Sarasota tops list of home markets to watch with huge increase in residences being built

The Sarasota-Manatee housing market has been crowned the top home market to watch in the country by Insurify.com, which cites the area's housing construction boom and skyrocketing property values.

Three other Florida metros joined Sarasota on the list.

The online insurance agency used building permit, population change and demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, along with Zillow.com data and an internal database of home insurance quotes, to then score and rank the 75 most populated metropolitan statistical areas in the United States.

The Sarasota metro, which includes both Sarasota and Manatee counties and their municipalities, had the highest number of new residential units under construction when accounting for existing population of the metro area, with 218.37 residential units under construction for every 100,000 residents.

That figure towered over other metro areas in the country, with Fort Myers ranking a distant second with 191.13 units being built per 100,000 residents.

Both Fort Myers and Sarasota have experienced some of the highest population growth over the past two years, with Sarasota's population growing by 7% from 2020 to 2022, and Fort Myers' population increasing by 8.1% during the same time span. Nationally, the country's population has increased by just 0.2%.

Sarasota has seen a year-over-year increase of 24% for approved housing units under construction, but Fort Myers saw a 14% decline comparing year-to-year building permit data, which could be attributed to Hurricane Ian's striking the area in September 2022.

Still, Insurify.com ranked Fort Myers at fourth in the top 10 markets to watch, pointing to the still large number of homes being built in the area.

Here is the full ranking list:

1. Sarasota
2. Greensboro, North Carolina
3. Raleigh, North Carolina
4. Fort Myers
5. Orlando
6. Knoxville, Tennessee
7. Columbia, South Carolina
8. Charleston, South Carolina
9. Jacksonville
10. Charlotte, North Carolina

However, the insurance company noted that Sarasota ranked high on the list "despite the high cost of home insurance in Florida, with Sarasota residents paying 80% more than the U.S. annual average."

The report put Sarasota's average cost of home insurance at $3,264 with Fort Myers' average cost of home insurance significantly cheaper at $2,568.

"New units built in the metro area increased by 24% between June 2022 and June 2023, and with numerous affordable lots of undeveloped land, Sarasota has room to grow," the report said. "Potential buyers may want to move quickly. The metro area’s population spiked nearly 7% between 2020 and 2022, compared to 0.6% nationwide."