Orlando Real Estate

Check out Mary Shanklin's article in the Orlando Sentinel today, and see my quote at the bottom. Like the article states there are a number of possible causes for the slow down. Of course, if you read my last quote, I am holding out hope that we are really turning the corner on this trend. The three hardest hit states were also areas where the most speculative buying was taking place. The foreclosures I was seeing a year or two ago were frequently new or nearly new homes in fantastic condition. Investors were the first to just walk away from these properties, because they had little invested in them. Like the gentleman in Clermont in the article, most real home owners have struggled to hold on, but real estate crash has also taken its toll on the economy. This has made it difficult to impossible for many people to keep up. The second wave of foreclosures effected more families as ARM's adjusted and taxes soared. A lot of these properties suffered from more neglect as people let maintenance slip as they tried to hold on.

As all of this has played out over the last three years, prices have been on a continuous slide until about six months ago. Our median price in Orlando has been hovering around $130,000 since April. That is about half of the peak median price back in 2006. Also since April, new contracts have been piling up at better than 3,300 every month with over 3,800 written in September. If demand remains this strong, I do not expect to see prices drop any more. The price stability may also be having an impact on short sales and foreclosures. If you factor in the expected growth finally taking place in the economy and improvement in confidence, I believe we may be seeing a turnaround in the foreclosure trend. "Holy smokes!" I hope so.

Orlando Real Estate, David Welch Real Estate Optimist