The Orlando Regional Realtor Association released their monthly statistics for the Orlando real estate market through the month of July 2010 and the numbers show that an increase in inventory and a significant decrease in sales suggesting that we may not be out of the woods yet.

The inventory increased from 16,504 in June 2010 to 16,563 in July. Inventory has been on a steady climb from the 15,911 level seen on January 2010. Since then, inventory has increased 4% for 2010.

At the same time, the number of sales decreased from 3,059 in June 2010 to 2,387 in July. While there’s been a decrease on a month to month basis, the number of sales increased when compared to the January 2010 sales figure of 1,820.

Motocross superstar James Stewart is considered to be the “Tiger Woods” of his sport. Some call him “Bubba” and he’s earned a record 11 American Motorcyclist Association Amateur National titles as kid growing up in nearby Haines City. In his rookie year as a pro in 2002, he earned Rookie of the Year honors. Two years later, he won both the AMA 125 East Supercross Championship and the AMA 125 Motocross Nationals.

His most significant accomplishment was winning 24 out of the 24 races he participated in 2008… a perfect season.

Recently, he’s made Dr. Phillips his home and the Butler Chain his backyard. His new home in the guard gated community, Isle of Osprey, was featured in this episode of his reality show “Bubba’s World” on Fuel TV.

The home features 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 3 half baths, 8,758 square feet, theater room, gym, billiard room, numerous fine luxury finishings, and views of Lake Blanche.

Bubba’s home search highlighted in the first video is a little atypical of the home buying experience, but it looks like he found just the right home.

Short sales have flooded the marketplace in Dr. Phillips and Windermere the past few years with real estate transactions characterized by response times for offers taking 6 months or longer. It’s not a surprise that many of these short sale transaction are unsuccessful but there’s a new program called HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) implemented by the federal government to relieve some of the short falls of a traditional short sale.

Some of the key benefits include:

• a mandated response time of less than 10 days from financial institutions
• relocation assistance to the homeowner of $3,000
• real estate commission can not be changed from 6%
• waived deficiency-meaning the mortgage debt is settled through the transaction and there can be no legal action taken on the outstanding debt

I know, it all sounds good to me but how do you qualify? You have to be an owner occupant who meets the following criteria:

• behind in mortgage payments for more than 60 days
• have a debt to income ratio higher than 31%
• have an outstanding mortgage of less than $729,750
• purchased property prior to January 2009
• have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan

The cool thing about this program is that you can initiate the short sale even before you get an offer. With a traditional short sale, home sellers would have to get an offer prior to the bank beginning the short sale process. This new program starts the process right away so they can provide the government mandated 10 day response….. awesome…. finally.

The only catch is the bank is involved with setting the list price and you must initiate the HAFA process prior to listing.

In any case, the HAFA program adds much needed improvements to the short sale process and should result in higher success rates for short sale transactions.

The program was implemented on August 1, 2010. To find out more about this program or you would like to list your home under HAFA, please contact me.

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Interview of the Architect Behind the 2010 New American Home

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2010 New American Home Interior

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2010 New American Home Exterior

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The gated community of Brookestone in Ocoee, FL has seen 6 sales so far in 2010 with an average sales price of $271,750, average price per square foot of $85.90, and average square footage of 2,998.

The median price was $261,000 and median price per square foot of $90.35.

It took an average of 94 days to sell which is fairly good in this market.

The good news here is that there’s 6 properties under contract with list prices ranging from $185,000 to $319,000. The average price of the pending properties is $241,167 and a median price of $247,400.

Overall, the real estate stats reveal a healthy market where buyers are starting to take notice of the more attractive price.

Under the original bill, those buyer would have had to close by June 30. The new bill extends the closing date to September 30.

I think it’s just fair since there’s so many short sales out there and I’m sure there were quite a few buyers who got stuck not closing because they chose a short sale which are notorious for taking forever to get a reply.

