Chicago and Southern Illinois Real Estate Happenings

New home builders report sluggish sales figures, mirroring resale homes,
BUT some central Florida real estate area builders are getting results with
discount deals and heavy marketing.

Morrison Builders has offerings of single family homes and townhouses
in 15 communities in central Florida.

I have personally seen renovated condos with new carpeting, new paint,
new tile flooring, brand new appliances and new fixtures near Hunters Creek
in the south Orlando/Kissimmee area going for up to $30,000 LESS than
the original sales prices. Along with sales incentives of up to 4.5% for closing
costs, these condos are right near the Disney area and perfect for investors
to purchase for vacation rentals.

Luxury homes are not having as much trouble
as the middle class purchaser of property is:

• "There has been some change," said Nancy Taylor, broker/owner of Prudential Sterling Properties in Indian Harbour Beach. "They aren't appreciating like they have in the past. You will find they are coming down somewhat in price. . . . But basically we aren't seeing as significant a drop in price in some of our luxury homes as we are in some of the other markets."

• "The upper end has gotten weaker, but hasn't died," said Kurt Luft, a real estate broker whose company, Premier Properties of Brevard, currently has 10 homes listed at more than a million dollars. "The million to a million five, that's still an active market. Again, maybe not as active as it would have been two or three years ago, but it's still active."

Europeans are buying more homes in Florida, real estate agents
say. Driving this trend is the weakening U.S. dollar, which increases
the purchasing power of buyers "across the pond". Five years ago,
one euro was worth about 85 cents in American currency. Now each
euro is worth about $1.40.

Another builder, Toll Brothers, reports about 90% of the people
purchasing real estate in central Florida are from Great Britain,
Venezuela or some other overseas country. Toll Brothers has
communities in 11 areas in central Florida. Through the affiliated
mortgage company they do business with, you can get a fixed
5.25% 30 year mortgage, depending on your credit worthiness.

That is just one of the incentives some central Florida builders
are offering.

From all the articles I have read the market is bottoming out and
should start to pick up mid year or toward the end of 2008.

THAT is good for BOTH buyers AND sellers of central Florida real estate.

This encouraging post about what is going on in
central Florida real estate is brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

Here are the statistics for November 2007 in the
central Florida real estate market. There is some
good and some bad in the statistics, so get ready
to look at what comes.

• The median home price is steady at $235,000 and has been for the last 3 months. It is 6% below what the median home sales price was in November of 2006. So far the median home sales price is 1.6% lower than last on a year to date ($245,000 as opposed to $248,000) basis.
• Year-to-date sales for 2007 (15,602 through the month of November 2007)
  are off by 39.1% as opposed to 2006 (25,614).

• The area's average interest rate was 6.08% for November 2007 - which continues to move lower since the rate topped out at 6.60 percent in August.  That is a GOOD thing for buyers!!

• For first time homebuyers, the affordability index went up this November to 66.7. Homes of all types spent an average of 115 days on the market before coming to the closing table in November 2007. The average home sold for 93.8% of its asking price. Last month, the statistics were 111 days on the market and 94.0% of asking price. Buyers are going to start buying SOON......

• Here is some food for thought for those who just want to be involved in higher priced homes: The majority of single-family homes (189) that resulted in closed transactions in November 2007 were sold for between $200,000 and $250,000, while 122 properties were sold for between $250,000 and $300,000. In a nutshell, 611 properties sold for $300,000 or less in November, and 302 sold for more than $300,000. Twice as many homes changed hands in the median or lower sales prices.

• There is over a 27 month (that is over two years worth) supply of homes at the current sales pace.

So, there you have it, the central Florida real estate statistics for November 2007...
Things WILL change even more as time goes on, you can bet on it.

This statistical post was brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.