ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Federal Reserve\u2019s decision this week to not lower interest rates will affect Central Florida\u2019s real estate market. A cut could have helped ease mortgage interest rates for buyers heading into the summer home buying season.<\/p>\n
Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA) President Chris Atwell says buyers in the Central Florida market still have an edge because they have more choices and less pressure than they did during the pandemic era. Atwell notes home sales were up 25% during March compared to this past February.<\/p>\n
Charlie and Sheryl Feldman just sold a house in Orlando and bought a house in Sanford this month. Their Realtor, Tanin Teston, helped them downsize into their single-story house. Charlie says it was a priority for them to buy a house that doesn\u2019t need a lot of repairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the total amount of dollars you really want to spend on the house, including the work you have to put into it,\u201d Charlie said.<\/p>\n
Home prices are holding steady in many Central Florida neighborhoods. ORRA data shows in March that the median home price in Central Florida was $385,000 and overall sales came in at 2,360 houses sold.<\/p>\n
Compare that to March 2025, when the median home price here was $385,500 and overall sales came in at 2,408 houses sold.<\/p>\n
Ricky Carruth is a nationally known real estate speaker who coaches realtors to improve their businesses. Thursday, Carruth visited Orlando and offered Central Florida buyers tips to find the right house and to negotiate a winning deal in our current market.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout one third of the homes right now in Central Florida are being cut, price cuts. So you want to look at homes that have been on the market 45 plus days, that have been reducing the price, and that\u2019s where you\u2019re going to find your deals,\u201d Carruth said.<\/p>\n
Carruth adds that when buyers find the house they want and they are negotiating the deal, they can ask the seller to buy down their interest rate for a year or two to lower the buyer\u2019s monthly payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo after a rate buy-down. You know a two to one will cost a seller like 10 to 15 thousand (dollars). It will save you three to five hundred dollars per month for a couple of years,\u201d Carruth said.<\/p>\n
Carruth adds that buyers can use their inspection report as a negotiating tool.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet in there and find a list of all the stuff. If it has some deferred maintenance … use that to get them down just a little bit more before closing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Carruth says now is a good time for buyers to look at new construction homes. He says many are priced lower than resale homes, with closing cost incentives, new appliances, warranties and usually lower insurance costs.<\/p>\n
Sheryl Feldman is happy that she and her husband found the house that meets their needs. She has a few tips for house hunters.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow where you want to go. Know how much you want to spend and stick to it, because otherwise you can get into trouble,\u201d Sheryl said.<\/p>\n
Atwell believes as mortgage rates eventually go down, we\u2019ll see buyers\u2019 demand increase. Atwell says this will help sellers, maybe by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Economists say consumer confidence and what happens with interest rates in the coming months will impact Florida\u2019s real estate market for the second half of 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Federal Reserve\u2019s decision this week to not lower interest rates will affect Central Florida\u2019s real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[16022,27812,1644,1337,115,772,1335,139,141,140,1014,835],"class_list":["post-253281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-housing","tag-app-latest-housing-stories","tag-housing","tag-keith-landry","tag-news","tag-on-air-ticker-article","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-seminole-county","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}