Sometimes you see things in your day that feel like a sign to you… literally. I noticed this sign driving back from watching the Super Bowl last night and lo and behold there’s a Hojin St. in central Florida. Does this mean I’m in the right profession? I’ll take it as a sign that it is.

The video below confirms what I’ve learned over my many years helping home buyers… there’s a perfect home for everyone somewhere. Thanks to callchristoday.com for the find.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A period of stagnation characterizes the second half of 2009 in the Orlando real estate market according to the latest statistics released by the Orlando Regional Regional Association. The number of sales haves been hovering around 2,000, the inventory around 15,000, and mortgage rates around 5%.

Let me tell ya, stagnation is a good thing at least for now. It means prices are starting to stabilize. If you’ve been following the market the past few years, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Real estate is cyclical which goes in the following order: boom, bust, and stagnation. This means the next cycle is a boom although we don’t know exactly when the next boom will commence. The last boom and bust occurred in the early 90’s with the S&L scandals and the market was stagnant for nearly a decade. Just as in those times, the federal government printed a lot of money to bail out the financial institutions and we all know this is a catalyst for inflation which we’ll have to deal with in the near future.

For now, things appear to be stabilizing for the Orlando real estate market and mortgage rates are about as low as they’ve ever been.

A glance at the 2009 real estate statistics for Orange County, FL shows a marked improvement in the market over the past 12 months. Most importantly the supply of homes currently stands at a healthy 6.4 months and the number of sales have hovered around 1,5o0 for the second half of 2009.

There’s still a heck of a lot of short sales and foreclosures on the market and I believe it’s gonna be a part of the real estate landscape for a while. It’s probably the last hurdle to overcome before return to a normal market.

Just a few years ago there was no such thing as foreclosures or short sales. The last time I remember there being a good amount of foreclosures on the market was 1997.

That being said, things are looking up and on progress towards a stable market here in Orange County.

This historic home is currently owned by John Luff who’s family has resided in Windermere since the beginning.

It’s located at 306 Palm Street along the shores of Lake Butler with Bird Island within view on the horizon and adjacent to 2nd Avenue where many of the Windermere elite reside including Glenn Jackson of Heller Brothers Citrus fame and former mayor Bob Pleus.

The neatest thing about these two streets is that it’s a peninsula that juts out between Lake Butler and Wauseon Bay that catches the refreshing cool breezes that travels between the waterways. Anyone who’s spent a day in the hot summers here can appreciate this luxury. Those cool breezes reportedly made this peninsula a popular place to reside in with the early settlers of Windermere.

Today, 2nd avenue is one of the few residential streets in that’s paved.

Alongside the massive mansions that lines the shores of Lake Butler, there’s also some neat history that we can all appreciate.

related post: Cal Palmer Memorial in Downtown Windermere

Some of the events that’s interesting are the Surf Expo January 14-16, the PGA Merchandise Show January 28-30, the Central Florida Boat Show March 5-7, and Photoshop World Conference March 24-26.

In any case it’s a huge complex that’s enjoyed by people from all over the world and adds tourism dollars to SW Orlando.

virtual tour: Orange County Convention Center

The Windermere Boat Parade is all set for sunset on December 19th. This new annual Windermere Christmas tradition will start and finish on Bird Island with the route meandering through Lake Butler and Wauseon Bay. There’s been rumors that the route will be expanded this year, but I’d check their blog to confirm.

Boating is definitely a part of life in this town among the lakes, and I can’t think of a better way to get in the Christmas spirit Windermere style.

I tell you what, I’m lovin the new direction Coldwell Banker is taking with their web presence. Did I tell you this is the company that I work for?

Holy smokes, this new site, beta.coldwellbanker.com, is freakin awesome. It figures out where you’re located through your IP address, let’s you rate pictures of homes by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down, and it makes suggestions based on your actions.

It’s like Itunes for home searches. I use Itunes all the time because they make it so easy to find stuff you like even though they charge a little more and do something to their files so you can’t burn MP3 cd’s.

