Orlando Real Estate

I was called by Mary Shanklin from the Sentinel to comment on this piece, but I have been sick for the last few days, and not so quick to return calls and e-mails. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bk-home-resales-florida-092409,0,6291593.story Mary, thank you for calling, and I apologize for not getting back to you in a timely manner. Please keep me in mind in the future. While Orlando's median prices are lower than the state average, I believe that was actually typical prior to the 2005 boom and bust. As far as the lower condo prices in Orlando are concerned, you have to keep in mind that the other big condo markets around the state are on the coast. We don't have any ocean front or gulf front condos to pull our condo prices up.

My only other comments I have to share involve the impact of distressed properties on our market. There are over 5,000 active short sales and more than 4,000 pending short sales listed by Orlando Realtors in our MLS. These make up roughly a third of our active inventory and half of our pending inventory of homes. That is definitely having an impact on our marketplace right now. Fewer than 10% of the pending short sales have been closing each month though as banks continue to show no discernable method to their short sale approval process. Bank owned properties also have had a big impact on our market, although making up a much smaller percentage of the active and pending listings. REO's are making up a considerable percentage of our actual closed sales. About one in thirteeen active listings is bank owned, one in eight pending sales belong to the banks and about one in three of the closed sales is an REO property. If the banks could get things approved and closed we would be seeing huge sales each month. As it is, our sales are running almost 50% better than last year. That is not a bad start.

Orlando Real Estate, David Welch Real Estate Optimist