907 Golfview St - $265,000

Historic College Park Craftsman Bungalow
Charmer, complete w/ picket fence and rocking chairs on the front porch!
Features include wd flrs, built-in book case & windows seat, wood encased windows & doors with glass knobs. Beautifully updated kitchen with granite. Garage, carport & fabulous.

1706 Oakmont Ln - $249,900

Craftsman style bungalow  has old world charm  just steps to Lake Ivanhoe. Inviting open front porch. High ceilings  with wood floors,spacious rooms and charm throughout. Stucco is applied to steel plate over frame.Observe the construction in the garage.

Open Saturday 2-4 pm

3/1.5 beauty with updated baths. Kitchen with new cabinets, granite and paint. Large inside utility, newer window/roof. $257k

Open Sunday 2-4 pm

1112 Chichester St

Immaculate Orwin Manor 2/2 with open floor plan, den adjacent to master. $379k

735 Cordova Dr

Classic bungalow. Inviting 2/1 on quiet street w/ wood floors, bay windows, formal dining room, built-ins, sunny office and large porch. $199,900

2801 Norfolk Rd

Nicely appointed Rose Isle 3/2 with pool. Refinished hardwoods floors, updated kichen with granite, new cabinets, redone baths. New roof in 2008. $469,000

3900 Lake Sarah Dr

Sunset views at this handsome new 2 story 5/4 lakefront. Downstairs master. 10′ ceilings, dark wood floors. Gourmet kit, 2 living areas. Patio and dock on ski lake. $1,275,000

Nicely appointed and updated Rose Isle home. Gorgeous refinished hardwood floors throughout. The kitchen is updated w/ granite counters, new cabinets & flooring. The bathrooms are redone (new ceramic tile/ vanities & fixtures) Private backyard with pool. New roof in 2008. Move right in!

Mike Thomas | COMMENTARY
September 9, 2008

I’ve been a housing doomsayer since February 2005.

That giant flushing sound, I warned, was the value of your house about to go down the toilet. Real-estate agents laughed. Builders scoffed.

And then: Whoosh!

Ever since, I have dismissed predictions of a recovery as little more than Realtor propaganda.

Housing bears are very, very grouchy animals.

So the following advice may come as a surprise: Go buy a house.

I say this in part because of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailout. But there is more to it.

Home prices here have fallen fast and hard. They are about where they were in February 2005, so I’m coming somewhat full circle here.

We’ve flushed more than three years of irrational exuberance out of the market. The average wage earner in Central Florida now can afford the average home.

We would be in a normal market right now if speculators had not fed a massive boom in construction and condo conversions. Hence we have the massive glut. Add on to that thousands of foreclosures, the credit crunch and a nasty, statewide recession.

Now we have a reasonably priced market with lousy selling conditions.

That translates into an excellent opportunity for those who can afford to buy. So, ever so slowly, people have started buying.

The Central Florida market showed a 12 percent increase in home sales in July compared with July 2007. Pending sales contracts for the rest of the year also are up.

My fellow doomsayers will point out that many of these sales are short sales or sales of foreclosed properties. Yep, they are. But that’s all part of the healing process.

More homes are selling in the Orlando region than in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach combined.

“The real-estate market is a tale of two states,” says UCF economist Sean Snaith. “If you bisect from the Orlando- Tampa equator, the southern half is much worse. They have a long way to go.”

Why? On our side of the equator, home prices and the overall cost of living are more in line with the national average. Our job market also is holding up better and should recover faster. And we still are growing, albeit anemically, while many South Florida counties are shrinking.

This brings me to Freddie and Fannie. No matter how low a house is priced, it won’t sell if banks aren’t lending. The credit crunch has been a huge clot in the system. The Fannie and Freddie takeover should begin clearing it. Interest rates also should go down.

Far off in the distance, I see recovery.

But for the near future, I see more despair. I see the peak spring and summer home-buying season ending with thousands of stressed sellers still needing to unload their properties.

Throw in a sour economy and these next few months may well be the low point of the great housing bust. If you are a bottom feeder, I can’t see the depths getting much deeper.

“I think people who buy now will be happy at the end of three years,” says UCF economist Stan Smith

But that depends on where you buy. Established neighborhoods with good schools in the urban core are solid. Factor in the high cost of gasoline, and they are even more desirable. New developments in outlying areas remain shaky given the risk of developers going bankrupt or cutting prices after you’ve bought.

“You probably shouldn’t buy in a new subdivision unless it is 80 or 90 percent built out,” says Smith.

As for condos, he says, “I don’t hear anything positive about condos.”

So look around. When you see a seller has added a 10 percent markup on a house he bought in the summer of 2005, enjoy the sensation of walking away.

There are plenty more out there

Article on Orlando Sentinel.com

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