Category: Orlando Realtors

What’s In This Year’s Home Buying Season for Home Buyers in Orlando

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

The Orlando real estate industry has been reveling the home-buying season in 2014. April 2014 marked a month of consecutive reductions in the rates of fixed mortgages. Rates of interest on the standard 30-year home loans dropped to their lowest level in the second week of April. The rates, the lowest since February, reduced again in the third week – increasing buyer activity in the industry.

Now, according to a new industry report, this year’s spring buying season commenced with a significant rise in the month-to-month sales of residential real estate property. According to industry experts, the month of March saw 17.28 percent more sales than February. Further, in terms of just the “normal” sales in February and March, the latter month outperformed the former by nearly 24 percent!

Realtors in Orlando will confirm the opinions of the experts – all major listing agents in Orlando reporting their hands full with residential buying and selling since the beginning of the season.

Home Buyers are fueling median residential real-estate prices in Orlando

The median price of properties in Orlando was recorded as $160,000 in March 2014. Just a month ago, the rates stood 1.27 percent lower, at $158,000. The rise in median prices is being fueled by increased demand from prospective buyers – a trend characteristic of the spring buying season.

Realtors unanimously hold the spring buying season a good time to buy residential properties, especially for first-time buyers. According to the experts in Orlando short sales, the median rates of short sales in March 2014, witnessed a 4.59 percent hike from the value same time last year.

With the short-sale inventory expanding, the spring season is also expected to bring new opportunities for buyers who haven’t been able to find suitable deals yet. Compared to the number of foreclosed homes available for purchase in March 2014, a fairly large number of foreclosed homes were made available to buyers in March this year (125 percent more than in March 2013). Homes also spend lesser time on the market now, than they did a year ago. The average listing period in March 2014 was 76 days, compared to the 79 days in 2013.

Making the most of the home-buying season

Conditions in the Orlando real estate market seem to be ideal for residential buyers now. Banks are easing up on home loans, the rates of fixed and variable-rates mortgages are decreasing and the market has plenty of options in different price ranges. Further, with Florida’s diversifying economy and its growing reputation as a premium retirement destination in all of the US, many prospective buyers are showing foresight by investing in properties during the season.

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Orlando Home Buyers Buy Their House Back After Losing It To Foreclosure!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Every once in a while we hear a story about something that inspires us and that reminds us that good things still happen in the world. In this case, it was about one of our clients, Jose and Mary Guadalupe had gone through some financial hardships due to loss of employment and ultimately ended up losing their South Orlando dream home located in the Meadow Woods sub-division to public foreclosure auction.

After it went through the foreclosure process another family bought it and just 2 years later, they hired our Company to complete a short sale on the property. And so we did then we actually ended up buying it ourselves as a re-hab property. We completely rehabbed the home installing new cabinetry, flooring, fixtures, etc. The day I went to put a “For Sale” in the yard was the day I met the Guadalupe family for the first time.

These Orlando Home Buyers Never Gave Up Hope

They went on to tell me their story about how they lost their dream house to foreclosure and about the deep depression the family went through because of that experience. Since going through that experience, Mr. Guadalupe was now employed as a local truck driver for over 2 years and their financial situation had really turned around for the better. As a matter of fact, the family had recently been house hunting in that same neighborhood for the past several months never finding one that interested them.

Mrs. Guadalupe claimed that she would drive by her old house several times per week just hoping that one day it would be for sale. Then one day came when they spotted me installing our sign in the front yard. After listening to their story, I was happy to show them around the newly renovated home. It didn’t take long for Mrs. Guadalupe to start getting teary-eyed as she walked into the kitchen where she had prepared thousands of home-cooked meals for her family. ” My kids were raised in this house,” she said. It was right then and there that we decided to do everything in our power to help the Guadalupe family get back the house that they had lost just a few years prior.

stop foreclosure

Typically, it’s much harder to get a mortgage on a property after you’ve gone through a foreclosure or short sale and it used to be that you would have to wait 7 years before you could even apply for a mortgage but with the new lender guidelines in place it could go down to only 3 years for some people. Although buying back the same home that you lost to foreclosure is extremely rare, the Guadalupe family is among a recently emerging group of purchasers, that were able to get back into the housing market under new, more forgiving lender guidelines.

With these new rules in place, thousands of Central Floridians who have gone through foreclosure have the potential to make buying a home a reality again. Over 100,000 homeowners in Orlando have lost their homes to foreclosure or short sale since the real estate crash of 2007.

 

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New Short Sale Property in Casselberry | 2037 SCHULLER WAY

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Casselberry Short Sale

Short Sale Property in Casselberry | 2037 SCHULLER WAY

This is a 1,252 sq ft. beautiful townhouse that needs new carpets and just a bit of paint on the walls. The property was built in 2006 and is two floors.

