Orlando Home Sales Up Seven Percent

While the past week has presented a surplus amount of tragic news on Orlando, this Florida market can enjoy some positive local developments: Home sales in May were up seven percent year-over-year while the median home price increased more than 12 percent from the previous year and crossed the $200,000 mark for the first time since August 2008.

According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA), foreclosures decreased 57.58 percent and short sales decreased 24.79 percent year-over-year in May while sales of single-family homes increased 7.76 percent and condo sales increased 5.76 percent. Homes of all types spent an average of 67 days on the market before coming under contract last month, down from 72 days in May 2015, and the average home sold for 97.14 percent of its listing price, up from 96.87 percent one year earlier.

“Orlando’s inventory of available homes is 11 percent below where it was this time last year and continues to impact both sales and price,” said ORRA President John Lazenby. “Regardless, we are seeing a small trend of increasing sales that illustrates buyer enthusiasm for our current historically low interest rates and steadily rising values.”

But there was one dark spot on this otherwise sunny picture: the May affordability index is 160.96 percent, a considerable drop from April’s index of 169.78, while first-time homebuyer affordability in May decreased to 114.46 percent from April’s 120.74 percent.