Orlando Housing Market: A Tough, Tough Sell
Thise looking to leave Orlando are realizing finding a buyer is a tough sell.
Orlando is becoming one of the most difficult cities in America to sell a home for fair market value, WESH 2 News reported.
A new study shows Orlando housing market owners possess a more than a 50 percent chance of lower home values by mid-2009, which doesn’t mean you won’t sell your home. But real estate experts said that chances are buyers will get a much better price.
Even with houses for sale all around him, James Phillips said he will only let serious Florida mortgage borrowers inside his front door because he’s in no hurry to sell.
“I’m not really desperate to sell,” Phillips said. “I know the value of my house, so I just have to wait it out.”
It’s not the same for owners who have seen their houses on the market for weeks, then months, as their asking price drops lower and lower along with the value of Orlando-area homes.
Tawn Kelley helps people get loans to buy Morrison homes. She said that like every builder trying to sell their developments, the shrinking values in the Florida housing market as well as the glut of homes for sale has forced them to play by new rules.
“A customer would come in and talk about picking out a block and looking at a design center and choosing the options for their specific home and purchasing something that was going to built specifically for them eight, nine or 10 months from now,” Kelley said. “It is now inventory that is selling.”
That study shows that areas that have enjoyed double-digit appreciation, like central Florida has the past couple of years, are the ones most at risk of seeing those lower values - a correction in market prices.
Of course, there are ways to make your house appealing to buyers. You could offer to pay closing costs, put your listing on the Internet and use a lot of pictures or a virtual tour.
Just keep in mind that, around the Sunshine State, the riskiest cities to buy and sell property - in order - are Orlando-Kissimmee, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa-St. Pete and Jacksonville.
