Investment and Vacation Real Estate - Orlando, Florida

Florida’s existing home, condo sales rise in January 2009

Report From Top-Ranked Real Estate Brokerage Site Measures Popularity of U.S. Cities and Neighborhoods by Number of Home Searches and Sales-to-List Price Ratios in 31 Major Metropolitan Markets

Phoenix and its nearby cities of Chandler and Scottsdale, along with Orlando, Fla. and the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin, were the hottest cities in the U.S. for home buyers in Q4 of 2008, according to the number of home searches on the online real estate brokerage site, ZipRealty (www.ZipRealty.com) (NASDAQ: ZIPR).

Also according to ZipRealty's Q4 "Home Hunters Report" released today, Charlotte, N.C. sellers are getting much more than asking price, with listings fetching the highest sales-to-list price ratio for sold homes during the same time period at 122 percent. 

Hottest Cities by Search Activity

Sunshine and Sun Belt cities rule the roost when it comes to most popularly searched cities by homeseekers. Overall, 24 of the top 25 most searched U.S. cities by home buyers were in the Southwest states, including California (Irvine, Chula Vista, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Fremont), Arizona (Gilbert, Mesa, Phoenix, Chandler, Scottsdale), Texas (Dallas, Austin, Houston) and Nevada (Henderson-Green Valley, Henderson-Anthem/Seven Hills) or the Sunshine State (Miami, Miami Beach, Kissimmee, Naples, Boca Raton, Glendale, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale). Atlanta, Ga. was the only exception to that trend.

"Homebuyers have long-flocked to sunshine states to find their permanent residence, a second home or even an investment property. Combining warm weather with declining home prices and an increase in foreclosure properties is a recipe that's attracting potential homebuyers to cities in the Southwest, Southeast and much of California," explains Leslie Tyler, vice president and chief home hunter for ZipRealty. complete story

U.S. Housing Slump Has ‘Just Begun,’ Says Forecaster Talbott

The Financial Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Global Economy . . . and How to Protect Yourself From It

Let’s say you own a $1 million home in Santa Barbara, California.

The house seemed like a steal when you bought it with that adjustable-rate mortgage in 2005. You still love the white beaches and those yachts bobbing up and down in the harbor.

Then you awaken early one morning, troubled that your monthly payments will soon double. You go out to pick up your newspaper and see for-sale signs on five houses on the street. One identical to yours just sold for $500,000.

Are you going to pay the bank $1 million plus interest for your place? John R. Talbott, a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs, poses that hypothetical question in his latest book of financial prophesy, “Contagion.”

His answer: “I don’t think so,” he says. “If I’m right, then this housing decline has only just begun.”

Talbott is an oracle with a track record: His previous books predicted the collapse of both the housing bubble and the tech-stock binge before it. A friend who runs a New York steak house introduces him as Johnny Nostradamus, he says.

What sets him apart from other doomsayers is his relentless emphasis on simple arithmetic. He walks you through the numbers to show how U.S. house prices got so out of kilter with wages, rental prices and replacement values -- the cost of buying a property and building a home. (“Homes in California by 2006 were selling at three to five times what it would cost to build a similar home from scratch,” he writes.)

Five More Years

Talbott’s latest predictions are sobering. The U.S. is only halfway through the total potential decline in housing prices, he says. Home values will continue to deteriorate for four to five years, he forecasts. Adjustable-rate mortgages issued in 2004 and 2005, for example, are only now resetting for the first time, he notes. complete story 

Source: Bloomberg.com - James Pressley

Short Sale Orlando  Orlando Foreclosures

Orlando home values down 20.7%

The value of homes in the Orlando area has fallen 20.7 percent from the previous year, according a report released Feb. 3 from Zillow.com.

The report shows the current value for all homes in the Orlando area was $172,188 by the end of the year. Single-family home values also were down 20.7 percent to $177,625 and condo values declined 16.2 percent to $130,047.

About 39.8 percent of the homes purchased in 2008 had negative equity and 94.5 percent of homes in the market lost value over the last 12 months, based on Zillow values. The report estimated that 35.5 percent of homes sold in the Orlando area were sold for a loss. complete story

Source: Orlando Business Journal   

Real Estate Orlando   MLS Orlando