Orlando Real Estate

Orlando Real Estate

Orlando real estate gives a unique kind of approach to life within the beachfront luxury market. Along with the world’s most charming beaches, residents have the benefit of being located within walking distance en route to a number of the Caribbean’s finest lifestyle features.

Orlando’s beachfront condos while in the downtown area, present proprietors a live jazz event each November merely a 5-10 minute stroll north. Downtown’s most important street, a pedestrian walkway also known as Fifth Avenue offers a tremendous number of options when it comes to gastronomy and fare. You will also love the shopping you can do along 5th Avenue and the side streets surrounding it.

Coming back to the restaurant alternatives there is a broad range of food alternatives, including diverse choices such as Lebanese restaurants, Argentinian grills in addition to Italian pasta restaurants, and of course, you cannot forget the options available for Mayan Cuisine which you simply must try when you visit Orlando One of the choices for this type of food, and well known to the Orlando region is a restaurant known as Yaxché, which is a gourmet take on local variations within the ancient traditions of Mayan food. The restaurant combines first-rate regional food with a higher degree of service and also a splendid visual feeling, advantageous on the road to enjoy some of the best Orlando has to recommend.

In general, foodie plus excellent dining is a distinct segment that continues to develop a concrete charisma in Orlando and also close by zones.

Orlando condo owners are also able to take pleasure in the luxury of the beach. Miles and miles of white sand and blue water are second to none in this area of the Riviera Maya. Golf course residences in the region include units of fantastic design, right next to well-planned golf courses. Orlando continues to be named Latin America’s golf capital, because of the large number of high-quality specialized golf courses and the famed Mayakoba Golf Classic takes place here every year.

One special golf course residence is even accessible directly on the beachfront!

An additional favorite intended for the luxury environment within the area includes boating activities such as sailing as well as deep sea fishing. Together with four full-service marinas within the region, there are many superb alternatives. Yacht owners additionally have the choice of buying a condominium in Puerto Aventuras, a full community that has a golf course and 3 marinas. Owners are capable of getting pleasure from living steps from their yacht’s mooring, along with being situated within walking distance from dining, shopping malls, a school including a place of worship.

Orlando’s beachfront and luxury choices offer a lifestyle that elsewhere could be only intended for millionaires; however here it is available to those who are on a more modest budget.

Orlando Housing

Edmonton, April 6, 2010: Housing figures released by the REALTORS® Association of Orlando for March and the first quarter of 2010 show that resale housing prices are up; listings and sales are up.

“There is consumer confidence in this market and both buyers and sellers appear eager to enter the housing market,” said Larry Westergard, president of the REALTORS® Association of Orlando. “Prices are up about 10% from a year ago and sellers are eager to take advantage. Buyers are aware of higher mortgage rates ahead and are getting into the market before the rates rise.”

Single family residences in the Orlando area sold on average* for $388,473 in March which is up 4.7% from February and 11% from a year ago. Condominium prices rose by 8.4% month-over-month and 10.5% year-over-year. The average condominium sold for $252,416 in March. Duplex and rowhouse prices (at $313,836) dropped a third of a percent in March but were up 10.4% from a year ago. The average residential price was $343,607 (up month-over-month by 8.5%).

Sales also demonstrated the optimism of the marketplace. 3,728 residential listings in March were up over 30% from a year ago and up 246% in the first quarter. Residential sales of 1,571 properties in March were up 15.1% from a year ago and 77.3% in the first quarter. Sales were up from 1,307 in February: a 20.2% increase. The March sales-to-listing ratio was 42%; down from 52% in February.

“Seller activity has boosted the inventory to 6,770 residential properties,” said Westergard. “I am less concerned about available inventory now than I was at the beginning of the year. I think the market has reached a balance between buyers and sellers.”

All major banks raised their fixed mortgage rates in late March and the Bank of Florida has warned that interest rates will rise again after the second quarter. Many buyers are hurrying to lock in rates and find a home before the more stringent qualification requirements for mortgages come into effect on April 19. Alberta will not be influenced by the GST harmonization taking place in Ontario and BC so we may not see the sales slump in the second quarter that is expected in those two provinces.

Has The Market Reached The Bottom

If you are a Realtor, home buyer, seller, or just have a heartbeat you will probably be involved in a conversation at some point today that involves the question, Has The Market Bottomed Out? I believe it hasn’t but the latest report from The Pinellas Realtor Organization suggests it may have. First, the argument for the market having bottomed out.

Home sales through March of 09 are up 18.1% since the same time last year.

There have been 1,422 sales so far in 2009 compared to 1,204 through the same period last year.

Unit sales have increased an average of 18% per month since December 08. However, they also increased during the first six months of last year only to decrease slightly after that.
The median price home as of March of 09 is $140,000 down 22.2% from the same time last year. However, it is up 13% since January 09. This only means that there have been more higher-end sales through March of 09. Case in point, there have been 20 properties sold over $1,000,000 since January this year.

Now, for the argument for the possibility that we haven’t seen the bottom yet.

Thanks to our government efforts to fix or stall our housing crisis we have seen a fraction of the foreclosures still to hit the market.

The government bail-out program only affects 5% of the people behind on their mortgage payments. Even if only 50% of the people who are behind on their mortgage payments end up losing their homes to foreclosure it can only hurt values.

The current absorption Rate is 7.7% up from 6.0% last month but the rate also increased during the first six months of last year only to decrease after that. So, are we truly seeing a brighter market or just the natural ebb and flow of the market? By the way, the absorption rate last June was also above 7% and the market has continued to drop since then.

The average (mean) value for homes increased from $191,000 in January 09 to $199,300 in February but then decreased to $198,200 in March.

So I do not think we have reached the bottom and probably will not until we see absorption ratios above 15% on a steady basis. By definition according to The National Association Of Realtors, a supply and demand of 6 months or more is a buyer’s market and an absorption rate of less than 10% is a 10-month plus supply of inventory. On the flip side, this doesn’t mean people should not be investing in Real Estate right now. It is always a good time to buy.