The Orlando Condo Blog

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 [...]

“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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]