By James A. Jones Jr
This post was originally published in Bradenton Herald
Read more at: https://www.bradenton.com/news/business/article261976015.html#storylink=cpy

BRADENTON

The Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port area saw the second-highest rise in home values in the United States in the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday.

Home prices for the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port metropolitan statistical area appreciated at a rate of 34.9% year-over-year and 8.7% since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Southwest Florida MSAs accounted for the top three areas in the United States with the greatest housing price appreciation.

In the top spot was the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area with 41.27% appreciation in prices in the first quarter. In third place was Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, which saw housing prices appreciate 31.21%.

Two other Florida areas ranked in the top 10, including West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach in fourth place with a 30.36% increase and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Sunrise in ninth place with a 26.94% increase.

Two other Florida areas ranked in the top 20: Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford was 12th with a 25.70% increase and Jacksonville was 15th with a 24.50% increase.

While there is some thought that Bradenton-Sarasota area housing prices may be starting to plateau with more inventory becoming available in April, median prices were the highest in history in March and April.

In March, the median price for a house in the Bradenton area hit $525,000. In April, the median price was $515,000. Those were the only months ever that the median price was more than $500,000.

Although the increase in Bradenton single-family housing inventory was slight in April, it was significant because it was the first year-over-year increase for the area since May of 2019, the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee previously reported.

Overall U.S. house prices were up 18.7% from last year and up 4.6% from the prior quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.