Saunders sees recovery, return to values

“We always come through, and we always recover.”

That was one of the themes of real-estate doyenne Michael Saunders’ speech Thursday, March 25, as she spoke about the past, present and future of real estate to members of the Longboat Key Historical Society at Isabelle’s Restaurant.

“People have always coveted this magical island,” said Saunders, who was raised on Longboat Key and who has headed the firm she founded, Michael Saunders & Co., since its beginning in 1976.

Tracing the history of Longboat Key real estate from its original settlement by Thomas Mann in 1891, Saunders took her audience of about 75 people through the booms and busts on Longboat Key over the past century — from the highs and lows with circus magnate John Ringling in the 1920s; to the incorporation of the town in 1955; to the boom period in the 1970s and 1980s with Arvida Corp.’s development of the Longboat Key Club and Resort; to the bust that has hung over the region’s residential real-estate market for the past four years.

Saunders, whose family came from Tampa and settled in 1959 in Longbeach Village on the north end, recalled traveling by boat to and from Tampa and growing up on Land’s End, on the northern tip of the Key. Her parents, Frank and Fran Mayers, were Longboat pioneers, involved in, among other things, the startup of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts and Longboat Key Historical Society, the organization now headed by her brother, Longboat Key resident Tom Mayers.

“I wanted to put things in a historical context because history always repeats itself,” Saunders told her listeners.

Saunders said that recovery is under way and the worst is behind us. “We’re selling more than we’re listing,” she said (see table). “People are over ‘frugality fatigue.’ They’re tired of being frugal. Retail is picking up, unemployment is going down and consumers are more confident.”

But Saunders warned Longboaters not to expect the spike in sales and prices the way they rose from 2000 to 2006. Prices increased 89% in that period, Saunders said, adding, “That is not sustainable.”

Expectations should be closer to 25% appreciation over a five-year period.

What’s more, Saunders said, most markets recover from the bottom up, not from the top down, implying that Longboat Key’s recovery may take longer than elsewhere because of its waterfront values. Of the 633 properties for sale on Longboat Key today, one-third are priced at more than $1 million, she said.

Saunders described the buyers for Longboat real estate as “the same people as the old buyers, but they’ve pushed the reset button. They have a whole new set of values.”

“It’s all about values,” she said. “They are more concerned with family values than they have been in the past. People are happier than they were in the past 10 years.”

Saunders said that one of the biggest advantages Longboat Key has going for it is its rich history, culture and its residents’ community involvement, citing organizations such as the Arts Center and the Historical Society.

“You don’t see that sense of community on Siesta Key or Manasota,” Saunders said. “You have the best of both worlds on Longboat Key.”

But, she also said, “I truly believe we need to see the Key Club improved … if we don’t, you’re going to see fewer people coming (to Longboat Key) and declining values.”

The next meeting of the historical society will be the club’s Elegant Benefit Dinner Thursday, April 22, at The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort. Colony CEO and Chairman Murf Klauber and Tim Field, son of Herb Field, the founder of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort and the former Buccaneer Inn, will be the featured speakers.

BOX
If You Go
LBK Historical Society Elegant Benefit Dinner
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 22
Where: The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort, 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive
Tickets: $60, half of which will be a donation to the Historical Society.
Call: 387-8323

Contact Maria Amodio at [email protected].