Realtors report healthy sales in the market leading into the holiday season, particular in the condominium market. 

According to November statistics released by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, the condo market in Sarasota say a 26 percent surge in sales, and Manatee and saw a jump of 16.3 percent.The supply of condos in the region also continues to rise. New listings for condos increases 22.8 percent in Sarasota and 9.6 percent in Manatee.

“Sarasota condos are selling quickly and at a higher price with the dollar volume of sales showing a 92.7-percent increase from last year,” says Xena Vallone, 2017 president of the Realtor association. “This could be pointing to the lower volume of condo sales in the past two months.”

At the same time, real estate agents in the region reported a 3.3-percent decrease in sales for single-family homes in Sarasota, even as Manatee saw a 7.5 percent increase. Both counties, though, have a low inventory of homes, with a 4.1-month supply available in Sarasota and a 4.3-month inventory in Manatee, marking a seller’s market in both counties. Manatee also has just a 4.3-month inventory of condo and townhouse units, and Sarasota has a 5.2 month supply.

Agents working in the area say the most important thing they see are signs of a healthy market where prices continue to rise but there isn’t the type of rapid escalation of activity seen in the build-up to the housing bust preceding the Great Recession.

“We are definitely seeing a strong, healthy market and looking forward to a good season,” says Michelle Crabtree, an agent at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. “There are very few distressed properties. We’re seeing a nice, easy, gradual appreciation, and are not seeing the skyrocketing of back when we had the boom.”

The media sales price for homes in Sarasota is $285,000, and in Manatee $289,000, both increases over last year. In the condo market, the median sales price rose to $240,000 in Sarasota and  $181,250 in Manatee. 

Graphic courtesy Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee.

Editor’s Note: This is part 51 of an ongoing series documenting the flights of active-duty US Navy Pilot Ryan Rankin on his journey to fly 52 planes in 52 weeks through the year 2017.

An unexpected delight, Rankin tests his aviation mettle against a massive aircraft he never expected he’d get a chance to fly this year—the OV-1 Mohawk. Manufactured by the legendary Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (today Northrop Grumman) from 1959 to 1970, only 380 were ever made and few still fly today. Rankin found his courtesy of “Mohawk Joe” Masessa, a dermatologist and surgeon who leads a double life performing aerobatics in airshows across the country.

Nicknamed the “Iron Works,” Grumman holds a reputation not only for unusual looking aircraft, but unusually sturdy aircraft, and the Mohawk is no exception. Designed largely for reconnaissance, the plane excelled in Vietnam and Desert Storm as an observation platform. Though it could be equipped with machine guns and rocket pods, only one air-to-air kill was ever recorded, and it took the Mohawk 38 rockets and two bursts of machine gun fire to accomplish. But with no North Vietnamese MiG-17s on the horizon, Rankin enjoys the view. “The visibility is unparalleled, other than being in a helicopter,” he says, noting not only the bubbled windows giving the pilot room to lean out to either side, but also windows installed above and below for maximum perspective.

And while the Mohawk’s size and sturdy appearance may fool one into thinking it a sluggish, lumbering machine, Rankin attests to the opposite. Powered by twin turboprop Lycoming T53s, “it definitely gets up and goes,” he says. Masessa, who regularly performs low-altitude aileron rolls in his shows, would agree. And there’s a reason his Mohawk is controlled via stick, instead of a yoke. There’s no hard and fast rule, says Rankin, but a stick typically indicates a plane ready to yank and bank. Cloud surfing through the skies (slaloming between the clouds as if they were physical obstacles—“very Star Wars”), the Mohawk darts around with surprising agility.

For more about the flight in Rankin's own words and a video of the flight, follow the link below. 

