Thursday, March 20, 2008
February sees increases in month-to-month sales and median price
March 11, 2008 – Orlando, FL) Orlando’s housing marketing upheld its annual tradition in February with a month-to-month increase that heralds the start of the spring selling season. The 922 sales that took place in February 2008 are a 13.4 percent increase over January 2008’s 813 sales; however, sales in February 2008 are down by 40.17 percent when compared to February 2007.
The monthly statistical reports released by the Orlando Regional Realtor® Association revealed some additional interesting tidbits for the month of February:
Sales in Lake County were down by only 13.73 percent, compared to 45.69 percent, 41.76 percent, and 40.39 percent in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties respectively;
Sales of duplexes, town homes, and villas increased by 37.04 percent from month to month; and
The sales of condos increased by 15.22 percent from month to month.
The median sales price of a single-family home in the Orlando area increased by 0.68 percent ($1,500) from $221,500 in January 2008 to $223,000 in February 2008. The median sales price for February 2008 is 12.55 percent below that of February 2007 ($255,000).
The increase in the median home price to $223,000 means that the area’s affordability index dropped in February to 101.62. (An affordability index of 99 percent means that buyers earning the state-reported median income are 1 percent short of the income necessary to purchase a median-priced home. Conversely, an affordability index that is over 100 means that median-income earners make more than is necessary to qualify for a median-priced home.) Buyers who earn the reported median income of $51,449 can qualify to purchase one of 8,509 homes in Orange and Seminole counties currently listed in the local multiple listing service (MLS) for $226,568 or less.
The first time homebuyer affordability index dipped a bit in February, to 72.27 percent from 74.84 in January.
The number of sales in the Orlando area declined by 40.17 percent in February 2008 compared to February of last year (922 to 1,541), but the number of sales that took place in February 2008 increased over the number of sales that occurred in January 2008 (813).
There are currently 2,175 homes in the MLS with pending sales contracts (an indicator of future sales activity), up from 1,731 in January. The number of homes newly under contract increased by almost 300 in February; the increase from December 2007 to January 2008 was more than 200.
The area’s average interest rate was 5.87 percent in February 2008, up from 5.60 percent in January but down from 5.93 in December 2007.
Homes of all types spent an average of 123 days on the market before being sold in February 2008; the average home sold for 93.21 percent of its original asking price. In December 2007 those numbers were 113 and 92.75 percent, respectively.
The majority of single-family homes (188) that changed hands in February 2008 were sold for between $200,000 and $250,000. Another 117 homes sold in February for between $250,000 and $300,000. Two hundred twenty-nine homes sold for less than $200,000 in February, and 208 sold for more than $300,000. On the far ends of the scale, 15 homes were sold for $1 million or more while only nine (up from four in January) homes sold for less than $50,000.
