Orlando Real Estate

Well, 2009 is just about behind us and we really saw a significant transition and stabilization in our marketplace here in Orlando. Prices fell significantly through the first quarter of the year until sales picked up to a pace great enough to absorb excess inventory. At the beginning of 2009 we had about a 24 month supply of homes available for sale. As we wrap things up that number is hovering just under an 8 month supply. Two things impacted this number; the inventory dropped from 24,000 to 16,202 as of today, and the monthly sales pace rocketed from about 1,000 to 2,000 per month since June. Right now we are showing 1,575 closed sales posted for December, but I think we may still see around the 2,000 mark. It is hard to tell, since it can be difficult to get sales closed during this last week. I believe we have stabilized since our median price has hovered around $130,000 since April with fluctuations between $125,000 and $135,000. It dipped a little more in November as first time buyers pushed to close to make sure they qualified for the tax credit. So far this month we are right at $125,000 median sales price.

Active listings were made up of 5,978 or 36.9% short sales and 1,589 or 9.8% bank owned properties. Of the 8,307 pending sales 5,455 are short sales and 1,557 are bank owned. Almost 41.6% of closed sales were bank owned properties with 655 closed so far, and another 23.9% are short sales with 377 closed. The 377 closed short sales continues to indicate the slow pace at which short sales are closing, representing less than 7% of the total pending short sales. We continue to see a huge difference in prices between REO, short sales and "normal" sales with their respective median sales prices of $79,500, $135,000 and $181,250.

Baldwin Park near downtown Orlando has seen somewhat better results than Orlando overall. Sales in Baldwin Park are up 59.8% over last year's 117 with 187 closed so far. Prices are only down 11.9% with a median sales price of $348,000 compared with last year's $395,000. Short sales and REO's make up a smaller share of the Baldwin Park sales with 69.5% of the closed sales this year being "normal" sales. There are currently 88 active listings in the neighborhood, but only 6 are bank owned and 25 are short sales, accounting for just over 35% of the inventory combined. There is a big difference in prices among the different types of sales here as well with bank owned properties posting a median sales price of $279,975; short sales with $299,000 and "normal" sales with $384,000.

Orlando Real Estate, David Welch Real Estate Optimist, As Seen on HGTV's House Hunters