Ryan Flies

Dreaming of a New Years Eve right on the Gulf of Mexico, with midnight fireworks and live music? Incredible food and delicious cocktails to top it off? Shark’ys On The Pier has you covered! Starting at 8PM on Sunday, December 31^st 2017, they will be hosting an epic beach bash to ring in 2018. A $10 cover fee will give you access to the energetic live band Chameleon sure to get you moving, and a viewing of the fireworks set to start at midnight. While reservations aren’t needed for the bash, Sharky’s is accepting dinner reservations so you don’t leave hungry.  Grab some beach fries, a drink from the tiki bar and dance the night away!  

Photo provided by Sharky's On The Pier

Sharky's On The Pier is a member of Nosh, the SRQ magazine content marketing program for local restaurants. 

Sharky's On The Pier, 1600 Harbor Dr S, Venice, 941-488-1456.

Sharky's On The Pier

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) has developed a Master of Science in Biomedical Ethics (MSBE) distance-education program to help healthcare workers develop cultural competency in a diverse healthcare environment and demonstrate how ethics education leads to a higher level of professionalism and patient-centered care. The program is competency-based learning delivered in an interactive, online environment via EthAssist, a web-based distance education platform developed by The Institute of Consultative Bioethics (ICBioethics). The MSBE program is specifically designed to provide flexibility for working professionals and current students looking to earn their degree in 18 months or 24 months. LECOM is accepting students for online classes beginning in January of 2018. Candidates for the MSBE program include physicians, executives, administrators, researchers, mid-level practitioners, nurses, chaplains, clergy, educators, social workers, healthcare advocates and others in the health delivery industry. 

LECOM Master of Science in Biomedical Ethics

Report cards are out for the nation’s hospitals, and Sarasota Memorial Hospital received the highest 5-star rating for the fourth consecutive rating period. Less than 10 percent of U.S. hospitals earned the federal government’s highest marks in 2017, according to the American Hospital Association. The updated results are slated to be posted this month on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Since 2016, the federal agency has shared star ratings to make it easier for people to compare how well their community hospitals perform on a range of inpatient and outpatient quality indicators. Hospital Compare evaluates more than 50 quality measures and then distills them into an overall star rating, giving the most weight to factors including patient safety, patient experience, the rates of unnecessary patient readmissions and rates of unexpected patient deaths. Hospitals receive ratings of one to five stars – with five stars being the highest score. The results are slated to be posted on the Hospital Compare website this week. For more information, visit below. 

Hospital Compare

Nutter Custom Construction, a Sarasota-based residential custom-building company, has been selected to build the foster homes for All Star Children’s Foundation, an organization with the goal of providing state-of-the-art treatment for childhood trauma on its Campus of Caring. Nutter Custom Construction will build six single-family homes for All Star Children’s Foundation. The residential homes will accommodate individual children and siblings and incorporate a community recreation area, playground, picnic areas, community garden and an outdoor theater theatre. The five-acre campus in Sarasota will provide a place for children, from infants to age 18, who have entered the foster care system due to abuse or neglect. The builder aims to start construction in the first quarter of 2018. The entire campus for All Star Children’s Foundation is designed as a trauma-sensitive environment, including the homes that Nutter Custom Construction will build. On-site trauma-informed therapy will focus on physical, psychological and emotional safety for children. 

Nutter Custom Construction

The Trust for Public Land and Sarasota County has announced the purchase of 2.7 miles of former railroad right of way to extend the popular Legacy Trail toward downtown Sarasota. The railroad corridor was acquired by Sarasota County from The Trust for Public Land, which had purchased the corridor last week from CSX Transportation and Seminole Gulf Railway. Extending from the Legacy Trail's current northern terminus at Culverhouse Nature Park to Ashton Road, the corridor was purchased using $7.9 million of county funds, mostly from the county's Neighborhood Parkland Acquisition Program. The purchase marks the completion of the first of a two-phase effort to extend the 11-mile Legacy Trail by 9 miles into downtown Sarasota. TPL is currently working with the Sarasota County Commission to consider a ballot measure for November 2018 that would ask county voters to approve funding to acquire the final 6.3 miles and its construction, which would include two overpasses and improvements to trail connections. 

The Legacy Trail