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Dolby Properties Inc. Orlando Florida Investment Properties, Vacation & Second Homes |
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Orlando, Kissimmee, Davenport, Clermont - Disney Area Investment Real Estate, Second Homes & Vacation Homes
Orlando Real Estate Stats & SnippetsSTATS FROM A SELECTION OF DISNEY AREA SHORT TERM RENTAL ZONED NEIGHBORHOODS . . . . . . . JANUARY 2012 OCTOBER 12 2011 JULY 25 2011 APRIL 18 2011 JANUARY 31 2011 OCTOBER 14 2010 JULY 13 2010 MAY 12 2010 MARCH 19 2010 SOME DISNEY AREA FEATURED NEIGHBORHOODS ORLANDO AREA HOUSING STATS – COURTESY OF ORLANDO REGIONAL REALTOR ASSOCIATION . . . . . . . ORLANDO AREA 8 YEAR SALES HISTORY – 2003 - 2011 ORLANDO AREA 2011 SALES AND VOLUME BY COUNTIES ORLANDO AREA 2011 HOUSING TRENDS SUMMARY
COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM OUR BROKER, LESLEY DOLBY . . . . . . . January 2012
The new year seems to have started off with a healthy dose of potential buyers looking to buy vacation homes or investment properties in the Orlando/Disney area. Most buyers still seem to be looking for bargains and many are surprised to see that the extremely low prices they have heard about are very few and far between. Still, there are definitely gems still out there and it looks like many people are more willing to take the plunge. Many are starting to feel better about the economy generally and the confidence level seems to be rising, albeit slightly, but still in the right direction!
The dreaded flood of new foreclosures doesn't seem to be happening in our area, because we have seen banks have a tendency to "drip feed" the bank owned inventory into the market, so as not to have a drastically negative effect on the situation.
We did all notice over the Christmas and New Year holidays that Orlando was packed with tourists! In fact, we heard of more than one occasion where the theme parks like Disney and Universal Studios actually had to close their gates and not let anyone else in, because things were so packed! That's a very good sign for people who own investment properties here. More tourists means more short term rentals, so that's good for vacation home owners who rent out their properties short term. It's also good for owners who rent out their properties long term to residents, because many of the residents in this area work in the hospitality industry and more business means more people renting!
October 2011 Without sticking myself too far out on a limb here, I think that we may have finally got over the big hump! Each of my agents tells me that when they are searching for properties for our buyers, they definitely notice much less available inventory, slightly higher prices and many cases of submitting offers that are beaten by other buyers offering higher prices. They are finding it more difficult to fulfill the expectations of many of our current buyers, because we seem to be in that transitional stage where buyers still seem to think they can secure a great property with lowball offers, but sellers have already swung to the other side, hearing that prices are rising and they want to hold out. Of course the economic fact is that when inventory shrinks and the most desirable properties get snapped up quickly, then the law of supply and demand kicks in and the lowball offers no longer cut it! Many people expect another round of bank foreclosures to come flooding onto the market, but we have actually been experiencing an increase in the willingness of banks to approve short sales, rather than open the foreclosure floodgates. The time period for short sale approval, although still long and cumbersome, has been speeding up and becoming a little simpler in the past few months, so this has helped to clear out a lot of the excess inventory.
July 2011 Actually, not much has changed since my last comments in April. We are still having difficulty showing many properties in the Disney short term rental areas, especially now we are in the middle of the peak tourist season and almost everything is booked with guests, which means we are not allowed to show most properties to potential buyers. The still booming Orlando tourist economy is very good news though for short term rental property owners and potential buyers. Overall though, business has slowed down a little this past couple of months, as it normally does in the summer, especially when summer is as hot as it has been across the nation and also Canada this summer. Most people are more concerned with just trying to stay cool, than they are with buying a property in Florida! We have noticed a shrinking of inventory in the lower price levels, which means that some of the flood of foreclosures and short sales are finally being moved. Strangely enough though, we still seem to be in a sort of limbo state where prices have not yet really started to rise in line with what we thought we would see once inventory started to shrink a little (despite a lot of sellers trying to hold out for higher prices, believing that the shrinking inventory will cause more demand). April 2011 The "buzz" I was talking about in February is still very much here, only even more so! Much of the time when our agents are submitting offers on behalf of our buyers, they find that the properties are already going under contract that same day with another buyer. It's a little frustrating for both us and the buyers, because that means we often have to"go back to the drawing board", but it's very good to see the market finally moving again! While we're not seeing too much yet in the way of prices rising, if this flurry of activity continues, the inventory will continue to shrink and the prices will inevitably rise. The majority of buyers are still Canadians, taking advantage of a great exchange rate, as well as Americans from other states, finally taking advantage of the cheap prices. The pent up buyer demand has definitely started to be set loose! Our agents are still having problems getting in to show many of the short term rental properties, because of them being booked with tourists (and we are usually unable to show properties at these times), so again, while that is very frustrating for us and our buyers who want to see these properties, it is a very healthy sign that Orlando is still a very popular destination! Banks seem to be slightly faster in their responses to offers on foreclosures and short sales, which is a very positive sign and a little less frustrating to work with. February 2011 There's a definite buzz in the air! We all seem to be able to feel it. All of a sudden, since the beginning of the year, buyers seem to be getting restless and eager to buy something. That's a good sign for sure, although we are still a very long way from a recovery. Most buyers are still looking for the impossible, but at least the small amount of movement is encouraging. The bank foreclosure freeze problem that I wrote about in October seems to have gone away and bank owned properties and short sales seem to be moving again. Transactions are actually taking longer to close, as a result of buyers who are financing their purchase having to jump through more hoops to satisy lender requirements. Even cash transactions are slower, because many of the foreclosure sales have issues to iron out, but most of them are closing, so we just all need more patience. The parity of the Canadian dollar has brought