The first quarter is in the books, everyone should be done emptying their stomachs in the toilet from handing over their hard earned money to the 545 people in charge on april 17.  I am sure they will continue to use it as wisely as they have done for so many years in the past.

This months newsletter is no different than any I have published in the past… just my heart, soul, experience, predictions, teachings and ideas put forth onto the internet to be documented 24/7 in digital history.

Striving as always to make sure my readers get a great return on the time devoted to reading every month. After reading this edition you will yet again be the most up to date and knowledgeable person in any circle of discussion regarding Orlando real estate. With smart phones you can even get to my blog in seconds to fact check any disagreement in any circle of discussion… many a person has won a wager doing just this… I always LOVE those stories.

Well hope you have a cup of coffee and the door to your office or bedroom closed. Get ready to be educated….

 

JUST THE FACTS

Median Sales Price $115,000  up 12.75%  3/11 ($102,000)  also up from 2/12 $111,000

Median REO sales  $84,200

Median Normal Sales $155,000

Median for Short sales $102,000

ACTIVE inventory 8,666 down from 9,253 last month and 12,533 in 3/11 !

Closed sales  2,327  -10.95% 3/11

40% normal sales/ 33% short sales / 26% REO Sales

Pending sales  9,748   +2.78% 3/11

New listings 3,386  -18.45 % 3/11

New pending contracts  3,805  -15.96% 3/11

*67% of the pending sales are short sale listings

average interest rate 3.99%

Average days on market  97  ( 103  3/11)

ORRA April Press Release

April Market Pulse

Orlando Housing trends

Orlando 8 yr history

MSA 8 yr history

Orlando Actives by price

Orlando msa by county

Orlando recap

Orlando sales by price

Orlando sales by zipcode

Sales by county

NATIONAL NUMBERS

2.37 Million homes active for sale

6.3 month supply at current pace

4.48 Million solds in 2012 thru March

Median Sales Price $163,800

REO have sold 19% below market price in March

Short sales sold 16% below market in March

ALL CASH transactions comprised 32% of all solds

21% of homes sold were to investors in March

33% of March transactions were first time home buyers

NAR monthly home sales press release

NAR pending home sales press release

FORECLOSURES/ REO

default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repos on 572,928 properties 1st qtr 2012

Down 16% from 1st qtr 2012

Foreclosure filings for March 198,853  (lowest total since July 2007)

Florida is bucking this trend with +26% in foreclosure filings in 1st qtr

Average National time to complete a foreclosure 370 DAYS ! up from 348 days last qtr

also longest time period since 1st qtr in 2007 !

FLORIDA AVERAGE time to FORECLOSE 861 days !! only topped by NY 1,05 & NJ 966 days.

foreclosure filings up 7% from february to march

Florida 73,344  new filings in March

  Foreclosure filings down in March

Short sales up 33% and taking less time to close

Market Update

It may sound like a broken record to those who are avid readers of my blog…. there is nothing to buy !! Available inventory is at record lows and builders are just now starting to rev up there communities, still they are not competitive with resale market at this time. Not even on my radar unless you are looking to move into the home… in this case a new home fits many families perfectly.

Prices continue to rise monthly and I can not keep a listing on the market, that is priced within market ranges, for more than a few days without multiple offers.

I am seeing a lot of success in short sales, more so than ever before. In many cases we are getting approvals within 3-4 months , which was unheard of  even a year ago.

Interest rates went up a bit last month due to the bond market falling drastically ove night, but they have since stabalized and crept back down.

There has not been a home I have gone after in last 4 months that has not had at least 3 offers and in many cases up 12-13 offers within days being on the market.

Homestep and Homepath properties which I have discussed in great detail the last 3 months seem to be the only reo game in town so far in 2012. With only sporatic reo listings hitting the local market from the alrger banks. My reo teams personal inventory had a great boost 2 months ago and then the faucet was closed as fast as it was opened.

This is a huge contributing factor in the current inventory shortage and one I have predicted since last year and will continue to predict for the forseeable future. As discussed int he jsut the facts section Florida foreclsoures are averaging 861 days… that is over 2.5 years !!!

Many thanks to the Obama administration and the Democratic congress of 2010 for this.

Inventory will continue to remain steady at these low numbers with the seasonal uptick after  Memorial Day, that we experience in every market… i.e. the summer push.

Again, as discussed many times before, Orlando is seeing buyers from all sections of the world. They are flocking in and grabbing what many are calling the gold rush of Florida. Where better to invest than in the heart of the state. Orlando is considered by many as the city poised for the hardest and highest bounce back. We are already seeing this on the ground level now.

