Report: Home sales and prices recover

The existing home market in Orange and Seminole counties continued to show signs of improvement last year with sales up nearly 6 percent and prices rising or holding steady in most categories, according to the recently published 2011 Hillman Report.

“The number of transactions last year were up considerably in nearly every category over 2010, and I’m confident we will see continued appreciation in all areas of the local residential real estate market in 2012, including million-dollar-plus homes,” said Scott Hillman, president of Fannie Hillman + Associates, a 31-year-old Winter Park firm that twice a year publishes The Hillman Report, which takes a comprehensive look at the Winter Park, Maitland, College Park, Baldwin Park, Windermere and downtown Orlando housing and condominium markets.

“The real estate industry is digging out of a deep hole that I believe reached rock bottom in the first quarter of 2009, but we can’t put the shovels away just yet. Significant progress has been made in the past two years, but there’s lots more work that needs to be done,” Hillman said.

The 2011 Hillman Report showed transactions for all single-family homes were up 5.7 percent over 2010 and up 15.7 percent over 2009, while sales of condominiums were down 22.7 percent from 2010, but up 13.8 percent over 2009.

“The good news in the condominium market is that although total transactions were down last year, prices in the lower two categories — under $200,000 and $200,001 to $500,000 — were up 13 percent and 1 percent, respectively,” Hillman said.

While there have been isolated cases where average and median prices for single-family home have spiked, “generally speaking prices throughout the area have stabilized or gradually appreciated, particularly in Baldwin Park and Windermere. This trend bodes well for 2012 and beyond,” Hillman said.

Higher-priced, single-family homes did particularly well last year. Sales of homes in the $750,000 to $1 million range were up 13 percent over 2010 and up 21.5 percent over 2009, while transactions of homes with million-dollar-plus price tags were up 4 percent over 2010 and 34 percent over 2009. Last year’s increase in million-dollar-plus sales occurred even though average and median sales prices were up 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

—Fannie Hillman + Associates