ORLANDO, Fla. – Home prices are up, fewer people are buying, and the market is balanced, according to a 2024 breakdown of Central Florida’s housing market by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
The median home price in 2024 was $385,000, an all-time high and a 3.9% increase year-over-year. Total sales, though, fell 7.1% compared to 2023, based on data the association pulls from Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties.
As sales dropped and more homes spent time on the market, inventory reached a six-month supply for the first time since 2011. The six-month threshold is considered a balanced market for buyers and sellers.
Meanwhile, interest rates continue to be the major driver for potential buyers. According to Freddie Mac, the current 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.96% — much higher than what experts were anticipating this time last year.
News 6 sat down with Orlando Regional Realtor Association president Lawrence Bellido to learn more about the state of the housing market and what he’s forecasting for 2025. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
[Watch previous Boomtown stories here]
What’s the outlook for Central Florida’s housing market this year?
The interest rates are going to adjust and they’re going to cool off. We could see them go a bit lower, but we’re not going to have our historical interest rates from the Covid period. That’s not going to happen. I don’t think that’s going to happen again in our lifetime. However, we are going to see a more affordable interest rate this year, which is going to help many homebuyers get out there and find a home.
Are home prices going to keep rising?
Absolutely, yes, because we have so many people moving down here from all over. I’m not even saying all over the country, I’m talking all over the world we have so many people relocating here. We’re aware of so many commercial purchases from other countries of companies coming here, so, yeah, you have international buyers as well on top of the spectrum.
When sales are down, to a lot of people, that’s a red flag. How do you view it?
The way I view it is there’s always something in the market that’s going to cause someone to not want to buy. A lot of people want to sit on the fence because the interest rates are so high for them at the moment, so they want to wait a little bit to see if interest rates will go down. Rates play a huge role when it comes to somebody purchasing. As soon as it starts to go down a little bit, you’ll see the market is going to change immediately.
Many younger people, whether Millennials or Gen Z, feel like they’ll never be able to buy a house. How do you approach that?
I tell them, ‘Don’t think that way.’ They need to get with one of our members at the Orlando Regional Realtor Association and they’ll walk them through all the steps. Set up an appointment with them and they’re going to connect you to one of their preferred lenders. That preferred lender will find out the best program for a first-time homebuyer — whether it’s downpayment assistance or an FHA loan or whatever’s going to meet the buyer’s needs.
Do you feel like that’s the biggest obstacle that first-time homebuyers face? That downpayment assistance and that big money up-front?
Actually, I don’t think that’s a big obstacle. All they have to do is protect their credit. There are so many programs out there that require little out-of-pocket depending on a customer’s situation. The only negative would be if they’re not talking to people or they’re looking at the wrong article or something that says there’s doom and gloom when that’s not really true. They need to get with a local expert and go from there.
What advice to have for potential buyers?
Don’t wait because if you wait, you’re going to miss that beautiful home that you should be living in. Don’t be so concerned with the interest rates. Interest rates are always going to go up and down, and if you wait for that perfect house and that perfect interest rate, you could be priced out of a home.
What about someone looking to sell?
Sellers are going to have to be a little bit more aggressive when it comes to staging, curb appeal and doing some updates to make sure their homes can sell.
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