As mortgage rates, sales activity and prices in Orlando’s existing-home market edged up in February, the number of houses listed for sale in the core market fell below 14,000 for the first time in five years, according to a new report released Monday.
The area’s median price edged up from a revised $94,900 in January to $96,000 last month, said the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, which tracks member sales, most of them in Orange and Seminole counties.
As the average interest rate on a 30-year loan grew from 4.84 percent in January to 4.88 percent in February, the number of closings also edged up to a preliminary count of 2,084.
While real-estate research groups such as RealtyTrac have reported that about half of all sales in four-county Metro Orlando involve foreclosed or distressed properties, the local real-estate association said that 74 percent of sales in the core Orlando market were bank-owned or headed toward foreclosure.
The midpoint price of those properties in February was $74,000 for bank-owned sales and $98,000 for short sales, while sales of “ordinary” properties hit a median of $155,000 for the month.
Not since February 2006 has the Orlando Realtors’ core market had so few houses on the market — 13,480.
“A downward slip in inventory means a downward slip in the number of choices available to homebuyers,” said Mike McGraw, chairman of the local association and owner of McGraw Real Estate Services.
Based on the current pace of sales, that inventory would be consumed in 6.5 months if no other houses were to come on the market. Sales were so heated last year, when a federal tax credit was available, that the monthly inventory of available homes fell below the six-month mark on several occasions; in one of the worst months for the local market, the November 2008 inventory was almost two years.
Orlando real-estate broker Marcia Socas of Castro Realty Group said she remembers how the months of inventory a few years ago ballooned so much that she hated to even look at the numbers. Now, she said, it’s back down to what historically is considered a market in balance between supply and demand.
With the shrinking inventory and rising interest rates, Socas said, she would have expected prices to increase even more than they have. But consumer confidence may be low because of rising fuel costs and continued difficulties in obtaining mortgage financing.
“I expected a higher influx of calls by now, too,” Socas said. “Springtime has always been the busiest time, and we’re not getting as many calls as expected.”
Homes of all types spent an average of 99 days on the market before coming under contract in February, and the average home sold for 94.47 percent of its listing price. In February 2010, those numbers were 91 days and 94.87 percent.
Socas said that, despite what Bank of America and other lenders are trying to do to expedite distress sales, short sales continue to take so long that they weigh down the average time houses are listed for sale.
mshanklin@tribune.com or 407-420-5538