Central Florida Real Estate Market Update – Oct’08
The Central Florida real estate market is still promising positive traction for stability. According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA), sales last month posted nearly a 38% increase over September 2007 sales. September 2008 recorded 1,335 sales compared to 970 sales for September 2007. Not only were sales up, but we also saw an increase in the number of listings that are now ‘Pending’ which represent nearly 62% more homes under contract in September 2008 than in September 2007. This basically means we are continuing to close the gap on 2008 year-to-date sales compared to 2007 year-to-date sales. Another positive sign is that we have 144 less homes on the market in September 2008 than in August 2008. We are currently at 24,690 homes for sale. Single family homes make up 18,169 of the 24, 690 while the remaining numbers are comprised of condos, duplexes, town homes and villas.
Interest rates are still historically low and we dropped another 9% in our median home price from $200,000 in August 2008 to $182,000 in September 2008. Overall, we’ve dropped a little more than 22% from last September 2007 in median home prices. I know this stat may not be the best news for those of us who already own a home and are seeing our property values diminish, it is however what needs to happen to begin our climb up and see our home values rise again. What will also help is getting the media onboard to begin reporting the positive signs instead of all the negative signs. It’s a great time to buy! Click Here to visit ORRA’s web site for more stats.
