Are housing prices going down yet? (Jacksonville, Orlando: relocate, real estate, foreclosure)

[Floridian to relocate]

prices are down yes and may come down a bit more but the days of buying a nice house in a nice area for 150k 200k are a thing of the past . people that did buy at the top will do ok if they sit on the house long engough they will go back up in the long run . jbravo we will do just fine when we sell we bought in 02 so we can just sit and see what the prices do . like i say we are leaving fl for other reasons ie wages insurance taxes for the house oh and wages lol

[Pigsty333]

Check out our community. We are in the middle of everything. Not bad - surrounded by million dollar homes, the airport and home to the new medical school, Burham Institute, VA Hospital. There are lots of home for rent or sale because we are a community that consists of a lot of pilots, airline personnel, homeland security, air marshalls, etc. and they do get transferred.

We live in North Shore at Lake Hart. You can also search the Lake Nona Area. My neighbor is selling her house - it is 2,800 sq. feet, 2 story with a pool. 6 bedrooms, pool, we are in a gated, golf course community. She lowered the price to $399 from $479,000 as she had another built and has to move. Can't do two mortgages. Check it out.

[jbravo]

congrats Floridian to relocate! 02 was good. You should be fine. Be careful, read the post a little further down (2 posts) for Orlando numbers. I never try to convince someone not to buy; however, it drives me nuts when I read plain propaganda in this forum backed up bt zilch!

[jbravo]

Check these Orlando numbers:

Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

"The inventory of homes available for purchase increased by 1,729 homes in January to a total of 21,266, which equates to a 16.1-month supply of homes at the current pace of sales. Much of the rise in inventory can be attributed to condos and townhomes."

Jan: monthly sales 1314 (down -31.46%) average days on market 90 (up from 46 in Jan 06) inventory 21,266 a 16 months supply (3-5 months is a historical average since 1999)

[Keikis]

While there is somewhat of a buyers market in FL right now, I wouldn't expect any extreme drops if you are looking for a dream deal. We are owners in NW Florida and moving south, so we are looking at both sides of the market. While what we can sell our home for right now is down from stellar highs a couple of years ago, we can still make a hefty profit on our home, and will not give our home away; we'll just simply keep it off of the market until prices rebound. As others like us do the same, supply will drop off as we move into spring and summer which will stablize prices. Contractors will back off on new home starts which will shrink inventory.

While it depends on price range, we are not seeing a big inventory in our purchase price range. Many of the resales with larger lots are 70s-80s vintage with owners who have made little changes to their properties since moving in when Miami Vice design was considered cool.

The only thing that would ever crash the Florida market would be a few extremely bad hurricane years (like '05), fairly close together with the major insurance companies completely pulling out of the residential market. As it was said before, the water, weather and tropcial fauna and flora will always draw people to Florida - whether they can afford it or not. The dream costs money and there will always be people willing to pay for it.

[jbravo]

I hope your right...for all our sakes. But if you check the prices of Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Cape Coral, Naples and on the West Coast, and Melbourne to West Palm Beach on the East, you will find that prices are down from 8% to 38% (not a typo, thirty eight percent) from their peaks in 06! And this is from FAR!
Funny you mentioned Miami Vice, I lived in Miami then, the funny part is that the only part of South Fl that maintained there prices this year from 06 peak is Miami!! Beats me, so don't ask me. How many Venezuelans fleeing Chavez and Europeans with Euros that want to live in Miami are there? Seems the supply is limitless, at least so far. But, having spoken to some people in Dade County, no, they aren't optimistic for 07/08.

[Arrgh]

I must agree with jBravo. As a local real estate appraiser I have seen prices fall an average of 20% from the highs of 2005. In this area there is a glut of condos and builders are dumping excess inventory. I did an appraisal about a month ago on new construction, 1950SF 3 bedroom, 2 bath,2 car. A basic house, formica conter tops, average construction. It came in at $210K the builder sold it for 180K. Remember that comparables are 3 to 6 months behind the current market. That same house is now selling for 200K.

The concensus here appears to be that we are at or very near the bottom. Sellers have been adjusting prices downward for aver a year and now seem to have their feet dug in. Interest rates are low, prices are down. You have a unique window of opportunity that will probably be gone by the end of the year. Severe winter up north, no state income tax, the boomers are still coming, the Govonor just lowered ins rstes by about 20% and so on and so on.

[Floridasunshine]

Prices are coming down, I must agree, in Lakeland they are dropping from last year. They were cheap in 2005, then they jumped in 2006, We bought a home in 2005 170 , 2140 sq ft, it appraised 6mos later in 2006 for 264 , now in our neighborhood the last new home 2140 the builder is giving away at 226,
I hope it dont doesnt sell for that low amount. It has no upgrades but it a very beautiful home and lot. l

[jbravo]

The latest numbers came out this morning from South Fl Realtors for Jan (the area covers from Homestead, all the way North to St. Lucie, a huge area) it's a 26 page report of tables.
Highlights:
1. Available inventory: Grand Total: 98,090 up from 62,814 in Dec
2. Example: Miami: Inventory: 7,841 new listings 2,053 sales 369
3. Avarage list price is down accross the board
4. Condos are, of course, the worst hit

Grand Total includes condos.
Miami example is just houses, please note: 369 sales in Jan total, while 2053 new listings came on the market.
There's over one hundred cities in this report. If you are not from the area, note that what people mean when they refer to Miami is actually dozens of municipalities in Dade County: Kendal, South Miami, West Miami, Doral, Key Biscayne and dozens more. The example I chose is just one of these many cities. But it's the same story.
I have not had time to digest all the data.
I would like others opinions on this.
Please, could someone point out to me, patiently please, how this does not mean a further decrease in prices? If not outright collapse. This mirrors Orlandos incredible 16+ months supply of available inventory, by the way!

[Need_affordable_home]

House prices have gone down bigtime and I dont see it bottoming out before 2009. Ive been checking prices and at the rate they will keep dropping, youll be able to get a nice big lakefront house in a good neighboorhood for $225k in south FL!