Where does the real estate market in the area stand? (Orlando: for sale, rentals)

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by FL little foot

When I was searching for a home from July 2010- Jan 2011, in the Waterford lakes and surrounding area's, Mostly all of them were foreclosures. Not my choice to look at only foreclosures and shorts but thats really all that was out there. These houses were trashed. My husband asked our realtor: Why are you showing us only dumps? He replied it was the first time he was seeing the property himself. We looked at over 100 house's in 6 1/2 months. The few( maybe 3) regular sales were priced $25-$30k more then the shorts and the ones I saw still needed some work.
I thought I got lucky when the short sale I eventually bought was available for a quick closing due to the previous purchasers backing out. The bank had just approved the short sale price for those buyers, and it only took 3 weeks to close. Now, not even a year later, similar homes in my area are selling for $25-$30k less then I paid. And some of them are bigger and better. After searching for a home for so long and having most of my "house" packed in boxes, I settled for the house I have now. I call it buyer frustration.
I had to put in all new appliances, since the owners removed them, and a fence, for the dog, and it still needs all new floors, peeling linolium and builder grade beige carpet is whats in there now. The windows are failing, I have to hold them up with sticks and the house is only 5 yrs old. There is no way I'm putting any more money into this house until god willing these values go up. So the Deal I thought I got was short lived. Then I think of the folks who bought in 2006-07, and count my blessings that I am not that much under-water. Becki, I thought you were in the Lake Mary area? I hear that area is doing much better then my area. Can you test the waters so to speak? Do you have a realtor that would list you for a few months at the price you need to sell? You don't have to accept a price too low to move on but at least you could really see what the feedback from buyers would be. I did this yrs ago when I was selling a house out of state.

So, bottom line is that you are saying you wish you would've done a traditional sale? Well, it is what it is and you are accepting it. Most of the things you mention are cosmetic. The market will go back up in time. It maybe later than sooner but it always does.

I do live in the Lake Mary area and I'm lucky for that. I think things are more stable over here. I've heard realtors say things over here are slowly creeping up. I have a realtor in mind who is my neighbor's MIL. I think we may just test the waters in the spring. If it sell, it sells. If not, we will make a decision at that point whether we should refinance and stick it out a little longer. Hey, at least I'm in FL and not stuck up north (PA) for the loooong winters.

[chopchop0]

Florida home prices: Florida home prices up for 2012 - OrlandoSentinel.com

A California real-estate research firm has forecast that Orlando will lead the nation in 2012 for home-price gains, according to a report released Tuesday by Clear Capital.

The analytics company has projected that home prices in Metro Orlando will increase 11.7 percent during the year, compared with 2.1 percent for the nation overall.

Orlando was second in the country for home-price increases last year, with prices rising 6.7 percent, the Clear Capital said. Only Dayton, Ohio exceeded that gain with an annual increase of 11.5 percent. Miami had the third-largest gain for last year — 5.6 percent. The Clear Capital report takes into account factors such as sales of the same properties, unemployment rates, and the number of foreclosures on the market.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Florida home prices: Florida home prices up for 2012 - OrlandoSentinel.com

Which is ahead of the double dip in falling prices. Read this:

‘Shadow inventory’ of homes could topple real-estate recovery - Business - MiamiHerald.com

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Florida home prices: Florida home prices up for 2012 - OrlandoSentinel.com

I sure hope so.

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Which is ahead of the double dip in falling prices. Read this:

‘Shadow inventory’ of homes could topple real-estate recovery - Business - MiamiHerald.com

Perhaps, but Forbes is also commenting on it

Has The Housing Market Hit Its Bottom? - Forbes

As for the areas where prices may actually appreciate the most this year, the firm expects Orlando, Fla. home prices to rise 11.7%, hard-hit Bakersfield, Calif. 11.1%, government jobs-driven Washington, D.C. 9.3%, foreclosure-riddled Phoenix, Ariz. 8.9%, and sales-heavy Miami, Fla. 8.8%.

[kyle19125]

Prices are up in advance of the release of these foreclosure properties onto the market, however when a 40 month (Orange County) and 49 month (Seminole County) inventory of homes hits the market we're going to fall again....hard. To put it in to perspective, we're currently sitting at around a 9 month inventory of homes. ‘Shadow inventory’ of homes could topple real-estate recovery - Business - MiamiHerald.com

[flguy123]

This is definitely a case of "I'll believe when I see it". I live in East Orlando there are NO signs anything is going up, just the opposite. Granted inventory is lower compared to a few years ago, but I see the vacant houses and the lower inventory has NOT translated to upwards price trends, period.

