Florida's September Housing Report, Read for Builders: Sarasota-Manatee Prices Up 4.3%, Tampa Sales Down 7.7%
Florida Realtors' September numbers show a state market that lost some speed without breaking. On the Gulf Coast the two big metros split: Sarasota-Manatee held volume and pushed its median to $485,000, while Tampa Bay closed fewer houses at flat prices. What that means for a builder's spec schedule, a remodeler's pipeline, and the condo work coming next.
4 min read · October 19, 2026 · Florida Construction Media
The statewide headline says Florida's housing market cooled a little in September. The Gulf Coast tables say something more useful: the two metros most of our readers work in are moving in different directions, and a builder who reads only the state line will plan for the wrong one. This is the first of a monthly read on the Florida Realtors report, written for the people who build, remodel and supply the houses in it. It covers September 2026 data, released October 16.
The story
Florida Realtors' September release put statewide closed sales of existing single-family homes down 3.5 percent from a year earlier, with pending sales down more than 7.5 percent. The single-family median still rose 1.2 percent, to $415,000, its seventh straight month of year-over-year gains. Condo and townhouse sales were flat, and that median slipped about 2 percent, to $293,500. Chief economist Brad O'Connor described a market that has lost some momentum but has not fallen apart, and flagged that a move from positive to negative sales growth can carry a psychological effect of its own.
The full release on PR Newswire adds the supply picture: 4.4 months of single-family inventory statewide and 7.7 months for condos and townhouses. O'Connor tied the soft sales to higher mortgage rates, which we read earlier this month.
Now the metro tables. In the September metro summary, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton closed 1,317 single-family homes, up 0.7 percent, at a median of $485,000, up 4.3 percent. Its condo and townhouse sales jumped 19.5 percent to 533, at a $320,000 median, up 4.9 percent. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater went the other way on volume: 2,938 single-family closings, down 7.7 percent, at a $400,000 median, up just 0.5 percent. Tampa is down 5.2 percent on sales for the year to date; Sarasota-Manatee is up 6.5 percent.
Two markets on one coast, weighed by the same report · Illustration: Florida Construction Media
What it means for you
The local Realtor association fills in why Sarasota-Manatee looks firmer. RASM's third-quarter report shows Sarasota County single-family inventory down 16.2 percent from a year earlier, with months of supply falling from 4.8 to 3.7 and median days to contract dropping from 68 to 52. Manatee's supply fell from 4.2 to 3.9 months. RASM's president, David Crawford, called it a strengthening market across multiple data points. Fewer listings and faster contracts are the conditions in which resale stops undercutting new construction.
Three reads for the trades.
Sarasota-Manatee builders are not competing against a flood of resale. With supply under four months in both counties and the median at $485,000, a well-built spec with a clear story is selling into a tighter market than the statewide headline suggests. The pressure on these jobs comes from the payment, not from a glut of listings, which is why the incentive question from production builders still matters. We wrote the counter-position in Incentive-Era Selling.
Tampa Bay trades on production work should plan for a slower winter of closings. Falling volume at flat prices usually means builders hold price and lean on incentives and scope rather than cut the list. If your next phase depends on a Pasco or Hillsborough builder's closings, ask about their sales pace before you staff for it.
The condo number is a repair story as much as a sales story. The Sarasota-Manatee condo jump, and RASM's Sarasota condo supply falling from 6.8 to 4.9 months, says buyers are coming back to units the market punished last year. Many of those buildings are mid-cycle on the inspections and reserve studies that send repair scopes to contractors through 2027. A unit that sells is also a new owner who will want the interior redone.
The play
- Use your metro's number, not the state's. A Sarasota client hearing "Florida sales fell" on the news needs to hear from you that local supply is tighter and prices rose. Ninety seconds on camera with the RASM figures and a link does more than any listing.
- Tampa trades: get the pace conversation on the calendar. One call with each builder you rely on, asking what their contracts look like for the first quarter, is cheaper than a crew sitting idle in February.
- Remodelers: follow the condo buyers. New owners in buildings that just finished their inspections are the interior jobs of next spring. An explainer a community association manager can forward to new owners puts your name in that building first.
- Keep the snowbirds warm. The October arrivals are reading these same headlines. Process and proof, not a market opinion, is what they remember in February. Stellar's resources library has the filming plans.
- Mark November 16. That is when Florida Realtors publishes October, and we will read it the same way.
Lakewood Ranch at dusk, in the metro where supply fell under four months · Photo: Stellar Media Collective
Checked October 19, 2026, against Florida Realtors' September 2026 statewide and metro reports and RASM's third-quarter report, all released October 16; the originals are linked above and the next release is November 16. Disclosure: this publication is owned by Stellar Media Collective, a Sarasota studio that builds the on-camera explainer and process-content systems described here. The read holds whoever you hire to film it.