Houses, planes and commercial deals

There's a lot happening in the business world this afternoon.

For starters, the Sarasota-Bradenton area was ranked in the nation's top 10 for "turnaround towns" for the third consecutive quarter during the weekend.

The area's No. 9 ranking was among seven cities in the Sunshine State to make the report’s top 10, which was compiled by Realtor.com, the online property search website for the National Association of Realtors.

The website dubbs the list as an index of the country's top housing markets helping drive an industry recovery.

The area reported homes in March were up 23.7 percent compared to February, dipping 1.4 percent from the same time last year. Median list prices also rose 12.6 percent in the Sarasota-Bradenton market for the first quarter 2012, while inventory shrunk 27.7 percent over the year.

Other Florida cities listed in the top 10 included Miami at No. 2, Orlando at 3, Naples at 5, Fort Myers at 7, Lakeland at 8 and Tampa at 10. Punta Gorda just missed the cut at No. 11.

You can read more about that in the Bradenton Herald tomorrow.

Also, this morning, the airport announced Delta has added a new flight from New York's LaGuardia to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. It becomes the third carrier to expand or add new service since the AirTran decision to cease all flights at SRQ was finalized in January.

You can read all about it here.

In the market for a new apartment? Well, the Tradition at Palm-Aire Apartments along the University corridor in South Manatee has changed hands for $13.5 million. Get the full scoop here.

And in case you haven't already, read by my story on how the economy impacts retirement plans for Baby Boomers. It's pretty good if I do say so myself.

That should keep you busy for a while.

For the latest business updates, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman