hired director of operations. Hanson received his MBA in Accounting from Argosy University and his bachelor's in Finance from Rider University. He has over 20 years of experience in the finance industry working for large banks such as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Most recently he held the position of Chief Financial Officer for Caldwell Trust Company. 

Selah Freedom