Orlando Asbestos Prevention & Healthy Alternatives for Homeowners
The journey to purchasing a home is one of many joyous experiences for you and your family. Quite frankly, it is the investment of a life time. It is also one that will bring additional responsibilities into your life. The real-estate world is a fast paced industry where decisions need to be made in a quick and orderly fashion.
Many homes will require further repairs or renovations, especially if located in an area that is susceptible to natural disasters. Many structures continue to harvest older methods of construction and can pose many problems for home owners. Asbestos has appeared as insulation, piping, roof shingles and flooring.
Potential buyers of Orlando real estate or those remodeling older homes should be aware that homes built before 1980 may still contain asbestos. It should be stated that asbestos exposure is easily preventable by taking simple precautions. There are now a number of alternative forms of insulation which replace the need for asbestos entirely.
If any asbestos materials are suspected, professionals advise to leave it un-disturbed. Asbestos in good condition may not pose any health risks. Once asbestos becomes damaged or friable, its fibers could become airborne. Rare form of asbestos lung cancer known as mesothelioma is caused only through exposure. Accounting for three percent of cancer diagnoses in the United States, there is no mesothelioma cure. Although advances have been made with mesothelioma treatments, many variables affect how patients respond to them. These include age of diagnosis, latency period and cigarette smoking.
It is recommended for home owners or remodelers to hire professional inspectors who can determine the legitimacy of danger if any asbestos materials are present. If removal is deemed necessary, it must be performed by a licensed abatement contractor who is licensed in dealing with hazardous materials. The Florida Department of Air Resource Management administers an asbestos removal program in order to prevent the release of airborne asbestos fibers in places of work, public facilities and homes. Read on…
Orlando Real Estate Genie: Your Wish Is My Command!
For those that still need convincing that it’s time to make that Orlando home purchase, comes some interesting date from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA). The average price of an Orlando house sold in January 2009 ($148,274) decreased by 33.06% compared to January 2008 - on top of that, the area’s average interest rate dropped to its lowest point since May of 2005, creating a perfect storm for would-be home buyers.
Think about it. As a buyer, what would make conditions perfect for buying? In an ideal buyer’s market, what FOUR wishes (that’s a good start) could the Real Estate Genie possibly grant you as an incentive to buy? How about:
- Large inventory; over supply, massive choice;
- Low interest rates;
- An $8000 non-repayable government loan for first-time buyers might be nice;
- Silly prices, not only reversing the gains of the last few years but going beyond that and taking us back to pre-2005 pricing. Fifty cents on the dollar, twenty-five cents on the dollar… whatever.
“Yes, yes! That’s exactly what I want!” you exclaim to your Real Estate Genie. “One couldn’t hope for a better market than that. Give it to me now baby!”
Then, Poof!
“You got it!” says the Genie. “Now go snap up a deal while you can!”
“Um,” you say, “Well, um, actually, I’m just not convinced the time is right yet. I mean… you know…”
Now if I were a Real Estate Genie, whose only personal real estate consisted of an over-priced, cramped, misshapen, green bottle, I would smack you upside the head with said bottle, before taking back my wishes and offering them to a more realistic buyer. Hrumph!
Orlando’s Top Ten Real Estate Deals
Orlando Real Estate Update: Jan 2009
For those that still need convincing that it’s time to make that Orlando real estate purchase, comes some interesting data from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA).
The average price of an Orlando home sold in January 2009 ($148,274) decreased by 33.06% compared to January 2008 – on top of that, the area’s average interest rate dropped to its lowest point since May of 2005, creating a perfect storm for would-be home buyers.
Home sales are up, with over 17.71% more homes in January of this year than January of last year. And the number of pending sales, considered by housing economists to be a good predicator of future sales activity, continued upward to 3,830 with 121.25% more homes under contract in January 2009 than compared to January 2008.
The decrease in median price drove the area’s affordability index to another record high of 165.27%. An affordability index of 99% means that buyers earning the state-reported median income are 1% short of the income necessary to purchase a median-priced home. Conversely, an affordability index that is over 100 means that median-income earners make more than is necessary to qualify for a median-priced home. ORRA notes: “Buyers who earn the reported median income of $52,136 can qualify to purchase one of 12,122 homes in Orange and Seminole counties… for $245,046 or less.”
The majority of Orlando single-family homes that changed hands in January 2009 were sold in the $200,000 - $250,000 price range. On the far ends of the scale, 13 homes were sold for $1 million or more while 52 homes sold for less than $50,000.
There are currently 22,613 Orlando homes available for purchase through the MLS. Compared to last year, the January 2009 inventory level is 12.09% lower than it was in January 2008 (25,724).
Average days on market? 104.
Orlando’s Real Estate Turnaround on Horizon
Signs of a real estate turnaround are finally on the horizon. And now, even some of the country’s previously most-bearish economists are beginning to agree.
