Orlando Florida Regional Area Housing Update May 2013

ORLANDO FLORIDA REGIONAL HOUSING MARKET UPDATE

 May 2013

The latest housing market data are in for Central Florida, including Lake Mary Florida, Longwood Florida, Sanford Florida, Winter Springs Florida, Oviedo Florida and Altamonte Springs Florida. Here are the highlights taken from the Orlando Realtor Regional Board for April 2013 (the latest now available):

Inventory 

Inventory finally went up last month to 7,202 homes from 6,937.  This is still not near enough to keep up with current demand.    This includes single family homes, condos, duplexes and townhomes.  A year ago the inventory was 8,642 –  an inadequate supply even then. For comparison: In December of 2008, there were 22,524 on the market.  The overall inventory is now down 16.66% from a year ago.  

Single family home inventory is down 20.43% from a year ago, and condo inventory is down 3.06%. The current pace of sales equates to only 2.68 months of supply, virtually unchanged from last month.  Six months of supply is generally considered balanced. Under normal economic conditions, anything above six months is generally considered a “buyer’s market” and anything below is then considered a “seller’s market”.  However, these are terms used loosely as descriptors. Buyers ultimately set the market price. 

Sales 

There were 2,689 closings in April, a 10.39% increase from a year ago.   

Of the sales in April, 1,566 or 58.24% were “normal”, 570 were short sales (21.20%) and 553 (20.57%) were bank-owned. The number of normal sales increased by 41.20% compared to a year ago and the number of short sales fell by 20.17%. Bank-owned sales decreased by 10.37%. This continues the trend of normal sales taking more and more of the sales total than those sales under distressed conditions.     

Single Family Home sales increased by 15.01% over a year ago. Condo sales were down 10.49% but Townhome & Villa sales decreased by 15.74% from a year ago.   

Homes spent an average of 76 days on the market in April –  four fewer days than last month, and two weeks and four days days less than a year ago. The averagehome sold for 95.96% of its then-current listing price. “Then current listing price” is an important distinction since a home may have been on the market with prior price reductions.  Thus, it may have ended up selling for less than the percentage cited from its original debut listing price. 

By county in the Orlando MSA for sales compared to a year ago: Seminole County was up 6.69% from last April, Orange County was up 6.93%. Osceola came in down .59%, and Lake County increased by 27.23%. No statistics for Volusia or Brevard were made available (Volusia has several different realtor boards with both New Smyrna and Daytona each having their own and Volusia is officially part of the Daytona Beach MSA.  In addition, Brevard has its own Board).

Prices 

The median price of a home rose 23.93% from a year ago to $145,000. The Orlando Florida metro area market has now posted positive year-over-year gains in price for 22 consecutive months.  

However, remember - the median price above encompasses all sales. Individual categories can fluctuate within the median. However, this month, as was the case last month, prices year over year rose in all categories. Normal sales rose 10.56% to $173,584, short sales rose 20.53% to $114,500 and Bank-Owned averages increased 12.25% to $95,300 compared to a year ago.

Affordability 

The Orlando MSA affordability index decreased to 220 and the first time homebuyer’s index also decreased to 156. 

Each index is inversely proportional to pricing changes. An affordability index of 100 means that a buyer earning the state-reported median income has exactly the income necessary to purchase the median-priced home.  Anything over 100 indicates that average buyers earning average incomes (adjusted for the MSA) have more income than that which is required.   A score of 99 means the buyer is 1 percent short of the income necessary to qualify. When prices rise faster than incomes, the affordability index goes down and visa-versa.

Orlando Unemployment 

The latest numbers for Orlando Florida – for March is 6.6%, down from 7.1 in February.  A year ago it was 8.7%.  

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The statistics cited is provided by the Orlando Regional Realtors Association, of which we are a member.

This report is intended to be for reference and informational purposes only.  The opinions expressed herein are solely those of New Southern Properties Inc. and are opinions. No purchases or investments should be made based solely on this report, this data, or the opinions expressed herein.  Real Estate purchases and investments are complex transactions. You are strongly urged to consult with your financial, legal and real estate consultants before making any real estate purchase or investment.