Last week, as scores of our agents visited MS&C’s newest listings—to personally preview each property and discover its important selling features—not a few did a double take as they scanned their price sheets in advance of touring several island condominiums on [...]

If you are among the many who believe that January through March is the best time to sell a home in Southwest Florida—because the period coincides with our region’s high season for tourism—you would only be half right. Although the region’s most active tourist season does indeed run from January through March, its busiest season for [...]

With the spring thaw suddenly melting mountains of snow into rivers of slush, winter has finally loosened its icy grip across a broad swath of the Midwest, Rockies, Canada and the Northeast. As a result, spring in [...]

Mention “family” in a crowded room and you might well evoke a different image in the mind of every person who hears you utter the word. The Many Forms of Family The traditional Leave it to Beaver notion of a nuclear family—that of a working dad, stay-at-home mom and their all-American kids—has long since given way to a more [...]

After Sunday night’s Academy Awards, America’s annual season of awards begins to wind down. Naturally, these award shows remind us of all the “best of” accolades that have been regularly bestowed on our region by a number of media organizations. [...]

A pair of news items captured our attention last week because they provide a good perspective on the current state of the real estate market in Sarasota and Manatee Counties.  One item came to us courtesy of the region’s REALTOR® association; and the other from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s “Inside Real Estate” blog. Record Number of [...]

There are reams of evidence to support the fact that purchasing a home in today’s housing market is cheaper than renting.  Yet once convinced that buying is the sensible thing to do, many aspiring homebuyers have seen their hopes dashed by many of today’s strict mortgage lending requirements.  That is, until recently. It was lax [...]

Realty Trac—a leading provider of data for the housing industry—began the New Year by reporting that three Florida metro areas experienced some of the nation’s largest gains in median home prices in 2014.  One of them, Sarasota, saw a 12% year-over-year increase. There is little doubt that low inventories amid persistent high [...]

Nothing pleases us more than to see the economy of Southwest Florida cooking on all four burners again. From retail and manufacturing to tourism and home sales, 2014 has been an exceptional year for each of the region’s major economic drivers.  Moreover, we suspect the sizzle will only intensify as another season of bitter cold and [...]

On November 12^th, after the last gavel had fallen and a final tally was taken, $853 million dollars of fine art had been sold in a single night at Christie’s Fine Art Auction House in Manhattan. "The Hottest Two Weeks Ever in Art History" For the fourth consecutive time since May 2013 the renowned 248-year-old auction house had set a [...]