Florida Real Estate, Tourism and Immigration News

15 US Cities Where Home Listing Prices Are Rebounding

Prices are rising in Florida.

Our cities have had the largest year-over-year increases in their average list prices, according to the latest real estate data from Realtor.com.

We make 9 of the top 10 places for highest list price increases, based on August’s data of 2.2 million listings in 146 markets.

Nationwide, the average list price is $320,325, up 2.36 percent year-over-year.

Here are the top 15 cities with the highest percentage of year-over-year increases in the average list price.

1. Miami Average list price: $640,332 Year-over-year increase: 27.4%

2. Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL. Average list price: $443,570 Year-over-year increase: 26.27%

3. Central-FL. Average list price: $405,809 Year-over-year increase: 19.41%

4. Punta Gorda, FL. Average list price: $267,066 Year-over-year increase: 16.37%

5. Macon, Ga. Average list price: $193,520 Year-over-year increase: 15.98%

6. Sarasota-Bradenton, FL. Average list price: $466,785 Year-over-year increase: 15.86%

7. Naples, FL. Average list price: $713,087 Year-over-year increase: 15.13%

8. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL. Average list price: $591,895 Year-over-year increase: 14.68%

9. Ocala, FL. Average list price: $193,360 Year-over-year increase: 12.07%

10. Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL. Average list price: $181,409 Year-over-year increase: 11.48%

11. ORLANDO, FL. Average list price: $319,419 Year-over-year increase: 10.56%

12. Portland-Vancouver, Ore.-Wash. Average list price: $314,537 Year-over-year increase: 10.52%

13. Boise City, Idaho Average list price: $212,588 Year-over-year increase: 10.43%

14. Springfield, Illinois Average list price: $174,537 Year-over-year increase: 9.12%

15. Shreveport-Bossier City, La. Average list price: $211,414 Year-over-year increase: 8.34%

Bill’s Bit:

As the market turns …a great time to invest!

But better move quickly if you are at all interested – while some of the best deals are still around!

Have a great weekend!

According to the August report from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association existing-home sales in the Orlando area showed a second consecutive month of price gains from a year earlier.

The median price in the core Orlando market was $115,000 – 15 percent higher than August 2010.

Since January of this year, Orlando’s median price has increased by 21 percent.

The median last month for bank-owned sales was $81,750; for short sales it was $96,950.

The number of foreclosure sales dropped 51 percent compared with August 2010

Short sales and regular sales were each up 32 percent.

At the current sales pace, there is a 4.3-month supply of homes available for sale, also

• total inventory was down 39 percent from August 2010
• the number of single-family homes was down 36 percent
• the number of condo units for sale was down 52 percent
• pending sales (under contract and awaiting closing) – 9,502 up from 8,945 a year ago
• the average property sold for 95 percent of its listed price, the same as in August 2010

——————————————

Bill’s Bit:

If the Orlando property marketplace is indeed turning-around, as so many different market indicators are suggesting, then now could be the perfect time for Florida property investors take full advantage of our “Buyers Market”.

Why not let us help you find your dream place in the Sun?

If you are considering buying or selling a home here in Florida please contact the British Homes Group for more assistance.

Bill Cowie President

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information on Florida homes or submit a Custom Property Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

New British Homes “Best Buy” Listing!

Immaculate, Fully-Furnished 4-Bedroom Villa

Close to Disney – Private Pool

Sold for $295,000 in 2007

Now Asking $200,000!

*    Completely Furnished –  even including Binds and Window Shades

*     Private Swimming Pool with Heated Whirlpool Spa 

*     Over 2,500 Square Feet of Comfortable Air-Conditioned Living Space 

*     Luxurious Master Bedroom with 3 additional Bedrooms and Bathrooms

*     Complete Privacy with Beautiful Pond and Nature View (see above) 

*     Minutes from Disney, 3 Championship Golf Courses, Supermarket and Shops

*     Ideal for Second Home, Long- and Short-Term Rentals 

AGAIN, THIS NEWLY-LISTED BRITISH HOMES’ 

“BEST BUY” ORLANDO VILLA WILL NOT LAST LONG!

