Orlando Real Estate

A third of the year is already gone, and we should be in peak listing and selling season here in Orlando. Inventory, however, continues to drop. The number of active listings has fallen by 1,105 or nearly 9% from March. There are only 11,444 homes available for sale, as distressed properties continue to wane. Of the active listings only 1,151 or 10.1% are REO, and 3,983 or 34.8% are short sales. Last month distressed properties dipped below 50% of our inventory for the first time in a very long time. This month they have dropped further to only 44.9% of the total market. While bank owned have dropped in every category of active, pending and sold, short sales have mostly moved from active to pending. The total number of contracts pending has increased by 426 or more than 4% over last month. The number of pending bank owned properties is down a bit, but the number of pending short sales is up by about 450 to 6,839 or 66% or all pending sales. Combined, bank owned and short sales continue to account for the bulk 83.6% of all contracts.

With the number of REO properties dropping, and many buyers turning to very slow closing short sales for bargains, I was concerned we would see a drop in sales. I was looking for 2,200 to 2,400 sales in April, and we actually did a little better with 2,442 closed transactions. That is a slight drop from March's 2,546, but still pretty strong. I was also looking for steady to slightly higher prices. I believe I was looking for a median sales price near $105,000, and we ended up at $104,260. Of those sales, 995 or 40.7% were bank owned with a median price of $77,900. Short sale closings also dropped to 629 or 25.8% of the total with a median sales price of only $95,000. Equity sales were up, with 818 or 33.5% holding a steady $155,000 median price. Even with the big increase in pending short sales, the number of closings actually declined representing only 9.2% closing percentage. Cash sales remain strong with 1,318 or 54% of all sales, and the median sales price jumped up to $68,450 from $63,000 in March. Financed sales of 1,124 or 46% had a drop in the median price to $138,550. Stong sales and declining inventory has caused the months supply of homes to drop from 4.9 in March to 4.7 in April. Generally, a six month supply is considered a balanced market.

David Welch Real Estate Optimist, Orlando Real Estate, Any Home-Any Phone