Orlando Real Estate

Bad weather up north has a significant impact on our real estate market here in Orlando. I have customers, under contract right now, from New York that have been snowed in this week, and so has their lender. Their file went to underwriting Tuesday, but nobody has been at work to actually do anything with the file. The appraisal was expected in on Wednesday, but again there was nobody there to review it. The home being purchased is a Fannie Mae foreclosure, and from what I have been seeing on the news Washington DC has also been at a stand still for several days now. I am hoping that the folks at Fannie can understand and appreciate the predicament my customers are in. We were under a very tight time frame to get the transaction closed, but now the weather is complicating things.

I believe the exceptionally bad winter is having an impact on our marketplace here. January's sales were off by about 400 sales compared to the monthly sales pace we have had since June of 2009. The purchase price was way off too, with distressed properties making a bigger impression than they have been. Cash sales are dominating the marketplace as investors snatch up the great deals out there among the lower priced properties. Local first time homebuyers are the other major player here. Of course, in general they are purchasing less expensive homes as well.

A big part of our market for higher priced homes comes from buyers moving down from up north. Another couple I am working with is making a move from Indiana. They cannot purchase here until their home there sells. I hope that Punxsutawney Phil is wrong this year. Although the flip side of the bad weather can be good news in the Spring. In thirteen years in real estate, some of the best years came after bad winters up north. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "that is the last winter I am going to spend in _____", fill in the blank with some place cold. Right now the weather is slowing things down a little, but perhaps it will help pick things back up in the Spring.

Orlando Real Estate, David Welch Real Estate Optimist, As Seen on HGTV's House Hunters