If you would like complete details on this and/or our other great villa buys close to Disney please contact MARK SHORE, our UK/Florida property specialist (from Bristol!).

Mark’s Orlando Mobile Phone Number is 863-557-6443.

Good luck – but please act quickly if you are at all interested!

If you are considering buying or selling a home here in Florida please contact the British Homes Group for more assistance.

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information on Florida homes or submit a Custom Property Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

Fewer foreclosed homes in Orlando

Here are some numbers on the reducing numbers of foreclosed homes in the Orlando area.

Anyone hoping to buy a foreclosed house in the Orlando area is going to have to look a lot harder than they did a year ago.

There were 656 bank-owned properties listed for sale last week, according to a weekly report from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. A year ago, there were about three times more foreclosures listed for sale, but many mortgage default cases stalled in the courts when lenders could not produce valid loan documents.

So far the dwindling supply of Real Estate Owned (REO) properties has not noticeably pushed up prices and that’s partly because appraisals are based on sales within the past six months.

The shorter supply appears to be helping families who are considering a short sale…banks have begun to realize that shorts sales maintain value a little bit better and maintain the property in better condition and so there’s less depreciation in the community.

While the amount of foreclosure listings is dwindling, the number of both short sales and regular, nondistressed listings is growing, the report showed.

The report also shows a gap of about 6 percent between the sales price and the final asking price and a gap of about 13 percent between the sales price and the original asking price prior to any price reductions.

The average original list price in Orlando for the last week of July was $216,642, and the average sales price for that week was $189,463.

If you are considering buying or selling a home here in Florida please contact the British Homes Group for more assistance.

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information on Florida homes or submit a Custom Property Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

There was an interesting article in today’s Business News Express about an alternative way of selling your Florida home.

It’s called a “Reverse Offer” and a brief outline is below…

Reverse offers are a new phenomenon on today’s real estate scene. The fact that the market is clearly a buyer’s market has caused sellers who need to sell their property to come up with some new ideas. One of these is the reverse offer.

Instead of the normal approach where a buyer looks the home over and makes an offer to the seller, with reverse offers it is the seller making the offer.

There are actually a few approaches one can use. For sellers whose homes have been on the market for some time, the agent for that seller might go back to all the people who have looked at the home and make them an offer to buy the property. Another approach is to have the agent approach a particular potential buyer who has come back and looked at the property more than once and who has expressed interest in it.

Needless to say it does not make sense to reiterate the same offer all over again that the potential buyer was aware of when they looked over the property. Some other incentives need to be added to make the deal look more interesting. One way to do this is with a lower price, but other enticements can be used as well, such as paying the closing costs for the buyer, or perhaps buying down their mortgage rate a bit. Other tangible property could also be put into the deal, such as an automobile or a large screen TV, for example.

There are a few particulars to keep in mind when putting together this kind of a proposition.

In order to create some sense of urgency in the mind of the buyer, make the reverse offer valid for just a short period of time. One, two, or at most three days would be appropriate. Also, if the offer is being extended to more than one potential buyer, let everyone know that others will receive the same offer and that the person who gets the home will be the first one who responds.

Additionally, if you are going to approach a person who has come back and looked at the house more than once, ask you agent to contact the agent for the buyer and try to find out exactly what the issues were that kept that person from buying the home in the first place. If the buyer’s real reasons for hesitating can be determined, perhaps the problems can be addressed without to much work or too much cost.

Reverse offers can be a good approach for people who are very motivated to sell their property but who face a lot of competition. There might be other similar homes for sale in the neighborhood, or perhaps there are foreclosed properties on the market. Showing some creativity and eagerness to sell might be the thing that gives you an edge. Remember, foreclosures come with lower prices, but if a bank owns the property it will be sold “as is”, and any unseen problems will be the responsibility of the buyer later on.

If you are thinking of, or in the middle of, trying to sell your vacation home in the Orlando, Kissimmee or Davenport areas of Florida, please let us know if you would like more information.

