“A Directionless Downward Trend”
August 21, 2007 – 12:47 pm | by Erik Hersman
I just read an interesting article by a local Orlando real estate agent Gitta Urbainczyk on her blog. It’s not encouraging.
In speaking with many agents across the country, I have found that the general consensus is this. Unelss you are in one of those ‘luxury pockets’ where the homes are selling and buyers are buying, this real estate market represents an eerie feeling of a directionless downward trend unlike anything we have seen. The market is adrift without a rudder, flowing in no particularly general direction. The outlook is grim at best. Reports are not encouraging, specifically on national and international online news sites.
We are seeing an evolutionary process that is a complete reversal of what we witnessed in the 2004/ 2005 ‘anything goes’ real estate cycle. Major lenders are shutting their doors or ceasing to fund projects on the closing table. If you think you have your home sold, don’t count on it until you have the money in your hands. Mortgage rules are changing and guidelines are tightening to the point of hurting the market in the long run.
That’s pretty bleak. Gitta ran the numbers late last week on the Orlando area (in another post) and it was a mixed bag. Only a few neighborhoods, like Heathrow and Lake Mary, continue to see growth. However, most areas are decreasing as the supply continues to increase and the difficulty in getting a mortgage also increases, thus shutting out more potential buyers.
The silver lining in our city is this - there are more businesses (large ones) that are starting to move into the area. Orlando also enjoys a tourism base that won’t disappear even in downturns.