many more Canadians into the arena lately. The cold, snowy winter has also been a factor in the increase of buyers from Canada and from northern US States. Florida was the only State without snow this winter, so come on down! October 2010 Well, after 28 years of being a real estate licensee, I can honestly say I don't remember seeing as much turmoil as we are seeing today! No one can predict for certain what impact the latest October news about banks freezing foreclosures will have. For sure the impact will not only be on the real estate industry, but on the economy as a whole. It is not just future foreclosures that are being affected, because we already have reports of bank owned properties currently listed for sale, as well as those already under contract and ready to close, being put on hold. In the short term, we will see less available inventory, which is a good thing after a couple of years of way too many properties being on the market. However, once this foreclosure mess gets sorted out, unless the banks decide to work with many of the distressed property owners to prevent foreclosure, we will most likely once again see a large amount of properties available, which will no doubt delay the economic recovery. I would think that sellers of non-distressed properties (and those who were previously thinking of listing their property for sale but delayed doing so) now have a small window of opportunity when their properties will be more in demand. In my personal opinion, I do not believe property prices will start to rise significantly as a result, but these properties will definitely have less competition and be in a better position to sell more quickly. Dolby Properties has never been a big fan of selling foreclosure properties, as we have always believed there are enough non-distressed properties out there, without the hassles that often come with buying foreclosures. Of course, we have to work harder to find these little gems, but we have been successful in helping many buyers find these, among the vast majority of foreclosures that have flooded the market for the past couple of years. July 2010 Half the year has gone and this year has felt like a roller coaster ride for sure! One day the news says things are getting better, then the next day, they are set to get worse again, so I’ve come to the conclusion that trying to figure this out on a day to day basis is an exercise in futility! It’s enough to make even a natural born optimist like me want to crawl under a rock for a few years! However, since that’s not an option for most of us, all we can do is keep doing what we’re doing and move forward. While earning a good return on our investments is still a great goal (and actually is more achievable these days than it has been in a long time for those venturing to buy in today’s market), I personally believe that quality of life is the most important thing, so rather than putting life on hold and waiting for that rainbow to appear, anyone who really dreams of owning a second home (and of course can manage to find the means to pay for it somehow, perhaps even by cutting down on other things), should simply make the move and go for it! Having a place where you can start to create fond memories for the family is an excellent goal, so perhaps consider buying a smaller, less expensive place for personal use, especially if taking the risk of buying a rental property scares you. Prices haven’t been this low for years and there are definitely some great inexpensive deals to be found, but more so if you are willing to compromise on a few features that are not going to be required to attract short term renters. May 2010 The second quarter started with a little more activity in the market. More properties are being sold and the number of days on the market seems to be edging down slightly in most neighborhoods. The improvement is still only very slightly noticeable, but at least it is better than things going in the opposite direction! Still no one seems to be able to predict with any exact science whether we are now of the woods, or if a new round of foreclosures will hit the market, causing another downward spiral. One thing for sure is that whichever part of the globe we live, we all should get used to the uncertainty of everything in life being the new norm! In that sense then, we should probably follow our gut feeling and if we think it's time for us personally to make a move, then we should bite the bullet and do it! Now that more investors are coming out of the woodwork to buy Orlando area properties, we are working much harder to get acceptance of offers on many properties. Most bank owned properties at good prices are now receiving multiple offers and are being sold at higher than list price, so buyers now need to prepared to submit their highest and best offer (usually higher than list price) right up front, to ensure a better chance of success. Most of our buyers buy properties for either short term or long term rental and all are concerned about whether rental income will cover their expenses. While it is true that rents remain low and the competition is still fierce, the fact is that both prices and mortgage interest rates are still lower than they have been in about 7 - 10 years most definitely helps to offset those lower rents. Many of our short term rental property owners are still very successful in renting out their properties and tourism to Orlando is still very strong. March 2010 As Realtors, people ask us all the time what we think will happen in our market - are prices still dropping, will they rise, will we see more foreclosures, will the sky fall in........? Of course, if we had a crystal ball, we'd be rich! One thing we can say is that we don't think anyone, anywhere in the country (or the world for that matter), imagined that things would be in as bad a shape for as long as they have this past 3 years or so. Just when we think things are looking up, we get another round of things to knock us down. Well, enough of the gloom already! One thing that we possess is hope, along with tenacity and resilience, so whatever happens, we all have it within our power to make this a good year for ourselves and not sit by and wait for someone else to make it better. So, for those of you who have been thinking for some time about investing in Florida, you probably heard already that prices are lower than they have been in years (in fact, most prices are back down to where they were in the late 1990s and very early 2000s)! Not good news for anyone who bought during the peak time, but good news for buyers for sure. Speaking of good news, one thing that we locals noticed over the Christmas/New Year holiday period (actually it really started at Thanksgiving in November), was the huge influx of tourists on the roads and in the stores, with crowds everywhere. We even heard that some of the theme parks were full, so this is definitely excellent news for the Orlando economy. Good news too for investors in short term rental properties! Orlando will always remain one of the top tourist destinations in the world and in fact, most of the listings we sell are often difficult to get in to show buyers and remain on the market longer, because they are often fully booked with weekly paying guests. So come on people, come and let's find you a piece of Orlando and get in on the action!
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