Orlando Real Estate December 2010 Statistics

Well we definitely ended the year on a high note. I was afraid I was too optimitistic thinking we may close 2,100-2,200 sales, but I was not optimistic enough. The banks must have made a mad push at the end to get deals closed. There were 2,428 closed sales last month with a median sales price of $100,000. That is a bit lower than the last few months, but bank sales came on strong at the end with 1,072 with a median sales price of $72,000. Along with 612 short sales with a median price of $98,900 the REO's and short sales accounted for 69.4% of all the sales last month. Equity sales closed at $155,000 with 744 properties. Cash was also very strong with 1,311 or 54% of all sales last month closing as cash transactions. Cash sales posted at median price of $60,000 while the 1,117 financed sales had a median sales price of $145,000.

While sales were up, active and pending listings are both down. Overall there are only 15,037 homes for sale in the Orlando market with 2,541 or 16.9% bank owned and 5,522 or 36.7% short sales. Short sales have been slowly declining as have equity sales now making up less than 47% of the listings. Pending sales have dropped to only 8,486 with 2,048 or 24.1% being bank owned and 5,419 or 63.9% being short sales. That is a whopping 88% of the pending contracts coming on distressed properties. Short sale closings had one of the stongest months I can recall with 612. That number is equal to 11.3% of the total number of pending short sales however, so there are still significant issues with closing short deals. With such a stong finish, I am looking for an impressive start to 2011.

David Welch Real Estate Optimist, Orlando Real Estate