Market Update through March 2023

After a tentative start to the year, the central Florida market picked up steam in February and headed into March with quite a bit of buyers in the market looking for good homes to purchase. The question will be whether or not the inventory levels will support the number of buyers anxious to purchase in the coming months.

Buyers in the Orlando market have their choice of properties in residential areas or neighborhoods that allow short term rentals. Recently, we’ve seen a slow start to the second home or investment property purchaser activity in neighborhoods that are designed to support short term rentals. Buyer interest is consistently strong for homes in neighborhoods designed for permanent living. Although buyers are looking, they are still cautiously approaching the market. Stung by recent price appreciation, buyers are carefully watching both the quality of homes that come on the market and the list prices of these homes. Homes that meet both the price expectation and quality expectation are moving quickly off the market.

How About Celebration?

An overview of the real estate market for a single family home in Celebration shows us that homes values are rising year to date versus last year. Currently the average home sales price on closed transactions is $1.078M, an improvement of 14% versus last year to date. For those homes that pended during March, the sellers enjoyed a short days on market (18 days). This seems to imply a seller’s market but in fact pricing was significantly important. Most of the pending properties were positioned on the market slightly below their competition.

For sellers contemplating putting their home on the market, pricing against your competition will give you more flexibility further down the line. Buyers are watching the market closely and will be quick to snap up a home in a price they feel is exactly right to start their next journey.