January Delivers Record-Setting Existing Homes Sales and Inventory in Orlando

If one were to make up a real estate report card for Orlando in January, the home of DisneyWorld would have to receive an A+++.

Existing home sales in the city set a record last month, with 1,831 homes changing hands - an 8 percent increase over January 2005, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

And that even the only record set for the month: The number of existing homes available for purchase, 12,015, is a whopping 262.22 percent increase above January 2005’s tally of 3,317 homes on the Orlando market. In January 2006 alone, ORRA members entered 6,172 newly available homes in the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service, compared with 2,970 in January 2005.

ORRA President Beverly Pindling attributes the rise in inventory to several factors:

1. The normalization of the local market
2. Homeowners seeking to take advantage of the recent rise in home values
3. Empty nesters deciding now is a good time to sell the family home.

According to the ORRA Roth Report of local housing activity, the median price of homes sold in January 2006 was $242,050, a 25.41 percent increase over numbres from a year before. Similar to the recent median price rise in Bradenton, the majority (401) of the existing single-family homes sold in January fell within the $200,000 to $249,000 range.

Sales of overall existing homes in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties increased by 6.2 percent in January 2006. Tampa Bay also saw median home price increases. This is just another sign of a healthy Florida home loan market.