Add to Favorites

Thursday, March 20, 2008

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.

Monday, March 10, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. – A new report from the Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund Inc. (The Fund) finds that Florida’s housing market slowed in 2007 in nearly every county analyzed. The report also shows that real estate markets flattened out in spring 2007, before the subprime mortgage crisis in August knocked markets down another 10 percent across the state. Since then, the state’s housing market has flattened and is expected to begin to recover during the next several years.The 2008 Fund Real Estate Forecast, commissioned by Florida-based Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund's Consumer Education Campaign, was created by economist Dr. Hank Fishkind of Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates, Inc., using deed data for more than 30 Florida counties. The report provides a snapshot of the national economic outlook and 33 county-specific forecasts for 2008 through 2010, as well as a section detailing how actual 2007 data compared to projections that were made in last year’s Fund 2007 Real Estate Forecast report.“Florida is one of the leading states for job creation and outperformed the rest of the country despite the housing market meltdown,” Fishkind says. ‘The state’s population growth also slowed, but is still nearly greater than all of the other Southeastern states put together. Florida has a very large and powerful economy that has gone through a cyclical downshift, but it is still outperforming compared to the rest of the nation.”The Fund’s 2008 Real Estate Forecast shows that Orlando continues to be the strongest residential real estate market in the state because of its large share of fast-growing industries, such as tourism, healthcare, education and defense manufacturing. Not all markets in Florida mirror Orlando’s resiliency, however. Miami-Dade is currently going through the worst condominium bust cycle that Florida has seen since 1975, according to Fishkind. Additionally, the report says that significant excess supply of single-family homes in the Fort Myers and Cape Coral markets will not begin to be absorbed until 2010.“With Florida’s real estate market, it is important to maintain some perspective as recent reductions in home prices come after a very lofty and unsustainable peak, and prices are still up considerably compared to 30 years ago,” said Fishkind. “Florida has created a tremendous amount of wealth and – despite many of the problems that loose lending practices and subprime mortgages have caused – the state now has the highest level of homeownership ever. The market has some indigestion now, but housing markets will return to normal during the next few years; the damage for some is significant, but in the aggregate, Florida still had some significant economic gains.”

Monday, March 03, 2008

Sales of existing homes increased in February and remain within a fairly stable range, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units in February from a pace of 4.89 million in January, but remain 23.8 percent below the 6.60 million-unit level in February 2007. The sales pace has been in a fairly narrow range since last September.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the gain is encouraging. “We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said. “Buyers taking advantage of higher loan limits for both FHA and conventional mortgages will unleash some pent-up demand. As inventories are drawn down, prices in many markets should go positive later this year.”
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $195,900 in February, down 8.2 percent from a year earlier when the median was $213,500. Because the slowdown in sales from a year ago is greater in high-cost areas, there is a downward pull to the national median with relatively fewer sales in higher priced markets.
NAR President Richard F. Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif., said that negotiation and knowledge are even more important in the current market. “Consumers need to be aware of local market conditions and comparable sales prices to have a clear picture of a home’s value,” he said. “Realtors® understanding of local markets, negotiating expertise, and transaction experience are invaluable to both buyers and sellers, today as much as ever.”
Single-family home sales increased 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.47 million in February from an upwardly revised 4.35 million in January, but are 22.9 percent below 5.80 million-unit level a year ago. The median existing single-family home price was $193,900 in February, down 8.7 percent from February 2007.
Existing condominium and co-op sales rose 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units in February from a downwardly revised 540,000 in January, and are 29.7 percent below the 797,000-unit pace in February 2007. The median existing condo price was $211,700 in February, which is 4.9 percent lower than a year ago.
The National Association of Realtors®