Home buyers now have something like that for real estate thanks to CB.

Just like Itunes, the more stuff rate the better the suggestions. A lot of home sellers think that buyers for their home come will be from out of town but there’s a heck of a lot of buyers that come from nearby so I love how this new Bluescape search figures out where you’re at. I’m a tech junkie and gotta admit this thing is sick!

Coldwell Banker is also the first and only real estate company to syndicate listings. There’s over 300 sites that listings are syndicated to including zillow, trulia, nytimes, wsj, and a whole slew of others.

Here’s the entire list Coldwell Banker Listing Syndication List

In today’s world, most buyers will focus on the internet for their home search and this site is gonna be the shiznit once they work out a few little bugs. It’s still a beta site and under progress at the moment.

As many of you have noticed, the price of housing has come way down in the past few years. In many cases, it’s now cheaper to buy then to rent. No joke. It’s a reality which I don’t believe many people realize.

Let’s take a $130,000 home which is the median price of a home in Orlando currently. The mortgage amount on that home would be $125,450 on an FHA loan with the principal and interest payments being $748.39. You add taxes and insurance to the whole thing it’s still only about $900. There’s a fee called the MIP premium with FHA loans and that’ll probably puts you around the $1,000 mark. It’s basically what you’ll have to pay for a pretty crappy apartment.

On top of all that, you get $8,000 in cold hard cash if it’s your first home. Home buyers who’s lived in their residence for at least 5 years can get a credit up to $6,500. These tax credits are also now available to individuals earning up to $125,000 or couples up to $250,000 although there’s fewer of us in this particular earning situation.

You also get to write off most the interest and taxes on your new home which should mean a deduction around $10,000 from your income taxes for a property in the price range used in the example above.

It’s a great time to buy, but you’re not gonna make money on appreciation overnight. My suggestion is that you plan on staying in the property you buy a minimum of 5 years and preferably 10 years. The days of flippin real estate are over, but look at all the advantages you have in buying right now.

Your payments don’t go into some black hole like when you rent, they go towards increasing your tax deductions, accumulating equity, and the value will eventually increase although it may not be real soon.

The inventory levels in Orlando have finally come down to a reasonable 6-7 months which is typical of a stable market and prices have already come down 50% or more in many areas.

I’m not a fortune teller and can’t predict what the market will do but heck, look at all the savings you get even if prices stay stagnant for an extended period of time.

So I guess the answer is “heck yeah it’s cheaper!”.

The community of Cypress Landing is a popular choice in the Dr. Phillips area for the $400,000 price range and a home around the 3,000 square foot mark. The builder, Reiche Silliman, offered a variety of plans and meandering streets giving it an appeal that’s not commonly found in this area. There’s also an estate section to the north end of the community which offers more customized plans and larger lots.

One of the neatest things about this community is that it’s walking distance to Windy Ridge Elementary. You don’t have to cross any busy streets, it’s an uneventful stroll through the neighborhood. To top it off, the highly regarded Chain of Lakes Middle School and Olympia High School are just a mile or two away.

The homes here were built in the mid to late 90’s and will require some updating, but the floor plans were ahead of their time and will feel like a modern home with just a few updates.

Six sales have taken place here since January 2009 with the majority of sales taking place in the second half of the year with an average price of $436,446. Perhaps it’s a sign that we’ve turned the corner in this brutal market. It took an average of 139 days to sell with an average price per square foot of $138 per square foot. Sales prices ranged from $340,000 to $520,000 with a median sales price of $457,500.

The numbers look really good for the kind of market we’ve been trudging through and there’s not that many foreclosures messing up the comps like a bunch of other neighborhoods in the area meaning the current values are not vulnerable to outside forces beyond the normal supply and demand influences.

It’s really a solid choice for buyers concerned with resale value and it’s just a nice place to call home.

download pdf: 2009 Sales in Cypress Landing