Orlando Florida Regional Housing Market Update February 2013

ORLANDO FLORIDA

REGIONAL HOUSING MARKET UPDATE

February 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 - 

January 2013

(the latest now available)  

Inventory 

The distinct and long-term downward trend for inventory levels continued in January. Twenty-six out of the last 30 months now have seen Orlando Florida’s regional housing inventory decline. Currently there are now only 7,336 housing units on the market through the Orlando Regional Multiple Listing Service – down from 7,384 last month. This includes single family homes, condos, duplexes and townhomes.  January 2012 held an inventory of 9,258 –  inadequate supply levels even then. For comparison: In December of 2008, there were 22,524 on the market.  At the very height of inventory in early 2007, there were more than 28,000 homes on the market. The overall inventory is now down 20.76% from a year ago.

Single family home inventory is down 24.91% from a year ago, but condo inventory has actually risen by 2.42%. The current pace of sales equates to only 3.81 months of supply, up from 3.06 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 1,923 closings in January, an 11.09% increase from a year ago.   

Of the sales in January, 954 or 49.61% were “normal”, 455 were short sales (23.66%) and 514 (26.73%) were bank-owned. The number of normal sales increased by a whopping 51.43% compared to a year ago and the number of short sales fell by 30%. Bank-owned sales increased by 13.97%. This reflects the trend of normal sales increasingly taking more and more of the sales total than those sales under distressed conditions.  The increase in bank owned sales and overtaking short sales is probably due to a year-end push for the banks to clear inventory before the start of a new year. 

Single Family Home sales increased by 14.84% over a year ago. Condo sale actually exactly the same as a year ago and Townhome & Villa sales increased 1.76% from a year ago, with the $100,000-$120,000 category leading the sales.    

Homes spent an average of 81 days on the market in December, one more day than last month, but just under two weeks less than a year ago. The averagehome sold for 95.98% 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 15.24% from last January, Orange County was up 2.27% - statistically unchanged. Osceola came in up 3.6%, and Lake County increased by 21.45%. 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 18.52% from a year ago to $128,000, but 3.4% below the $132,500 posted last month. The Orlando Florida metro area market has now posted positive year-over-year gains in price for 19 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 rose in all categories. Normal sales rose 10.49% to $155,000, short sales rose 22.22% to $110,000 and Bank-Owned averages increased 14.12% to $97,000 compared to a year ago.

Affordability 

The Orlando MSA affordability index increased to 250 and the first time homebuyer’s index also increased to 178. 

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 buyers 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 December is 7.6%, down from November’s 7.7%.  A year ago it was 9.6%. The January national average is 7.9%. 

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.