August 2026 was a month about speed and supply rather than price. Single-family inventory fell 20.8% year-over-year in Sarasota County to 2,619 active listings and 7.0% in Manatee County to 2,616 — pushing months of supply down to 3.7 and 3.9 respectively, from 5.2 and 4.6 a year ago. Both counties are now below the four-month mark generally associated with a balanced market.
Prices held roughly flat. Manatee County's single-family median rose 5.9% to $495,000, while Sarasota County's slipped 1.1% to $470,000 — a dip worth reading carefully rather than reacting to. Sarasota's median had been running near $493,500 in July, and a single month's move in a median reflects which homes happened to close as much as it reflects underlying value. Closed sales were up in both counties: 646 in Sarasota (+0.8%) and 687 in Manatee (+5.7%).
The clearer signal is in how transactions behaved. Single-family homes went under contract in a median of 47 days in Sarasota and 45 days in Manatee, down sharply from 69 and 53 days a year earlier. Sellers received a median of 94.7% of their original list price in Sarasota (up from 92.3%) and 95.6% in Manatee (up from 94.8%). Less inventory, faster contracts, and higher closing ratios all point the same direction.
The condo and townhome market improved too, which is a change from much of the past year. Sarasota County recorded 281 closed sales (+13.8%) at a median of $310,000 (+3.3%), and Manatee County 241 sales (+20.5%) at a median of $307,000 (+5.4%). Supply there remains looser — around five months — so buyers still have room to negotiate, but the direction has turned.
Explore the full, interactive dashboard on our Market Intelligence page — median price, closed sales, inventory, and months of supply by county — which we refresh each month as RASM releases new data.
Numbers only tell part of the story. A median price can slip a percent while the homes that actually sold moved faster and closer to asking than they did all year — those are two different facts, and only one of them is about your house. What matters is where your price band and your neighborhood sit inside the larger trend, and how quietly builder incentives are reshaping the resale market around you.
This is the kind of read Sarah Lowry has been giving clients since 1983. Across more than four decades — 25 of them as a top-producing agent in Seattle and the last 14 specializing right here in Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota — she's guided people through boom markets, corrections, and everything between, which is exactly why her advice tends to be calm and specific instead of hype. Whenever you'd like a straight, no-pressure read on your own situation, Sarah and Jackie are a phone call away.
