Orlando to lead U.S. property price gains in 2012

Wednesday 18th January 2012

The property market in Orlando, Florida, will lead the nation in 2012 for home price gains, according to a Californian based property research firm, Clear Capital.

The analytics company has projected that home prices in Metro Orlando will increase by 11.7% during the year, compared with 2.1% for the nation overall.

The company cited a decreasing number of foreclosures as the prime reason for its forecasted gains. While 44% of the region's housing market consisted of bank-owned properties at the end of 2010, by the end of 2011 only a quarter of the market was made up of foreclosed houses.

The property market in Florida is being supported by a significant slowdown in foreclosure levels, according to Alex Villacorta, the firm's director of research.

He said: "This could be due to a slowdown in litigation, but the fact remains, since REOs are dropping from one-in-two sales to one-in-four sales, it's allowing the market to recover and not compete with those distress listings."

Colin Murphy of Florida-based estate agents Torcana says that “good deals seem harder to come by” in Orlando because of the reduction in inventory, which he reports is down by over 50% year-on-year.

Property in Orlando was second in the country for home-price increases in 2011, with prices rising 6.7%. Only Dayton, Ohio exceeded that gain with an annual increase of 11.5%. Miami had the third-largest gain for last year — 5.6% .

The report takes into account factors such as sales of the same properties, unemployment rates, and the number of foreclosures on the market.

The sharpest drops in price are expected in Atlanta, where they are forecast to fall 14.4%, and in Los Angeles, with a predicted drop of 10.3%.

Loxley McKenzie, managing director of international estate agents Colordarcy, said: “Orlando looks like a very strong investment opportunity for 2012 particularly as the gulf between property price increases in Orlando and the rest of the US are considerable to say the least.”