Yes, Orlando, it is time to get off of the fence and purchase a home. Let me qualify that. That is if it is within your means to do so financially. The previous mentality that we’ve seen has hopefully stopped, but unfortunately, once things get better, people tend to forget. Sad but true!
There have been several articles over the past week and half that I’ve read that have shown once again how Florida and especially Orlando have bucked the national trend in real estate.
According to NAR (the National Association of Realtors®), not only did the number of existing home sales dip 19.3% below the previous years sales in March, but they also slipped from February to March of this year. Now, before I get into the Orlando numbers, I must state that there is some conflicting information. While ORRA (the Orlando Regional Realtor Association) reported 1080 closed sales on April 14th for the previous month, in today’s Orlando Sentinel, it was reported at 1312 homes sold.
But even going with the lower figure, sales again increased from February to March as they also did from January to February. I have to admit that at first I pleased with this trend, but was also a little skeptical. Granted, it’s been a couple of months and January’s #’s were quite low.
The national median price is $200,700. In Florida it is $205,600, which represents a 15% drop from the year before. In Orlando, the median housing price is $220K, which is down $20K from or 8.3% from the same period the last two years and in fact is over the 2005 level by 8.2%. In the big picture, that is not too shabby at all. Remember, and I can’t stress this enough, real estate is a long-term investment. Actually, let’s repeat that again – real estate is a long-term investment!
Now back to the original premise of this article. Consider the facts. Interest rates are quite low and this is a buyer’s market where they tend to be much higher. There are so many excellent properties to choose from that are priced correctly for today’s market.
I keep on hearing buyers are concerned and waiting for the prices to hit bottom. Personally, I think this has occurred. Now, while I may not be a seer or have a crystal ball, this is a quite educated stance. If a funny thing, OK well may be not so funny, but people will wait for the prices to rise more and then by the time they get in the game they have risen even more. Just look back over the past couple of years and you’ll see what I mean. Many saw others getting into the market and making some money. They figured that if they can do it, so should I, but they got in too late and are in many cases struggling with the properties that they’ve acquired.
Additionally, Orlando’s affordability index increased in March to 102.35. That means that buyers earning the median income make 2.35% more than necessary to purchase a median priced home.
Orlando, get off the fence and start being realistic about our current market.
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