The Windermere Boat Parade is all set for sunset on December 19th. This new annual Windermere Christmas tradition will start and finish on Bird Island with the route meandering through Lake Butler and Wauseon Bay. There’s been rumors that the route will be expanded this year, but I’d check their blog to confirm.
Boating is definitely a part of life in this town among the lakes, and I can’t think of a better way to get in the Christmas spirit Windermere style.
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screenshot from Future of Real Estate Marketing
I tell you what, I’m lovin the new direction Coldwell Banker is taking with their web presence. Did I tell you this is the company that I work for?
Holy smokes, this new site, beta.coldwellbanker.com, is freakin awesome. It figures out where you’re located through your IP address, let’s you rate pictures of homes by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down, and it makes suggestions based on your actions.
It’s like Itunes for home searches. I use Itunes all the time because they make it so easy to find stuff you like even though they charge a little more and do something to their files so you can’t burn MP3 cd’s.
Home buyers now have something like that for real estate thanks to CB.
Just like Itunes, the more stuff rate the better the suggestions. A lot of home sellers think that buyers for their home come will be from out of town but there’s a heck of a lot of buyers that come from nearby so I love how this new Bluescape search figures out where you’re at. I’m a tech junkie and gotta admit this thing is sick!
Coldwell Banker is also the first and only real estate company to syndicate listings. There’s over 300 sites that listings are syndicated to including zillow, trulia, nytimes, wsj, and a whole slew of others.
Here’s the entire list Coldwell Banker Listing Syndication List
In today’s world, most buyers will focus on the internet for their home search and this site is gonna be the shiznit once they work out a few little bugs. It’s still a beta site and under progress at the moment.
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As many of you have noticed, the price of housing has come way down in the past few years. In many cases, it’s now cheaper to buy then to rent. No joke. It’s a reality which I don’t believe many people realize.
Let’s take a $130,000 home which is the median price of a home in Orlando currently. The mortgage amount on that home would be $125,450 on an FHA loan with the principal and interest payments being $748.39. You add taxes and insurance to the whole thing it’s still only about $900. There’s a fee called the MIP premium with FHA loans and that’ll probably puts you around the $1,000 mark. It’s basically what you’ll have to pay for a pretty crappy apartment.
On top of all that, you get $8,000 in cold hard cash if it’s your first home. Home buyers who’s lived in their residence for at least 5 years can get a credit up to $6,500. These tax credits are also now available to individuals earning up to $125,000 or couples up to $250,000 although there’s fewer of us in this particular earning situation.
You also get to write off most the interest and taxes on your new home which should mean a deduction around $10,000 from your income taxes for a property in the price range used in the example above.
It’s a great time to buy, but you’re not gonna make money on appreciation overnight. My suggestion is that you plan on staying in the property you buy a minimum of 5 years and preferably 10 years. The days of flippin real estate are over, but look at all the advantages you have in buying right now.
Your payments don’t go into some black hole like when you rent, they go towards increasing your tax deductions, accumulating equity, and the value will eventually increase although it may not be real soon.
The inventory levels in Orlando have finally come down to a reasonable 6-7 months which is typical of a stable market and prices have already come down 50% or more in many areas.
I’m not a fortune teller and can’t predict what the market will do but heck, look at all the savings you get even if prices stay stagnant for an extended period of time.
So I guess the answer is “heck yeah it’s cheaper!”.
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View Cypress Landing in a larger map
The community of Cypress Landing is a popular choice in the Dr. Phillips area for the $400,000 price range and a home around the 3,000 square foot mark. The builder, Reiche Silliman, offered a variety of plans and meandering streets giving it an appeal that’s not commonly found in this area. There’s also an estate section to the north end of the community which offers more customized plans and larger lots.
One of the neatest things about this community is that it’s walking distance to Windy Ridge Elementary. You don’t have to cross any busy streets, it’s an uneventful stroll through the neighborhood. To top it off, the highly regarded Chain of Lakes Middle School and Olympia High School are just a mile or two away.
The homes here were built in the mid to late 90’s and will require some updating, but the floor plans were ahead of their time and will feel like a modern home with just a few updates.
Six sales have taken place here since January 2009 with the majority of sales taking place in the second half of the year with an average price of $436,446. Perhaps it’s a sign that we’ve turned the corner in this brutal market. It took an average of 139 days to sell with an average price per square foot of $138 per square foot. Sales prices ranged from $340,000 to $520,000 with a median sales price of $457,500.
The numbers look really good for the kind of market we’ve been trudging through and there’s not that many foreclosures messing up the comps like a bunch of other neighborhoods in the area meaning the current values are not vulnerable to outside forces beyond the normal supply and demand influences.
It’s really a solid choice for buyers concerned with resale value and it’s just a nice place to call home.
download pdf: 2009 Sales in Cypress Landing
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The federal government released a report today citing a strong correlation between Chinese drywall and corrosion. Homeowners began complaining about the drywall which was prevalent in Florida home construction during 2006 and 2007 and now the government is backing their claims with this latest study.
