Real estate agent Darhlen Zeanwick said that nearly 38 percent of houses put on sale in Orlando area are in some form of foreclosure proceedings, such as bank repossession and short sales.
Residential property sales in Orlando increased between September and October 2008 compared with sales for same months a year ago.
Peter Murphy, a real estate consultant at Home Encounter LLC, said that distressed sales, which include those that are bank-owned and foreclosed, account for over 30 percent of Central Florida’s existing-home sales.
He explains that distressed home, on average, is valued 20
to 30 percent below those homes that are not on forfeiture.
The low market value of these properties has attracted an influx of buyers into the resale market, despite the risks and difficulties involved in purchasing a repossessed property.
Real estate investor Fred Allen sees a good opportunity in the foreclosure market. However, he claims that each of the 12 bank-owned houses he acquired in seven counties in Central Florida required a lot of money to repair and make it habitable again.
Allen advises investors to look for bargain houses if they want to charge competitive rents that are high enough to offset the costs of getting the property in shape.
Data from Orlando Regional Realtor Association showed that the median market price of properties resold in the area was $178,000 in October, a decline of over 24 percent from the same period last year.
RealtyTrac Inc., a research firm that monitors foreclosures in the United States, said that Florida has the third worst foreclosure rate in the country as of October.
On the other hand, Orlando is ranked 10th among biggest metropolitan areas with high foreclosure rate. RealtyTrac estimates that nearly 22 percent of single-family houses on the market are foreclosed or short sales.
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