Sales remain strong, inventory is down and prices are up. I could probably stop right there, but I know how much you like all my statistics. Let’s start with the active inventory which is way down from a year ago. Currently, there are 7,175 homes listed active by Orlando Realtors compared to 9,489 a year ago. That is more than a 24% drop in the number of homes available for sale in one year. Of the active listings, 808 or 11.3% are REO, 1,383 or 19.3% are short sales and 4,984 or 69.4% are equity sales. The number of active short sales has declined over 56% from 3,164 last year. Pending sales are down from last month, but are somewhat higher from a year ago. There are currently 9,774 homes with contracts. Of those, 1,052 or 10.8% are REO, 6,726 or 68.8% and 1,996 or 20.4%. Equity contracts are way up over 44% from last year’s 1,384.

Last month there were 2,428 closed sales with a median price of $126,425. Both are big increases from November 2011′s 2,048 and $115,000. Sales are up over 18% and the median price is up almost 10%. Of the closed sales 538 or 22.2% are REO, 721 or 29.7% are short sales and 1,169 or 48.1% are equity sales. Equity sales are up over 46% compared with last year’s 797. The median prices for all three types of sales are up quite a bit from a year ago. REO median prices have climbed from $75,300 to $86,000, short sales from $106,000 to $111,250 and equity sales are up from $150,000 to $161,595. Cash sales still dominate with 1,299 or 53.5% of all the sales compared to 1,129 or 46.5% that required financing.

David Welch Real Estate Optimist, Orlando Real Estate, Search for Homes

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