Orlando Florida Regional Housing Market Update April 2013

ORLANDO FLORIDA

REGIONAL HOUSING

MARKET UPDATE

April 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 

March 2013

(the latest now available)

Inventory 

Inventory reached a new low – dropping below 7,000 for the first time as the long-term downward trend for inventory levels continues. Twenty-eight out of the last 32 months now have seen Orlando Florida’s regional housing inventory decline. Currently there are now only 6,937 housing units on the market through the Orlando Regional Multiple Listing Service – down from 7,183 last month. This includes single family homes, condos, duplexes and townhomes.  A year ago the inventory was 8,666 –  an inadequate supply even then. For comparison: In December of 2008, there were 22,524 on the market.  The overall inventory is now down 19.95% from a year ago.  

Single family home inventory is down 22.53% from a year ago, and condo inventory is down 7.29%. The current pace of sales equates to only 2.66 months of supply, down from 3.26 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 2,605 closings in February, a 6.98% increase from a year ago and an 11.06% increase from last month.   

Of the sales in March, 1,483 or 56.93% were “normal”, 566 were short sales (21.73%) and 556 (21.34%) were bank-owned. The number of normal sales increased by 49.20% compared to a year ago and the number of short sales fell by 29.86%. Bank-owned sales increased by 12.3%. 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 9.20% over a year ago. Condo sales were up 4.49% but Townhome & Villa sales decreased by 4.88% from a year ago.   

Homes spent an average of 80 days on the market in March, four fewer days than last month, and two weeks and three 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 11.51% from last March, Orange County was up 0.51% - statistically unchanged. Osceola came in down 14.36%, and Lake County increased by 13.96%. 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 21.74% from a year ago to $140,000. The Orlando Florida metro area market has now posted positive year-over-year gains in price for 21 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 11.99% to $173,590, short sales rose 7.84% to $110,000 and Bank-Owned averages increased 15.73% to $96,000 compared to a year ago.

Affordability

The Orlando MSA affordability index decreased to 223 and the first time homebuyer’s index also decreased to 159. 

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 February is 7.1%, down from 7.6 in January.  A year ago it was 9.0%. The February national average was 7.4%. 

The statistics cited are 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.