Rons Outlook….. over the next 6 months prices will continue to rise, in many areas 1-3% a month. Inventory will increase as we get closer to June but so will the buyer pool. The Mortgage debt relief act is set to expire at end of 2012 , we will see a large increase in short sale listings in the coming months. More on this in my short sale section.

If looking to buy now is definitely the time to get into the market. With so many offers on each listing it may take 2-3 homes to get a winning bid accepted. Luckily I am acheiving a huge success rate for my clients , getting over 90% of my written offers accepted since the start of 2012 ! with the majority of the 10% failure rate being clients not running with my advise on their first submitted offer with me.

INVESTORS

Competition for great buys has never been this fierce, even in the boom years of 2005-2006. I have not experienced anything like the demand and the cash investors flooding into Orlando. Prices have been steadily going up, especially in the communities I have selected over the years. The many that have listened to me are already experiencing significant equity gains in their portfolios.

As always I will provide the hottest buys on the market at time of writing the newsletter, this is not even close to the deals I come across every week for my investor pool. If you are serious about securing your financial future thru the acquisition of real estate schedule a time to discuss in depth with me what is involved and what is to be expected.

Here are the best buys under 200k :

Rons Home Runs

I can not stress enough how lucrative the mid sized investment range has become, rental shortages are driving up demand and rates. I have not had a rental unit from an investor sit empty more than 5 days this year.

The following list are homes in sought after communities with huge appreciation potential and very strong rental demand, usually extended stay tenants of 2-5 years.

Rons Best Buys

I have rehab and property managers in place to assist anyone wishing to make money during this amazing time in Orlando history. I wish I could buy them all myself !!!

SHORT SALES

If you or someone you know is underwater call me today ! time is running out on the mortgage debt relief act.

I can not stress this enough. if you wait until september to short sale you will be stuck like salmon in the stream. The act is set to expire at end of 2012, which allows you to have tax exemption from the amount of debt the bank forgives on your short sale. For a person under water 150k this is a huge amount of tax savings, when this expires you would treat the deficiency as personal income on your taxes for that year

Demand is really high right now and banks are starting to flow with the short sales, this will change as the summer presses on and more and more sellers want to beat the deadline, then you always have the procrastinators at the end of any deadline that will officially clog the system to a halt.

Why wait until it is too late, my services are paid for by the bank and I have several different negotiators to fit every families needs.

If you know someone you care about that is in this situation, the best thing you can do is tell them to call me immediately.

HOT LISTING

You have to check out this amazing home I have just listed. Gorgeous custom home with many High end touches. Sitting on Lake Sawyer with peaceful views of the lake and nightly Disney Fireworks, complete with covered dock and the 23″ ski boat stays on full price offer !. The pool is completely over the top  with swim bar, huge hot tub, gratto and even underwater speakers. A summer kitchen worthy of the finest grill master on earth and more electronics in this place ( I think you can launch a shuttle)… this is what Florida lake front is all about…

DREAM HOME

Rons Rant

Want to complain about the GSA but it is just too easy… it is like beating up a dead horse.

Would like to ask, why are congressional hearings beign ordered top to bottom on every agency? with unemployment so high I am sure we can replace any of these geniuses with someone at a soup kitchen even. That would probably be a huge improvement in the end.

I am more upset that this is looked at as a shock by the media and members of congress. I have been writing about excessive waste in our goverment for years on my blog. In fact this entire rant section is comprised of stories about corruption in our once great nation that boil my blood.

Speaking of government waste, Have you heard of the newest agency developed by our great gay prostitution pimp in congress Mr Barney Frank (cant make this sh@$ up, yep he ran a prostitution ring in the basement of his own home over 3 years ago yet he is still in congress and in fact still destroying our country)

The OFR  , the office of financial research…. developed thru the dodd frank bill that has plummeted our country further into the recession, that I call a depression. This agency has no limited budget, how lovely is that. No oversight and get this … they can pass tax increases and fees onto financial institutions without approval from congress even… sounds  like a CZAR on steriods !!

speaking of Czars, which I have discussed so in depth during 2008 in my blogs, this is the most absurd part of our government and yet it is still in place? how is this… Van Jones was a Czar? the Czar for education Kevin Jennings, wrote the book  Queering Elementary Education ?  I can go on for pages on this group of characters.

 Speaking of our wonderful federal employees ,  did you know 98,000 of them owe over 1 BILLION in unpaid income taxes ! Well if our Secretary of the Treasury , Tim Geitner, doesnt pay , why should they I guess?

