News Details (Posted: October 26, 2006):

Supply of Homes on Market Takes Dip

Full Description:

Shift could help bolster housing prices in region
RISMEDIA, October 24, 2006—(MCT)—For the first time in nearly a year and a half, the number of existing homes for sale in the Orlando [Florida] declined, a shift that could help bolster housing prices.

The inventory of available properties dropped 3.3% from August to September, though the total – 20,319 – still remained near record levels, the Orlando Regional Realtor Association said in its monthly report.

The pace of new listings also slowed last month while the median price of the homes sold in September held steady at $250,000, up 2.5% September 2005.

September sales in the Realtors' core Orlando market (mainly Orange and Seminole counties) totaled 1,965 homes, down 33.7% from September 2005 – the second straight month in which sales have been down by one-third from a year earlier.

Year-to-date sales also remained below 2005's record-setting pace for a second straight month: 21,617 versus 23,666 through nine months. But they remained on track for this to be the second-best year on record, behind 2005 but ahead of 2004, the Realtor group noted.

Still, agents have to work harder or smarter in this slowing market, and successful sellers are definitely cutting prices, said Beth Goldstein, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate's Winter Springs office.

"If you really want to sell your house, you've got to price below appraisal and probably 10% below the last 1/8comparable3/8 sale in your neighborhood," Goldstein said. "A lot of sellers are still not accepting that change."

Goldstein has organized an open house for a home she has listed in Aloma Woods in Oviedo – a nicely appointed pool home that has languished for three months without a showing.

"This is a home that would have sold within a week a year ago," Goldstein said. Now, however, "there's just so much out there."

Shelly and Richard Taylor recently sold their east Orlando home in Grande Preserve at Cypress Lakes by trimming the price and making other concessions. It took a little more than three months, and they accepted $310,000 for the four-bedroom, two-bath home – $25,000 below their asking price.

"We consider it a success story," Shelly Taylor said. "We paid the closing costs and met some other demands, too, but that's really what you have to do. We were holding our breath there," she said, as the home competed with six others for sale nearby in the neighborhood.

Beverly Pindling, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, said that, while soaring home values in the past few years delighted homeowners who were ready to sell, the market's long-term health is better served by a "slow, steady increase in home values."

Housing prices have been declining across much of Florida and in many other states in recent months, raising fears that a more serious plunge in values could derail the economy overall. But local studies have predicted that home-price declines in the Orlando area are "highly unlikely," Pindling noted.

The Orlando Realtor group also reported that sales of existing homes within the larger, metropolitan area – Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties combined – were down 29.4% in September from a year earlier and off 8.4% through the first nine months of the year.

All four Metro Orlando counties posted year-to-date declines, with Lake County down 19.8%, Osceola down 9.9%, Orange down 6.6% and Seminole off by 2.4%. About 37% of the homes sold for $200,000 to $300,000.

Back in the core Orlando market, a breakdown of the numbers showed that, while single-family home sales were down 15% in September, sales of more moderately priced duplexes, town homes and villas were up by 22%. Condominium sales, meanwhile, were down 48% last month, though condo sales year-to-date remains in positive territory.

The inventory of existing homes for sale, while down by 758 compared with August's total, still represented a 10.3-month supply in September. Anything more than six months' worth of inventory is generally considered a "buyers" market.

The inventory decline in September, the first since April 2005, could help buffer the market against the type of home-price declines that have hit other metro areas. During last year's record-setting sales streak, the Orlando area never had more than four months' worth of homes for sale at any time, and for most of the year had less than a two-month supply.

The report released also noted that the average rate on a 30-year conventional mortgage dipped to 6.09% in September, down from 6.2% the month before. It was the lowest monthly rate since 6.07% in February.

Author: Beth Bresnahan
Copyright 2006, The Orlando Sentinel, Florida
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