Orlando Real Estate

With just a few days left in the month and the year, December is looking good. So far this month 1,610 sales have been posted with a median sales price of $105,000. I am expecting close to 2,000 sales when the month is finally recorded, which is pretty good for this time of year. Bank owned sales still have not completely recouped from the slow down in October when several hundred homes were pulled from the market to review the foreclosure process. There were still 680 closed so far though making up 42.2% of the sales with a median price of $70,000. Short sales made up 426 or 26.5% of the sales with a median sales price of $105,450, and equity sales accounted for 504 or 31.3% of the sales with a median price of $160,000. Cash has continued to roll into Orlando real estate with 884 or 54.9% of the sales closed this month.

Active inventory seems to have leveled off again after climbing over the last few weeks. Currently, there are 15,430 total listings with 2,517 bank owned and 5,591 short sales. Bank owned properties are up significanlty from 1,872 where they were a month ago, while short sales have actually continued to decline. Six months ago there were 5,737 short sales, but that number has been slowly dropping each month. Pending short sales have also been steadily decreasing with only 5,575 currently under contract. Bank owned pending sales have been fairly consistent with 2,148 under contract. Distressed properties combine to account for 87.1% of the 8,864 pending sales. I have observed mostly stable numbers for better part of 2010. We did have a run up in sales during the home buyer tax credit and the subsequent drop off. Other than that blip, inventory, pending sales, closings and prices have shown only modest seasonal variations in my opinion. I am looking at 2011 to continue where 2010 left off with some increases in sales as the job market begins to improve. Of course, I have been expecting the job market to improve for two years.

David Welch Real Estate Optimist, Orlando Real Estate