Orlando home prices climb out of Florida’s bottom half
Metro Orlando home prices have improved from being in the bottom half statewide five years ago to now being among the top quarter of all Florida metros, according to Florida Realtors.
Metro Orlando home prices reached a midpoint of $205,000 in September — the fifth highest for single-family homes among the state’s top 20 metro areas and above Florida’s midpoint of $199,900, a new report shows. Five years ago, Orlando’s median price of $128,400 was below the state’s midpoint price of $133,400.
Orlando real estate agent David Waggoner said resales have driven the recovery more than new-home construction. Even though builders have been “climbing all over each other of late,” they had been largely sidelined prior to that. During the recovery, he added, buyers seemed to prefer the depressed resale market over the construction process. And financially, lenders favored homebuyers more than builders.
“The collective ‘confidence’ of both buyer and builder had been shattered,” Waggoner said. “It took time and events to refresh the confidence of each.”
Overall in Florida last month, Naples had the highest single-family prices — more than $400,000. Ocala had the state’s lowest median price — $125,000. The only Florida metro areas with higher prices than Orlando’s last month were: Naples, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, and Cape Coral.
Home prices in the Orlando metropolitan area, which includes Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties, increased 12.3 percent in September from a year earlier — higher than the state’s 11.1 percent price growth, according to the report released by Florida Realtors last week.
Florida’s biggest jump in single-family home prices was in Brevard County, where the median sales prices rose by a third to $172,250 from September 2014. In other reaches of Central Florida, Volusia County median home sales prices increased 19 percent over the year-long period to a midpoint of $154,500. And Polk County prices grew 7 percent to $150,000.
Condominium price increases in Metro Orlando also outperformed those statewide. The median price for a condo or townhome in the region during September was $120,000, an increase of 9.1 percent but still far below the state’s mid-range condo price of $154,500.
Florida Realtors Chief Economist John Tuccillo noted that both sales prices and sales have increased throughout the state. The inventory of listings was 4.4 months for single-family houses and 5.2 months for condos and townhouses. Six months is considered a good balance.
Even though the inventory continues to shrink, market forces are likely to stabilize any volatility during the months ahead, he said.
“… with pending sales down, mortgage accessibility increasing and interest rates due to rise, we think the market will even out as we go forward into 2016.”