ST. CLOUD, Fla. \u2014 Central Florida\u2019s real estate market saw fewer home sales and fewer new listings in July compared with June, while prices remained higher than a year ago, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.<\/p>\n
The association, known as ORRA, said the median home price in the Orlando area reached nearly $410,500 in July. That was down about $6,000 from June but still about $8,000 higher than a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Home sales fell 7.4% from June to July, while new listings dropped 7%, according to ORRA. The July figures reflect home sales in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake and Volusia counties.<\/p>\n
Lynda Strader, who has lived in St. Cloud for 15 years, is working with real estate agent Steve Pugh to find a house for her daughter and two children for less than $350,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest challenge is finding something she can afford,\u201d Strader said. \u201cThere\u2019s hardly any inventory currently for under $350,000, and under $300,000 is just unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawrence Bellido, ORRA\u2019s immediate past president, described the July numbers as a slight slowdown but said buyers still have options.<\/p>\n
\u201cNegotiate,\u201d Bellido said. \u201cThere\u2019s down payment assistance programs right now, and negotiate for a roof, air conditioning, even a water heater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassie Muffley spent seven months searching before finding her home in Longwood. She said she understands why some buyers are waiting for lower interest rates and why some sellers are choosing not to list their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of sellers who have great rates locked in,\u201d Muffley said. \u201cThey\u2019re watching the market continue to shift, and it\u2019s scary. If I don\u2019t have to sell right now, why would I?\u201d<\/p>\n
Affordability is also affecting where buyers look for homes. The Orlando Economic Partnership reported Metro Orlando\u2019s growth rate fell nearly 50% from the previous year, as more families looked to Lake and Osceola counties for more affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s causing first-time homebuyers mainly to go outside the area to get a little more housing and affordability for their purchase price,\u201d Bellido said.<\/p>\n
For Strader, homes under $350,000 are still selling quickly, keeping pressure on her family\u2019s search.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we could find it sooner rather than later, that would probably be good,\u201d Strader said.<\/p>\n
ORRA said homes are spending slightly more time on the market, while lower median prices are giving buyers more room to negotiate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. CLOUD, Fla. \u2014 Central Florida\u2019s real estate market saw fewer home sales and fewer new listings in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[16022,27812,558,1644,1337,2174,115,1335,139,141,140,1976,1014,835,2261],"class_list":["post-374229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-housing","tag-app-latest-housing-stories","tag-business","tag-housing","tag-keith-landry","tag-lake-county","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-osceola-county","tag-seminole-county","tag-vod","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374229","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=374229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}