Why is Obama taking credit for any oil production in our country? He has repeatedly shut down drilling on and offshore, given 2 billion of our tax payer money to Brazil for their offshore drilling and he has cancelled the Keystone pipeline on 2 occassions. Lies apon lies. ANy oil prodcution we do have is solely due to Pres Bush. Just like Obama takling credit for Bin Laden, it was Bush and Cheneys interogation approvals that fostered that information.

Obama’s building of the $750,000 soccer field at club gitmo didnt generate the information necessary… again can not make this stuff up.

We need to drill for oil and drill now, North Dakota has experienced an economic explosion in their local area due to drilling, Mc Donalds employees are making 20-25 an hour there ! Can you imagine what would happen if our leaders drilled everywhere they could in our country?

Our unemployemnt would not be 8.2% (which is actually 21-24%). Do you know the bureau of labor statistics has changed the formula for establishing unemployment rates now 3 times since Obama has been in charge ? The third change just was implimented recently and it  is a real humdinger! Now unemployed are not only  NOT counted if they just give up looking and take government entitlement… now they are not counted after 4 weeks of not making one application… this is why the rate is so low on paper. Not to mention all the low level jobs being created are counting directly against higher paid production and research jobs that we are losing.

 We lost 386,000 jobs last month… these are documented new claims in one 4 week period? The experts were off, expecting 375,000… we have a serious problem when we are expecting these types of job losses every month, a leadership investing in failed energy policies and snubbing ones that work. 

I can go on and on, it is disgusting to me what is important in headline news and what is ignored. Weeks on the Martin murder case …. making Sharpton and Jackson look like heroes when they are in essence, ambulance chasing hate mongers. Meanwhile secret service immediately jumps on Ted Nugent for speaking his mind. The army cancelling his concert tour for the troops .Not to mention all the racial hate being spouted by the Black Panthers or that Al Sharpton gave the Easter Prayer at the white house this year…again cant make this stuff up.

This president has successfully divided our great nation thru class and race agendas and will campaign on the tax payers dollar all the way until the November election, raising billions campaigning when he is not on vacation. The best the conservative cause has to put up against this machine is a RINO (republican in  name only) that believes in government controlled health care. I am happy he is an entrepreneur, that is one great point.

One last item… Pelosi and Obama lied to us on the actual costs of the health care plan (can you imagine that?), undershooting it by 90 BILLION. What? the cost was absurd to begin with and 90 Billion  more and that estimate climbs every month they run the numbers… this also does not calculate how it will cripple small business… which is one of the main goals of the program… big government and unions do not mesh with small business and what I believe in the American Dream.

What do I know, I am just a Realtor… draw your own conclusions. I have provided links to what some may consider more controversial statements for the nawsayers. You honestly could not make these outlandish claims up, it blows my mind that these facts are taken place in front of us, on American soil?

Thats enough this month. Could write a novel on what I know.

  SUMMARY

Every month I strive to deliver an honest and direct newsletter to my readers. I do not know of any real estate newsletter that provides more data, links and housing trend statistics in one convenient format. Let alone one that has predictions that ring true in such accurate fashion ?

I also have over 4 years of newsletters on this blog for all to read and fact check. My predictions have been accurate on real estate and in the political and economic fronts as well.

There is always a strong emphasis to provide you with the boots on the ground report, not some sensationalized outdated headline that we see in mainstream journalism. The fact remains that I do this everyday. I am blessed to do what I love to do and have been fortunate enough to reach the point in my career where I select who I want to work with and what I want work at.

This is why I love what I do, I truly care for my clients and the advice I give to each one is as honest and accurate as can be. Some would say I work 14 hrs a day, I always say I do what I love 14 hrs a day.

I dont say this to be a ham or sappy, I say this because it is true, I am one of the luckiest people in the world.  I get do provide my family a nice life while doing something I love to do… I sell the American Dream. I also get to pass along my knowledge to ensure my clients make the right decision everytime. My life has been enriched by thousands of people I have met over the decade plus of selling Orlando real estate.

A heart felt thank you to all my clients/ friends that refer business my way. It is the reason for my succes. I will never take it lightly. My goal is always to have the friend you refer to me to thank you sincerely after I achieve their goals.

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter, I spend alot of time on it.

Please continue to forward my website to everyone you know… knowledge is always power and I have yet to read a newsletter in any professional field that delivers more knowledge in more areas that my monthly newsletter (if you know of one send it my way please)

Until next month, take care of you and yours. God Bless our troops defeding our freedom overseas and the families they leave behind.