Other details:

2 bedrooms

2  1/2 bathrooms

Master bedroom on 2nd Fl/ walk-in closet

Community Pool

Playground

Volleyball court

Gym

Call me at 407-902-7750 or visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/ to make your appointment, It is Priced To Sell!!!

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Home Buyers in Orlando Gear Up as Rates of Fixed Mortgages Fall Further

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

The spring buying season of 2014 started off on a good note and it seems to only be getting better. Rates of fixed mortgages were on a downward spiral since the first week of April. The week beginning April 14 marked the second time when the rate of fixed mortgages fell to its lowest levels since February.

As noted by Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage buyer, the average rate of interest on standard 30-year home loans dropped to 4.27 percent in the week beginning April 14. The week before (April 7-13), fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.34 percent. The 4.34 percent – rate was again, 0.7 percent below the rate of fixed mortgages in the week beginning March 31. At the beginning of the year, these rates stood fairly high at 4.5 percent.

This week’s decline marked the second consecutive week when fixed-mortgage rates were the lowest since February and Orlando Realtors say prospective buyers are getting more enthusiastic about the spring buying season.

Will the Drop-in Fixed Mortgages Sustain Itself in the Coming Weeks?

Most probably yes. According to 56 percent of the market analysts interviewed by the website Bankrate.com, the rates are going to hold steady in the coming weeks. They say the rates of interest will continue to be low and remain stable over the next couple of weeks. They did not predict a rise in mortgage rates.

Realtors note that concerns of a weak market – one that wouldn’t be able to support a dynamic increase in prices of residential real estate  – to be one of the primary reasons rates began spiraling downwards in January 2014.

A good time to buy homes?

According to the Orlando real estate agents it is. According to the most recent report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, March was marked by an increase in new residential construction. The report, released April 16, revealed that housing starts in March increased by 2.8 percent, compared to February. The month also saw a  reduction in permits for residential buildings, as compared to the number of permits issued in February (2.4 percent decline). The number of permits was, however, 11.2 percent higher than the number in March 2013.

Increasing inventory and reducing rates of mortgages typically result in increased buyer activity. The Orlando real estate industry has seen its fair share of residential starts and realtors say more prospective buyers are inquiring about the rentals and purchases in upcoming properties.

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Orlando Short Sales Decrease Due To Tax Implications

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

The debt relief act of 2007 has officially expired as of January 1st 2014. This situation creates huge tax burdens for Florida homeowners that are upside down and that have or will receive any kind of mortgage forgiveness such as a short sale.

This means that the IRS will consider any capital that was forgiven by a lender either in a short sale or even a foreclosure to be recorded as income to the homeowner and will tax that income accordingly. The “Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act” [MFDRA] of 2007 was established to allow homeowners with certain criteria to exclude this type of income from their tax returns. This act only applied to debts associated with someone’s primary residence.

Orlando Short Sale Realtors Concerned Over Tax Relief Expiring

Orlando realtors that specialize in doing short short sales are very concerned about homeowners no longer having the tax break incentive. Why would someone go through with a short sale if they knew that they would be taxed on the deficiency? It’s like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, you’re going to get burned either way.

We’re already seeing a sizable decline in Orlando short sales since the 1st of the year. I think that we’ll see even fewer short sales, fewer principal reducing modifications, and an increase in foreclosures as we get further into 2014. Homeowners aren’t seeing the upside to doing a short sale in many cases.

The truth is that without the assurance of tax being exempt on a short sale there’s much less incentive for distressed homeowners to agree to the voluntary sale of their home.

Lenders Are Foreclosing Faster Than Ever Before

There was a time shortly after the RE market crashed in 2007 where lenders were extremely overwhelmed with the amount of homeowners defaulting on their loans. This resulted in a foreclosure taking up to 2 years or more to complete in some cases.

Several Orlando homeowners that I’ve spoken to say that they’ll just stay in the house until the bank forecloses believing that it will take their lender years to foreclose on them because of the stories that they’ve heard in recent years.

This couldn’t be further from the truth and homeowners that feel this way will be in store for a rude awakening. Lenders have come a long way in streamlining there process for dealing with mortgage holders that fall behind. They now have systems in place that help to expedite the amount of time that it takes to process foreclosures, short sales, loan mods, etc. Certain lenders will foreclose within a matter of 3 to 4 months if the homeowner doesn’t take action.

What Are Other Alternatives To Foreclosure?

Homeowners are still offered the same alternatives from their lenders; short sales, loan modifications, deed-in-lieu, etc. It’s important to note that it’s not the lenders who want to tax homeowners on the deficiency amount, it’s the IRS. And, although congress is actively looking at several bills that would extend tax relief through the next year or two, it hasn’t happened yet and there’s no guarantee that it will.

 

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