Lake Mary, FL

Phew it's been a year of hard work and dedication to not only myself but to my clients and my business. Through that hard work and dedication I have been able to achieve RE/MAX's coveted Platinum Club Status.

I wasnt sure if I would be able to do it but with 40 days left in the year, it's official! I want to give a big Thank You to all my customers who continue to refer me to their friends and family and who allowed me to help them with their biggest and most special financial purchase in one's life.

It's been an honor working with and building relationships with each and everyone of you and I look forward to many more great years to come!

My grandmother always said when the streets run red with blood buy buy buy! Now is the time people, a down market is a great time to purchase, the sad part is most people do it backwards and jump on the band wagon when things are good and get into bad situations. Take advantage of this down market and invest in your future, plus for most of you Uncle Sam is giving out FREE money.

A "Housing Start" is a home on which construction has started and, for the 4th straight month, national single-family housing starts held steady last month.

When the demand for homes grows faster than the number of homes for sale, prices increase.

As recent home sales data confirms, buyers currently outpace sellers and one consequence of this is an increase in multiple-offer situations this year.

It's no wonder home prices are up across so many neighborhoods.

October's Housing Starts report is .......

Read the COMPLETE BLOG POST HERE:

Housing Starts Are Down And Why It's Terrific News For Sellers

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Chris is Florida's #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and recently featured on Fox35 News.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

These statistics should give you a feel for what’s happening in the luxury segment of the Orlando FL real estate market.

Street	Date Sold	Original List Price	Sold Price	Beds	Baths	Sq Ft	Pool
SADDLEWORTH	10/30/09	$1,800,000	$1,411,750	5	7	7715	Y
LAKE MARY	10/01/09	$1,595,000	$1,240,000	3	2	2678	N
BRACKENHURST	10/27/09	$850,000	$825,000	4	4	4473	Y
HENLEY DOWNS	10/23/09	$749,900	$684,000	4	4	3914	Y
SIMONTON	10/19/09	$649,900	$476,090	4	3	3185	Y
SWEETGUM VALLEY	10/30/09	$599,000	$560,000	4	2	3930	Y

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

A few tidbits of note ...

Homes listed above $500,000 often take longer to sell than properties priced at the lower end of the market. While many houses priced below $500,000 may take 6 or 7 months to sell, homes in upscale neighborhoods may take as much as 2 years to unload.

Keep in mind that some of these sales are for Short Sales or Foreclosed/Bank-Owned properties. Under these situations, the Sold Price may be considerably below the Original List Price. Sorry to say, ‘distressed’ sales drag down the values of all the other homes in the neighborhood, whether or not they’re Short Sales or Foreclosures. On the other hand ...

Steep discounts may NOT reflect a distressed situation. Just because a house sold for considerably less than original list price doesn’t necessarily mean it was a foreclosure or short sale property. Because luxury homes are often one-of-a-kind, it’s difficult to find comparable properties that will help in determining current market value. In the end, it’s a buyer — and not the seller — who determines the market value of a property.

What’s the long-term outlook for the Orlando FL real estate market? Prices have leveled off in recent months. Even so, due to rising unemployment and foreclosure/short sale saturation, it will probably take several years — perhaps as long as a decade or more — for home prices to completely recover.

What about homeowners who are having difficulty keeping up with mortgage payments but can’t sell because their house is worth less than the amount owed on their loan? There are several solutions, but the way a Realtor^® can help is by selling the house as a Short Sale.

The following are the market sales statistics for Lake Mary, Seminole County, Florida for October 2009. Lake Mary is made up of the zip code 32746. For purposes of this analysis we will be splitting the data according to single-family homes vs, condominiums, townhomes and villas.

A couple of definitions are in order. The median sales price means that 50% of the homes sold for more and 50% of the homes sold for less during a certain period of time - in other words, it's the midpoint of sale prices. So basically what this means, is that the median sales price is showing market activity in that it's specifically indicating which price range is more active.

The average sales price, as opposed to the median sales price, is the total volume of sold properties divided by the number of properties sold.

