Orlando Florida Regional Housing Market Update March 2013

ORLANDO FLORIDA REGIONAL HOUSING MARKET UPDATE 

March 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

February 2013 (the latest now available):

Inventory 

Again the inventory level dropped from last month.  Thus, the  long-term downward trend for inventory levels continues. Twenty-seven out of the last 31 months now have seen Orlando Florida’s regional housing inventory decline. Currently there are now only 7,183 housing units on the market through the Orlando Regional Multiple Listing Service – down from 7,336 last month. This includes single family homes, condos, duplexes and townhomes.  February 2012 held an inventory of 9,253 –  an inadequate supply 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 22.37% from a year ago.  

Single family home inventory is down 25.40% from a year ago, and condo inventory is down 8.98%. The current pace of sales equates to only 3.26 months of supply, down from 3.81 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 2,203 closings in February, an 11.54% increase from a year ago and a 9.33% increase from last month.   

Of the sales in February, 1,195 or 54.24% were “normal”, 487 were short sales (22.11%) and 521 (23.65%) were bank-owned. The number of normal sales increased by 51.07% compared to a year ago and the number of short sales fell by 24.73%. Bank-owned sales increased by 3.0%. This reflects the trend of normal sales increasingly taking more and more of the sales total than those sales under distressed conditions.   Bank owned sales overtaking short sales may reflect in part that Bank Owned sales tend to go through faster than short sales and many buyers have now opted to seek out these types of sales rather than short sales. In addition, Bank Owned properties tend to need the most restoration work and which is more attractive to investors and many investors have continued to jump into the market. 

Single Family Home sales increased by 16.88% over a year ago. Condo sales were down 6.69% but Townhome & Villa sales increased 6.06% from a year ago.      

Homes spent an average of 84 days on the market in December, three more days than last month, but 10 days less than a year ago. The averagehome sold for 96.11% 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 23.61% from last February, Orange County was up 3.05% - statistically unchanged. Osceola came in up 2.33%, and Lake County increased by 1.83%. 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 19.82% from a year ago to $133,000. The Orlando Florida metro area market has now posted positive year-over-year gains in price for 20 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 5.69% to $158,000, short sales rose 11.76% to $114,000 and Bank-Owned averages increased 26.71% to $102,000 compared to a year ago.

Affordability 

The Orlando MSA affordability index decreased to 248 and the first time homebuyer’s index also decreased to 176. 

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 January is 7.6%, down unchanged from December.  A year ago it was 9.6%. The January national average was 7.8%. 

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.