We are receiving an ever-increasing number of purchase enquiries as the Florida property market begins to turn-around.

Good luck!

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914
Direct (Mobile) 407 620 7777

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

THIS PROPERTY HAS SOLD.

PLEASE SUBMIT A:  Custom Search Request

BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida ~ Specialising in Florida Real Estate

Brand-New Luxury 5-Bedroom Luxury Villa Close to Disney

A BRITISH HOMES GROUP “BEST BUY”

Just Reduced $30,000 to

$239,000!

Pool, Spa, 5 Bedrooms and Close to Everything!

• Over 2,600 square feet of air-conditioned living space
• 2 En-Suite Master Bedrooms plus 3 additional bedrooms
• Upstairs Theatre and Game Room
• Backs on to wooded Conservation Area
• Minutes from Disney, 3 Championship Golf Courses, Supermarket and Shops
• Ideal for Second Home, Long and Short-Term Rentals

FINANCING AVAILABLE

For Overseas investors (including UK) with a 30%/ $71,700 deposit

THIS SPECTACULAR BRITISH HOMES’ “BEST BUY” WILL NOT LAST!

So if you are at all interested please contact MARK SHORE, our UK/Florida property specialist (from Bristol!), directly.

Mark will give you full details on this and other great buys in the Disney area and help you with the mortgage financing arrangements if needed – all in time for you to enjoy this year’s “Season” in the Sunshine State of Florida!

Mark’s Orlando Mobile Phone Number is 863-557-6443

Good luck – but please act quickly if you are interested!

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914
Direct (Mobile) 407 620 7777

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information on this home or submit a Custom Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

Listing Your Orlando, Florida Home For Sale

If you are thinking about selling your Orlando home please contact us for a free, no obligation valuation.

There has been a huge increase this year in the number of buyers seeking homes in the Orlando Disney area.

We will market your home on the Multiple Listing System (MLS) so all Florida Realtors can access your property details. We all also market your home to our UK database and also feature it on our popular website.

We are a British staffed company and will use our expertise to professionally market your property. We can also help interested buyers with financing through our bank connections.

Please mention us to anyone else who might be thinking about selling their Orlando home or thinking about buying one.

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914
Direct (Mobile) 407 620 7777

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

Request more information on this home or submit a Custom Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida
2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

Big Discounts on Foreclosed Homes in the US

In 10 states, average foreclosure discounts in the first quarter ran more than 35% below the average prices of non-distressed homes, says market researcher RealtyTrac in a report out today.

“There is massive discounting going on,” says Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac senior vice president.

Foreclosed homes in Ohio and Illinois drew the largest discounts, averaging 41%, followed by Kentucky at 39%. Other states with discounts of more than 35% were Maryland, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

In some of the big discount states, foreclosures are less numerous, so they’re less likely to pull down prices of non-distressed homes, says Celia Chen, Moody’s Analytics senior director. That makes the discount bigger.

In seven states with foreclosure discounts higher than 35% – Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin – foreclosed homes were less than 20% of first quarter sales, RealtyTrac data indicates. Foreclosures made up 28% of U.S. first-quarter sales.

In Nevada, foreclosures were 53% of first-quarter sales, the highest in the U.S. The average foreclosure discount was less than 18%. Foreclosures are more likely to drive down prices of non-distressed properties in Nevada because there have been so many, Sharga says.

First-quarter foreclosures were 45% of home sales in California, while the average foreclosure discount was nearly 34%. In Arizona, foreclosures were 45% of sales at an average 25% discount.

In states such as Ohio, foreclosure sales may be concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods while prices in higher-income neighborhoods are holding up better, Sharga says. That, too, creates a wider gap between prices of foreclosure homes and non-foreclosure homes, Sharga says.

Discounts are larger when homes have gone back to the bank. RealtyTrac says bank-owned properties averaged first-quarter discounts of 35%. Pre-foreclosure homes – often short sales, in which sellers and lenders agree to sell for less than what’s owed – averaged 9% discounts.

