About Winter Springs' Tuscawilla

Located in the northern suburb of Winter Springs, just west and north of Oviedo, Tuscawilla is often considered a distinct town. As a master-planned community containing over 4,500 homes, Tuscawilla has the feel of an exclusive enclave comprised of neighborhoods that range from modest to upscale.

There is no end to activities available, including several lakes allowing boating, waterskiing, fishing, and swimming; fitness centers; some of the best fishing around; miles of jogging and biking trails; a nature trail; tennis courts; parks with playgrounds, basketball courts, soccer fields, and baseball fields.

Enjoy the Tuscawilla Country Club, which includes an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, pool, dining facilities, pro shops, and clubhouse. Club membership is not required but convenient, as is the nearby Greeneway Tollway 417, the University of Central Florida, and the Oviedo Marketplace Mall. Plus don’t forget the outstanding schools Seminole County is renowned for.

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members. Data drawn from the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service. This report is valuable for estimating current market values in the designated community or subdivision.

Unreasonable homebuyers and unreasonable homeowners have always been around. You know the ones I’m talking about.

Homeowners who think they’re sitting on goldmines and insist they’re ‘not about to give it away’, even if it takes, quite literally, years.

And let us not forget those homebuyers who want to throw in a low-ball offer every time, just to see if it’ll slide past, even though it doesn’t time after time.

In this real estate market crisis—to the glee of many and the regret of many others—buyers have everything on their side. They know it. They feel it. And they’re salivating over the bloody entrails left behind by all those ill-fated homeowners.

To be fair, most homebuyers hold a regard for the buying process, their financial self-interests, their loan officers, their real estate agents, the homeowners on the other side of the table, and above all, this advantageous opportunity that has afforded them the ability to purchase a house at prices unheard of only 2 years ago.

Then there are the other homebuyers, the greedy monster-types with eyes all a-glow. They see the real estate market as a means of getting something for themselves, and they don’t care who gets in the way.

We’ve seen these kinds of homebuyers ...

• Buyers who want it all, want it now, want it for nothing down, and want homeowners to give it away.
• Buyers who don’t realize that just because they want a 3,000 sq ft house doesn’t mean they need a 3,000 sq ft house or can afford a 3,000 sq ft house.
• Buyers who don’t understand the meaning of delayed gratification.
• Buyers who don’t have any respect for the homeowners who put money, sweat equity, and pride into their homes.
• Buyers who haven’t proven to themselves they can actually afford the extra expenses of a house on top of their current financial obligations.
• Buyers who haven’t saved any money for the down payment.
• Buyers who don’t understand that banks don’t give money away like an ATM machine ... anymore.
• Buyers who think homeowners ought to be grateful to receive a low-ball offer.

And what about our poor benighted sellers?

Frankly, they don’t have much going for them right now. Except to catch the falling knife of market value. And to wait it out until who knows when.

One day, though, the market will turn around. One day those same greedy homebuyers of today will be the homeowners of tomorrow.

So buyer, beware. Look out for these covetous signs in yourself, then try projecting yourself into the future by just a couple of years, when you’ll want to sell. Then, you’ll wish for a buyer who will deal honestly and fairly, understand everything they ought to understand about the process, arm themselves with knowledge, a good real estate agent, and above all, respect for home sellers and their needs.

Like everywhere else in the Greater Orlando area, prices continue to fall in north suburban Winter Springs. Since more than 50% of ‘Houses with Contracts’ are properties in some stage of foreclosure, the downward pressure on sales prices continues as demonstrated by the lower Average Price per Square Foot for pending sales compared to ‘Houses Sold in Last 3 Months’.

It’s good to understand 2 things about Price per Square Foot in this context:

1. ‘Houses with Contracts’ (pending sales) doesn’t take into account the actual sold price, since this won’t be public record until the sale is actually closed. Generally, the sold price is approximately 95% of list price.
2. ‘Houses Sold in Last 90 Days’ is a lagging indicator since the contract was put into place another 30-60 days prior to actual sold date.

Months required to sell the current inventory of houses is worse in Winter Springs than in other areas in Orlando. In unincorporated East Orlando, for example, it will only take 7 months to deplete current inventory.

Houses currently on the market have BY FAR the highest Average Price per Square Foot. Simply put, this means they’re OVERPRICED for current market conditions.

Located in the northern suburb of Winter Springs, just west and north of Oviedo, Tuscawilla is often considered a distinct town. As a master-planned community containing over 4,500 homes, and home of the Tuscawilla Country Club, Tuscawilla has the feel of an exclusive enclave comprised of individual neighborhoods. Most of the homes sit on large lots of ¼ - ½ acre, and a majority of the homes offer larger square footage that attract discriminating buyers and command higher prices.

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Roughly bounded by SR 434, Tuskawilla Rd, Central Florida Greeneway Toll Road and Red Bug Lake Road, to enter Tuscawilla is to cross into a peaceful threshold of peaceful greenery where streets wind around gentle curves with wide parkways and mature landscaping.

Overall, Tuscawilla’s house prices have held up during Orlando’s housing crash. On the downside, sales aren’t as brisk as they are in the neighboring suburb of Oviedo.

The statistics shown below indicate how fast ... or s-l-o-w ... houses are selling in your area.

If you have to sell your house, you must take into account your community’s Absorption Rate. The concept is easy to understand once you understand the formula.

First, you must know how many homes sold over the last year.

Then you must determine the Absorption Rate, or average number of homes that have sold on a monthly basis.

From the Absorption Rate, you can easily estimate how fast the current inventory of available homes will sell.

The larger the current inventory—or ‘active listings’—the longer it will take any one home to sell.

If there are twice as many active listings available for sale than the current absorption rate, it will take twice the amount of time, or 2 months, to sell out current inventory, provided no new homes enter the market.

If there are three times as many active listings for sale than the current absorption rate, it will take three times the amount of time, or 3 months, to sell out current inventory.

The longer it takes for the current inventory to deplete, the more necessary it becomes for sellers to price their house in a strong competitive position versus all the other houses currently for sale.

It follows that the lower the price, the faster the sale.

If you’re a homeowner looking to sell your house in 2009, remember this:

‘Denial’ isn’t a river in Egypt.

Denial is clinging to the notion that you can sell your house for more money than a buyer in today’s market is willingly to pay.

This is where a knowledgeable real estate agent becomes more important than ever, because the more familiar your agent is with the fluctuations of the current marketplace, the quicker you’re likely to sell your house. And in this unsure market, that means putting more money into your pocket.