Silliman Homes, formerly Reiche Silliman, is now building in the community of Waterstone, the last gated community on the Butler Chain of Lakes.

They’re not offering any of the lakefront lots with this builder, but prices range from $500,000 to $700,000. I hear they’ve sold two homes already.

I love the homes they’ve built at Mirabella at Vizcaya, Kensington Park, and Cypress Landing so I have high expectations for their homes here.

Waterstone was originally slated to be an ultra luxury community but now includes homes that are a bit more affordable. I don’t believe any of these homes have been built yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how the rest of this community develops.

Buyers who purchase in this community will probably be surround by construction and unfinished land for quite some time unless we see an unexpected boom in the market which is unlikely.

Local timeshare mogul, David Siegel, has put his unfinished mansion on 10 acres along Lake Butler named “Versailles” in the guard gated community of Reserve at Lake Butler Sound in the Town of Windermere for sale at $75 million “As Is”.

It’s actually listed at $100 million in the MLS which is the price if you want it finished to your specs.

I’m sure most buyers will be buying this property with cash, but if you were to buy this home at $100 million and get a 30 year mortgage at 4.51% with 20% down, the monthly payments would be $405,824 plus taxes and insurance.

I realize we’re talking about $75 million, but the “As Is” price is a better deal. Whether or not $75 million is a good price is another debate altogether.

Depending on what stage of construction this home is in, I can find contractors all day long that’ll complete this home for less than $25 million. From the photos, it appears this home is at drywall stage which means it’s only a matter of putting on the finishing touches.

It has 66,800 square feet (not 90,000 sq ft as reported in the news), 13 bedrooms, 23 bathrooms, 20 Car Garage, and the architecture is based on the residence of Louis the XIV.

It’s being hailed as the most expensive home in America by WSJ but it’s no where near the house Zillow zestimates at $270,408,000. The home that previously held this title was the oceanfront Portabello in Corona Del Mar, California.

A site has been set up for the mansion at http://www.lakebutlermansion.com with all the photos and videos available on this property.

It’s been on the market for nearly 2 months but somehow the press has gotten news of it recently.

Folks around these parts all know that David Siegel made his fortune through Westgate Resorts, the premier timeshare in Central Florida.

He’s also known for his former home on Lake Butler Palazzo del Lago which his former wife, Betty Whitaker, currently resides in.

Here’s a link to the Virtual Tour of “Versailles”. Here’s also a Vitrual Tour of Lake Butler which is the lake this property is located on created via helicopter by Ed Fink of Big Eye in the Sky

I’ll gladly set up a private viewing of this estate with the right credentials so Contact Me.

There was a post on this blog back in 2008, Disney Planning New Luxury Home Community, and now it’s finally coming to reality. I had my doubts as well, but it looks like Disney is finally getting this community underway.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Disney unveiled it’s plans for it’s ultra luxury community called Golden Oak this week. Prices will range from $1.5 to $8 million and will encompass 4,900 acres with 450 homes in 3 distinct villages.

I believe this community is located on Osprey Ridge which Disney closed down a few years back. It’s arguably the most scenic of all the courses at the resort.

Owners will be allowed to bring in their own custom builder to create the home of their dreams within the set of guidelines provided by Disney. I feel sorry for the builder of these homes. If the guidelines are anything like the ones in Celebration, it’s probably the size of a small phone book but it did end up looking beautiful.

I don’t know if they’ve heard, but the real estate market here in Orlando and every where else in the world isn’t all that good.

Now they want to build something no one can afford?

Perhaps Disney knows something that I don’t know.

Having followed the market in SW Orlando for quite some time, I’ll be curious to see how all this pans out. I guess you don’t have to worry about the company going bankrupt before they finish, but how long will it take?

They quote 10 years, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a little while longer.

Anyway, here’s a SLIDESHOW of the community if you’re interested.

Please contact me for more information on this new community.