Orlando Real Estate

Active and pending listings dropped to 15,707 and 8,110 respectively while closed sales continued a seven month streak of better than 2,000 closed sales. So far 2,228 sales were posted for December 2009 with a median sales price of $124,000. That sales price marks nine months of relatively stable prices and an uptick from November. Distressed properties continue make up a sizable percentage with 47.4% of the active listings. Of that 5,830 are short sales and 1,620 are bank owned properties. The number of REO's has nearly doubled since the summer. Distressed properties make up an even larger percentage of pending sales as REO's and short sales continue to be slow to close. Nearly 85% of the pending contracts are distressed sales with 5,436 or 67.0% of the total coming from short sales and 1,448 or 17.9% made up of bank owned properties.

Closed sales finished strong, and are also dominated by distressed properties. More than two thirds of closed sales in December were either short sales or REO listings. Of the 2,228 closed sales 719 or 32.3% were "normal" sales, 520 or 23.3% were short sales and 989 or 44.4% were bank owned. Short sales were a little stronger in December possibly due to quarterly bank financials. The 520 sales represented 9.6% of the total number of short sales with pending contracts. Typically, I have only been seeing about 8% of the pending short sales closing in any given month. The disparity in prices continued among the three types of sales. In December the median sales price for REO's was $81,000, short sales were a bit higher than they have been with $133,800 and "normal" sales came in at $179,900. Despite the rise in REO listings, new contracts continue to be very strong last month with just over 3,000. With nearly four months of sales tied up in pending contracts and the extended tax credit, I expect the stong sales numbers to continue through Winter and into the Spring selling season. Although the recent unseasonably cold weather might put a bit of a damper on things for a couple of weeks.

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