Hi folks. I'm writing this post today to bring you guys a dose of "feel good about your market" stuff. So if you are feeling down and your market is beating you up, sit back, relax and have yourself a little read. It will make you feel better I'm sure. Unless of course you are one of my Sellers. In that case....sorry...but it is what it is.

Our local major paper, the Orlando Sentinel, has been running a series on foreclosures and how they affect the market in Central Fl. There's a link below to the article that ran this past Monday. The Sellers, who are the feature of the article, are my Sellers in Poinciana. Some of you guys may know them as "The Lovely's". I'm briefly in the article as well. Anyway, here's the link, check it out.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the series:

"Only 924 homes were sold in September by Orlando Realtors in their core market, the fewest re-sales since January 1999. By comparison, sales in September 2005 -- near the market's record-setting peak -- totaled 2,964. A year ago, 2,054 homes changed hands in the core market, which consists mainly of Orange and Seminole counties but includes some deals in surrounding counties"

"South Poinciana is home to the worst-hit ZIP code in Central Florida -- 34759 -- where nearly 300 homeowners have defaulted on their mortgages so far this year"

Hey....do you see up there where it states: "South Poinciana is home to the worst-hit ZIP code in Central Florida" Isn't that cool? My market is numero uno baby!!!! Hey if you have to be something you might as well be number 1. We don't do things half-ass in Poinciana!

My market encompasses two zip codes. The worse, South Poinciana, is 34759 and has 386 homes in some stage of default (at least 3 payments behind), foreclosure or auction. North Poinciana, zip code 34758, has 307.

Currently there are 1673 active listings (single family) homes in these two zip codes. That's actually down about 50 listings from last month. Most of those properties have been removed from the market. I withdrew 9 listings myself. In September we had 32 closings TOTAL! September 2006 there were 102. So we are holding steady at about a 60% decrease in sales for the year. Year to date there have been 480 sales. Last year same period 1184. So again holding steady at around 60% decrease. Now if I were to extrapolate out the sales for this year we may hit 575. That means our absorption rate (amount of time needed to sale existing inventory) in Poinciana is about 3 years.

Folks, Tutas Towne Realty, Inc (me) is having our 4^th best year out of 14 years in business. So I'm here to tell you that no matter how bad your market is you CAN not only survive it but do pretty darn well if you keep motivated and keep moving forward. Hang in there my friends. Do your best. Be honest with your Sellers. That's really all we can do. Things will get better, just not anytime soon.

OK, that's it. Can anyone out there beat these numbers? My opinion is that Poinciana Fl is the worse market in the country right now. Any one able to prove me wrong? PLEASE!!!!! Someone make my day. If not, I hope I made yours. Oops! Got to run....my shift at Wal-Mart starts at five. Or not!!!

****All data is from Realtytrac, The Orlando Sentinel and the MFRMLS and of course Broker Bryant.

All content copyright © 2007 - Broker Bryant Real Estate Ramblings