Last week, Dr. Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, surprised analysts by announcing that “the bottom of the housing downturn is in sight for the nation.”
Days later, the Wall Street Journal - among the most pessimistic of major U.S. newspapers - ran a prominent article with this headline: “For some, it’s finally time to dive into the housing market.”
The Journal quoted one Phoenix buyer who had just picked up a bargain-priced first home as saying, “six months ago, I didn’t think I would ever own a home. Now I do. It’s so perfect.”
Mortgage rates continue to hover near historic lows. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, thirty year fixed rates last week averaged 5.2 percent, down from 5.3 percent the week before. Fifteen year rates average a flat five percent.
Orlando America’s Fourth Favorite City
Orlando ranks fourth among America’s most popular big cities, according to a national survey released today.
The survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends project puts Orlando behind Denver, San Diego and Seattle as the city most respondents would like to live. Orlando ties for fourth place with San Francisco and Tampa. Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati ranked at the bottom of the list.
See Orlando Sentinel for full story.
Move it - or lose it…
If you’re trying to time bottom I don’t blame you. But you risk losing out just like the Brits who failed to move quickly enough last year when they had over two dollars to the UK pound. I’m already hearing the “if only we’d bought then” refrain. Brits now get less than a dollar fifty - and have thus just added 25% to the price of their Orlando vacation home.
And why are we quibbling over a half point on interest rates when prices are so low it doesn’t even matter? If interest rates were to rise to 8 percent they’d still be low. Those of you who were around in the 80’s might recall interest rates as high as 17 percent (I was still playing Duran Duran records). Now that’s something to worry about - not the Duran Duran, the interest rates. If you need convincing take a look at at this table and start looking at the big picture.
In addition, Orlando’s total inventory is already down by over 3000 units from it’s high last year. And sales are up. Prices are low, interest rates are low and there’s a lot to choose from. It’s the perfect storm. And just because experts think we may still have some way to go before we hit bottom remember, that is an average national picture. Remember, real estate is a local phenomenon and bottom in central Florida will not occur at the same time as it does in other states. Experts have noted that we were first to take the hit, we took the hardest hit - and it looks as if we’ll be first out of the gate to recovery.
So if you’re waiting for the media to tell you we’ve hit bottom and it’s time to start buying again I can guarantee you one thing. You’ll miss the party.
Orlando Real Estate A Steal
The value of homes in the Orlando area has fallen 20.7 percent from the previous year. The numbers released by the Zillow report (released February 3, 2009) confirms that there has not been a better time in the last 5 years to pick up a deal on Orlando real estate.
The report shows the current value for all homes in the Orlando area was $172,188 by the end of the 2008. Single-family home values were down 20.7 percent to $177,625 and condo values declined 16.2 percent to $130,047.
About 39.8 percent of the homes purchased in 2008 had negative equity and 94.5 percent of homes in the market lost value over the last 12 months, based on Zillow values. The report estimated that 35.5 percent of homes sold in the Orlando area were sold for a loss.
Nationwide, home values fell for the eighth straight quarter, dropping 11.6 percent to $192,119. That means homeowners lost $3.3 trillion in home values during 2008, with much of it coming in the fourth quarter.
Orlando’s Top Ten Real Estate Deals!
Orlando Real Estate Pros are now producing Orlando’s “Top Ten” real estate deals” for a zingy new, nationwide real estate website called, yes… Top10RealEstateDeals.com
Each month, we’ll be selecting the best of Orlando’s real estate deals and will bring them directly to this new listings site.
You’ll find our first Orlando top ten on their site right now: Orlando Real Estate Deals. We’ll also be syndicating the deals to our own sites both here and also at: CondoMetropolis.com
These opportunities represent just a few of the more than 22,000 units on the Orlando homes market at present. Contact us for more info on these or if you’re not seeing something that suits you, just let us know and we’ll perform a custom search of the central Florida MLS database for you at no charge.
Home Affordability Best Since 1970’s
Good news for Home Buyers: Recent data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) indicates that its home affordability index is at the best levels since the 1970’s. The index compares average family incomes to average home prices nationaly. A value of 100 signifies that a family earning the median income has enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home, where the monthly payment is conservatively figured to not exceed 25% of the monthly family income.
The current Home Affordability Index is currently at a staggering 141.8 - which means that a family earning the median family income has 141.8 % of the income necessary to qualify for a conventional loan covering 80 percent of a median-priced existing single-family home. This is even better than the number of 119.4 from the same time last year, and is in fact the best since the early 1970s - and the best ever since the NAR began determining this ratio monthly in 1981.
Orlando Real Estate is no exception and prices here have never looked better. Of course financing is more challenging today although interest rates are still at historic lows.