Until someone who actually writes these articles comes down here and physically drives around the looks at the situation and talks to people who live here, there is no credibility whatsoever in these predictions. Every year for the past 3+ years we've been hearing "This year things will finally turn around". Still waiting....

One big reason I think the lower inventory is not translating to high prices around here is because appraisers are being very hard line. Even if someone is willing to pay MORE than the comps, the bank appointed appraiser comes in and says nope, and then most people will walk from the deal at that point or the seller will give in to the lower price/appraisal. The other reason could be that spiteful owners are simply trashing the homes when they leave making them totally unappealing to anyone but an investor who fixes houses for a living.

Even if a financially challenged family could afford a $180k 5 bedroom house in a good neighborhood, if it's been trashed (which most are) then they cannot afford the $15-20k it will take to bring it back up to an acceptable standard, so it just sits there getting worse with age because most of the time the utilities are also turned off, which means no water for the lawns, and no AC to remove the humidity inside the house or circulate the swimming pool. It's a vicious cycle.

[chopchop0]

As beckycat mentioned in her original post, foreign buyers also play a role in this market, hence a recent upbeat report

Florida brokers sunnier than most - Business - MiamiHerald.com (http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/11/2584747/florida-brokers-sunnier-than-most.html - broken link)

[kyle19125]

Also going unmentioned in the drop in value for many homes is the fact that many have become rentals as due to market conditions the owners have often left the area/state for work or personal reasons. When you have a neighborhood with some foreclosed properties sprinkled in with some rentals, invariably the properties suffer in upkeep and in the end values (all around) go down.

[chopchop0]

As they say, it's all about location, location, location!

Housing prices: Housing prices up in most Orlando-area ZIP codes, down in others - OrlandoSentinel.com

Orlando was hailed last week as one of the biggest "turnaround towns" in the U.S. for residential real estate last year, but a new analysis of local home sales shows some areas are turning faster than others.

Based on resale prices and other factors, realtor.com ranked Metro Orlando as third-best in the country in terms of its recovery from the housing slump.

But as most area real-estate agents know, different neighborhoods are recovering at very different rates. An Orlando Sentinel analysis of average sales prices compiled by local Realtors points to increases in about three-fourths of the ZIP codes in the Realtors' core Orlando market (mainly Orange and Seminole counties) from the end of 2010 to the end of 2011. Prices in all but one of the remaining ZIPs were down for the year.

"Well, there's not a single unifying theme between some of these places, but it's reminiscent of the old adage: All real-estate markets are local," said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. "For some of those areas, it's a desirable location to live. For some of the others, it's a function of prices falling so far prior to last year."

Across the core market, existing-home prices were up about 13 percent during the year, to an average of $166,305 in the fourth quarter, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. The two ZIPs with the biggest increases are Seminole County neighbors: west Altamonte Springs (55 percent) and west Longwood (up 44 percent). The two ZIPs with the biggest declines are on opposite sides of the core market, in Geneva (down 37 percent) and Mount Dora (down 38 percent).

The perennially desirable Winter Park and Windermere areas, both threaded by chains of natural lakes, also posted strong average-price gains for the year, according to the data compiled by the Orlando Realtor group.

And several downtown Orlando areas, including Delaney Park, experienced rallies that may reflect an increase in single buyers and childless couples not interested in the suburbs.

"For some, the suburban lifestyle just doesn't work," he said. "You rarely see people move from the urban area."

Packard worked last year with a longtime client, David Kind, who wanted to sell his house in Lake Mary and move to Winter Park. Kind said his family was "really happy" in Lake Mary, but the daily realities of commuting on Interstate 4 had become daunting. The family did not get top dollar for its Lake Mary home, selling it in a depressed market, but moved anyway into Winter Park's Windsong community.

"We were looking for a place where we'd be close to amenities, shopping and top schools," Kind said. "We wanted a neighborhood with sidewalks and streetlights. For us, at least, we really wanted the quality of life for our family, and that outweighed other considerations."

Other ZIP codes near the top of the list include Lake Nona, with its emerging residential neighborhoods built near the development's burgeoning Medical City. Similarly, growth at the University of Central Florida has driven demand in the Alafaya Trail area of east Orange County.

The boost in prices overall helped drive Metro Orlando into a top position in realtor.com's ranking of "turnaround towns." That ranking, released last week, was based on listed home prices, unemployment figures, unsold-home inventories and the number of Internet users searching the area's for-sale listings.

Orlando, which ranked third behind Miami and Phoenix, led the nation for the number of people searching its home listings online. Eight of the top 10 metro areas ranked as turnaround towns were in Florida.

"What I think is behind the search activity we're seeing for Orlando, and for Florida in general, is that prices have fallen so much during the bust in Florida that it looks more affordable to many people in other parts of the country than it has looked in years," Kolko said.