The sales to list price ratio is just that, you're dividing the average sales price by the average list price and coming up with a percentage that tells you how much of the list price the average homes sold for.

There needs to be a disclaimer here. These stats are only as good as telling us what it being purchased and happening at a certain period in time. Also, it needs to be fully understood that not only is real estate local, but it is hyper-local. What this means is that the trends that we hear about are overall. Let's put it this way, what's happening in one neighborhood, may not be realized in the neighborhood next door.

Additionally, these are only monthly statistics and to get a better scope of what is happening, you need to look at a longer period of time. More high-end homes might be sold in one month as opposed to another. By looking at a longer period, you will get a better overall picture. It is all relative and this has to be understood when utilizing these stats.

Single-Family Homes

35 homes sold during the month of October.

The average sales price is $341,000 with 113 days on the market.

The median sales price is $251,888.

The sales to list price ratio is 94%.

The most expensive home sold for $1,411,750 in Chestnut Hill at Heathrow and was on the market 876 days.

The least expensive home sold for $56,650 in Crystal Lake Winter Homes after 324 days on the market.

The average sales price for the same period a year earlier was $365,894 with 108 days on the market with a sales to list price ratio of 95% on 19 sales an increase of 84%.

The month to month changes show an increase in the average sales price of 4% and a decrease in the median sales price of 13%. There was an increase in sales volume of 9% with a 1% increase in the sales to list price ratio.

Condos, Townhomes & Villas

19 homes sold

The average sales price was $91,548 with 183 days on the market.

The median sales price was $66,000.

The sales to list price ratio is 101%.

The most expensive townhome sold for $308,000 in Devon Green and was on the market 50 days.

The least expensive condo sold for $28,000 in Regency Park after 100 days on the market.

The average sales price a year earlier was $166,151 with 77 days on the market with a sales to list price ratio of 93% on 10 sales, an increase of 90%.

The month to month changes show an increase in the average sales price of 58% and an increase in the median sales price of 10%. There was a decrease in sales volume of 10% with no change in the sales to list price ratio.

For information on Lake Mary and Seminole County real estate and Lake Mary and Seminole County homes for sale in addition to Lake Mary and Seminole County relocation contact Marc Grossman, your Lake Mary and Seminole County Realtor @ 407-463-1034. Additional information is available for Seminole County real estate, Orange County real estate, West Volusia County and South Lake County.

To learn more about Marc and the services he has to offer, visit his website.

Marc Grossman, GRI - http://www.OrlandoHomes-4u.com/ - 407-463-1034

You can read Marc's other blogs Real Estate Morsels, Real Estate Off The Leash & Real Estate Cracker

Marc donates 10% of his net proceeds to Hospice of the Comforter.

Marc It Sold!

These smart homeowners didn’t have to lose their house to foreclosure. Instead, they hired a real estate agent to help them sell their house as a Short Sale.

Street	Date Sold	Original List Price	Sold Price	Beds	Baths	Sq Ft	Pool
PICKFAIR	10/29/09	$279,000	$272,000	4	2	2205	N
SHADY OAKS	10/19/09	$479,000	$230,000	4	2	2429	Y
MALVERN	10/30/09	$319,900	$300,000	4	2	2390	Y
SWEETGUM VALLEY	10/30/09	$599,000	$560,000	4	2	3930	Y

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

Because the payoff of a loan will be ‘shorted’ by a significant amount, the mortgage lender must approve a Short Sale. Handled properly, the likelihood of successfully selling your house as a Short Sale is high. Once the Short Sale is behind you, you can often get on with your life with hardly a backward glance.

A Short Sale is nothing more than putting your house up for sale in the usual manner, waiting for a qualified buyer just like any other home seller would, facing a few extra hurdles, filling out additional paperwork, waiting a bit longer for the closing to take place, and finally moving out and moving on.

Real benefits come with selling your house as a Short Sale. Among them are: 1) substantially reducing or completely eliminating financial liability, 2) minimizing damage to your credit rating, 3) emerging from bad credit quicker than you would with a foreclosure, and 4) having a sense of satisfaction that you’re taking care of the problem proactively and responsibly.