The Vue at Lake Eola condo tower is scheduled to be sold via commercial auction on March 15 2010.
According to the Orlando Business Journal, the 375-unit Vue condo downtown Orlando condominium at 150 E. Robinson St., had its involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation converted to a Chapter 11 reorganization and is seeking qualified bidders to acquire the 165 unsold units and [...]

Yep. It is if you’re an investor looking for a condo deal under $50K.
Increasing numbers of observers have said of late that we’ve already hit bottom, and I’m inclined to agree, with one caveat. Bottom will arrive at slightly different times for different states, and different cities within states and, different communities within cities. There [...]

The Orlando condo market experienced another improved month in existing sales, but declines continued  in home values, according to this month’s report from the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).
Condo resales in the Orlando area were up 88 percent, from 91 in January 2008 to 171 last month. The median price, however, fell 60 percent, from $157,000 [...]

Effective March 1, Fannie Mae (FNMA) the folk the make conventional loans “conventional” are planning to further tighten the condo guidelines on which mortgages they will buy on the secondary market. It could be argued that it makes no difference since they are already impossible in most cases, leaving only FHA backed loans as an option.
Additionally, [...]

I hate to beat a dead horse, but… each day we get folk calling in on Orlando condo conversions – foreclosed –  that cost under $50K – and they want to finance them. When we tell them it will be very difficult, we get the “Oh that’s not a problem - I have a great credit score [...]

With mortgages so hard to come by, investors who can’t pay “all-cash” are having a hard time scooping up some of today’s “fire sale” deals – which can be incredibly frustrating. It’s like being (a diabetic) kid in a candy store. (I’m diabetic so I know how that feels.)
However since first time home buyers are not subject [...]

Good news for Orlando condo hotel owners – or any Orlando second home owners who rent out their condos:
According to a Smith Travel Research survey, Orlando’s hotel room occupancy levels rose last week, posting the second largest year-over-year increase of the nation’s top 25 lodging markets.
Orlando area occupancy increased 14.7 % during the week for January. [...]

Multiple Offers are soooo 2006… Well if you think so, take a deep breath because while it might seem ludicrous to make an offer on an Orlando condo – or any other home, if it means competing with another buyer, things have started to change. In the last few weeks, there has been a sharp rise [...]

What the left hand giveth, the right hand taketh away…
After the good news that Fannie Mae will no longer treat vacant and foreclosed condos as non-owner occupied comes news of ever more underwriting restrictions.
January 15, 2009 is the cutoff date when Fannie Mae toughens its policies on condo properties in the Sunshine state – potentially putting a [...]

HUGE news for would-be condo investors: Fannie Mae has finally changed the rule that has been strangling condo sales. From now on, when new investors apply for financing on a condo unit, no longer will vacant and foreclosed condos be counted as non-owner occupied.
Until now, Fannie’s long-time policy has been to bar new investor loans in [...]

“Ok, well keep me posted if you see any good deals.”
I hear this all the time from would-be buyers on the phone who are stuck in the mud and never quite satisfied with what’s on the table. These folk never buy, because they’re always wating for something better to come along. “Sure,” I say.
What I [...]

The sales of condos in the Orlando area decreased by 31.33 percent in August: A total of 114 condos changed hands in August 2008 compared to 166 in August 2007. In a month-to-month comparison, August 2008 condo sales (114) decreased by 14.93 percent from July 2008 (134). Year to date, condo sales are down 43.71 [...]

Maitland’s two main condo projects have been on hold since the market tanked but this week’s OBJ report suggests they may never go ahead. We’ve been following both the Trevi and its neighbor Ravinia since their inception but their fate never looked good – which is a shame for Maitland, which is now entering its golden years and would [...]

6:30pm on a Wednesday night: An unlikely start time for an auction perhaps, but over 800 were seated by the time bidding began, and the total number of visitors over the course of the next four hours likely topped 1000 according to our estimates.
The REDC auction of central Florida bank owned properties included million dollar [...]

There are more signs this week that nationally, the slump in the market may have reached its low point. (Don’t smack me, I said “may” ok?)
The most recent news from Las Vegas is that having been designated as one of the leading foreclosure cities in the United States, sales are edging up and prices holding [...]

According to Jerry Jackson at the Orlando Sentinel, the developer of downtown Orlando’s Paramount condo tower testified in court on Wednesday that the company had spent more than $16 million to add extra bracing to the building. The developer went on to claim that this work was not a “material” change requiring notification of individual [...]

While the fence sitters in the U.S. may get away with “waiting for bottom” a few months longer, the Brits won’t have that luxury as the dollar is beginning to strengthen again.
From the point of view of much of the world, Florida has been “on sale” for a year or so now. And for the [...]

With new construction finally at a low, people are now actually moving into new homes faster than builders are erecting them. Accordingly, Orlando’s inventory of new subdivision housing fell again during the second quarter. That’s according to a report by Metrostudy, who found 3,646 finished-but-vacant single-family homes in the four-county metro area, down from 5,560 [...]

Our recent blog “Where is your Personal Bottom?” looked at how fence-sitters risk losing out on the “waiting-for-precise-bottom” game due to the way the housing market is always three months ahead of where it appears to be at any given time. Let’s use some real numbers using data just released from the Orlando Regional Realtor [...]

Short Sales: An acceptable exit strategy?
Most of you who bought investment condos in 2005-2006 have told me the same gut-wrenching story: You’re desperate to sell and wouldn’t even mind taking a small loss if that’s what it took. At that point, I usually ask you what you paid – and what you are asking [...]