The study also cites a possible link with health problems caused by the emission of hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde from Chinese drywall.
The good news for homeowners in Florida is that this study now opens the door for federal assistance on re mediating the problem.
related link: AP
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Sorry I’ve been absent for a few weeks. I’ve been out of town in Arkansas and Mississippi and just missed out on qualifying for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic. I mean it was dang close and would’ve been better if it was a blowout. It really drained me emotionally, not to mention the physical toll, but now I’m back in the real estate game and a normal life. I’ve been showing homes to buyers from out of town basically all day for the past week and just glad I live in Florida where the weather’s warm and sunny all the time.
Here’s a few links if it’s something that interest you:
It sounds like Google is saying game on with the announcement of their latest enhancements to http://maps.google.com/real estate. They’ve added a bunch of improvements to their real estate search and listings will now be included in their default map views. You had to specify real estate before, but now you it’s there every time you look at Google maps.
They also give a better view of the distribution of properties by adding markers that show the 10 most relevant listings and a small circle that allows you to get more detailed info on the property.
Google’s been collecting real estate data through Google Base for years and now they’ve got the data to make a strong push into real estate searches on the internet. I know this because the company I work for, Coldwell Banker, has been feeding data to them for years.
I gotta admit, I use Google to find nearly everything. I like the fact that Google’s getting into the game simply because of the fact that you can also use Google Street View alongside the search results. Now you can take a virtual stroll through the neighborhood after you find a house that you like.
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The Case-Shiller Index numbers were released this past week and revealed 4 consecutive months of price increases meaning they’re going back up. We’ve all been so used to seeing this index say decreases that it’s a bit of a shocker.
Blitzer says there’s a real chance that we’ve turned the corner and finally done with price declines.
An interesting fact to note is that 70% of all the sales that took place were priced under $250,000. Do ya think the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit is having an effect. Sure sounds like it is and I sure hope Congress extends it for a bit longer.
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The city of Ocoee has become the first town in SW Orlando to feature it’s own channel on YouTube. They’ve already added a good bit of content and the latest is about the Ocoee Parks and Recreation Haunted House to be open October 29th & 30th at 951 Ocoee Park Road.
There’s also a neat little video about the annual Founders Day Parade in the downtown area.
I think it’s a great way to showcase the area and hope nearby towns follow suit.
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Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks, but I’m back in town and back in the game.
The Orlando Regional Realtor Association just released their latest statistics for the housing market in Orlando and they just keep getting better with declining inventory, steady number of sales, and fewer expireds.
The inventory is down about 35% when compared to the same time last year and currently stands at 15,967. At the same time, the number of sales increased over 50% with sales jumping from just 1,394 a year ago to 2,151 this past month. The current inventory level stands at a little over 7 months which is typical of a stable market here.
Maybe we’ve hit a bottom.
Another encouraging little stat is the number of expired listings are down about 50%. 1,683 homes expired a year ago, but only 846 homes expired this past month.
Another sign of improvement.
I sure hope these stats are for real and we’re headed into a stable market. Heck, we might be there already according to these stats.
I don’t want to push it, but would increasing prices be asking for too much? I’d sure like to see an end to the short sale scenario so many homeowners are in.
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A look at the most recent stats for the real estate market here in SW Orlando shows we’ve come a long way from a year ago and perhaps even at a stable market already. The zip codes included for these stats include: 32819 (Dr. Phillips), 32835 (Metrowest),32836 (Dr. Phillips),32837 (Hunters Creek), 32811 (Millenia), 32821, 32824 (Wiliamsburg), 32830,34786 (Windermere), and 34787 (Winter Garden).
Probably the most glaring stats are the inventory and number of sales.
A year ago, the inventory stood at an astounding 19.4 months and now stands at only 5.7 months. That’s a pretty significant drop that’s new good news for the market. A stable market typically has 6 to 7 months of inventory, so by this measure we’re already in a stable market.
At the same time, the number of sales ballooned from 272 sales per month a year ago to 535 sales per month as of the most recent stats. That’s about an increase of 95%. Holy smokes that’s good news.
I’m sure you’re wondering why these numbers are so much better. The answer’s simple. Prices are a lot more attractive to buyers today than they were a year ago. The average sales price was $266,000 a year ago, but now stands at $164,000.
This also tells me that the lower end of the market is doing a lot better than the rest. I’m sure the first time home buyer tax credit as well the government’s push for FHA financing has a lot do with this stat. For once, there’s a government program that’s actually accomplishing what it’s set out to do.
The average list price is still hovering around $484,000 and actually higher than a year ago so I believe most of the improvement has been in the lower end of the market.
Either way, I love the new lower inventory and increased number of sales. Sure hope it spreads to slightly higher price ranges as well.
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