Florida “REO”s

Bank-owned foreclosed/repossessed properties are known as Real Estate Owned or “REO”s in US bank-speak.

BRITISH HOME SALES has a large selection of bargain-priced REO’s for you to choose from here in Orlando.

Let us help you choose one close to Disney!

Happy Bargain Hunting!

Sincerely,

Bill Cowie President

Orlando office 407 396 9914

Looking for a home in Florida? We do vacation rentals or can help with the purchase or finance of a Florida property. Request more information or submit a Custom Search Request for a listing of homes available in your price range.

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida

Thank you to our friends at Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty for the latest Central Florida Property Market Trends.

Central Florida Market Trends First Quarter 2011

Signs of a stabilizing real estate market through out Central Florida are continuing to strengthen. Home buyers are steadily leaving the sideline and entering the home search process. Out of state and foreign home buyers are realizing that the Florida market has bottomed out and they are jumping in to purchase second homes, vacation homes and investment properties.

I am pleased to provide you with our Central Florida Market Trends for the first quarter of 2011.

First quarter 2011 single family homes sales were up 3.8% over the same time period in 2010.

Central Florida condominium sales were up only slightly at 1.28% over the same time period in 2010.

Overall, Central Florida sales were up 4.58% for the first quarter of 2011 over the same time period in 2010.

New contracts written have steadily increased since December 2010 with just over 4,500 new contracts written in March 2011.

In March, the median price of Orlando area existing home sales increased for the second consecutive month to $103,000. However, the March 2011 median price is 6.36% less than the median recorded in March 2010.

The increase in the overall median price is attributed in part to an increase in the number of “normal” homes sales which have higher selling prices than foreclosures and short sales.

In the first quarter of 2011, 72% of all homes sold were in some form of distress. It is anticipated that this number will decline as distress inventories are sold off and more “normal” home sales continue to rise.

The number of homes listed for sale was down to 12,533 in March of 2011, which is 22.75% below the inventory reported in March 2010.

There are currently 10,115 single family homes listed in MLS, which is 16.25% below March of 2010.

The current pace of sales translates into an average of just over 5 months supply, the lowest since December 2005.

Declining home inventories may have a positive effect on some home prices due to the supply and demand.

All cash sales have continued to stay above the 50% mark for the last year.

The sale of $1 million plus properties remains strong, although at a somewhat lower pace then what we say in the first quarter of 2010.

As we enter the Spring and Summer selling months we are forecasting that sales will continue to climb and home inventories will continue their decline, which will make the selling process more interesting with multiple purchasers pursuing the best properties that are well priced.

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando office 407 396 9914

Request more information or submit a Custom Search Request

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida

THIS PROPERTY HAS SOLD.

PLEASE SUBMIT A:  Custom Search Request

4 BEDROOM 3  BATHROOM POOL HOME  WITH SPA & RESORT FACILITIES!

New British Homes’ “Best Buy” 4-Bedroom Orlando Villa!

$145,000!

Developer Financing available with a 30% Down Payment – less than £30,000!

• 4 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, Private Swimming Pool and Spa
• Superb Club House and Community Swimming Pool, Fitness Center, Games Room – and Private Cinema!
• Approved for Long- and Short-Term Rental
• Short drive from Disney and the other World-Famous “Attractions” as well as the Orlando and Millenium Malls, downtown Orlando and Orlando International and Sanford Airports.

British Homes Group customers have already bought 4 of these incredibly-priced new Florida villas in the last few weeks – within days of them coming on the market!

So why buy “distressed” and often “worn” when you can own your own brand newplace in the sun at the same price – or less!

And if this particular “Best Buy” Florida villa is not for you the British Homes Group has full information over 20,000 other properties for you to choose from here in Central Florida alone!

If you agree with the growing number of industry observers that the Orlando marketplace is, at long last, beginning to turn-around and rebound now could be the ideal time to invest in Florida property.

Happy Bargain Hunting!
This property would make an ideal second or investment home, or it can be used for short-term-rental vacation home.

Mortgages are available for British and other international buyers with a 30% down payment.