This is another entry in Orlando Business Journal‘s “Realtor Diaries” series, which follows three local Realtors during the course of six weeks. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. These stories will appear together in the a special report in a future OBJ print edition.
When real estate agent Deanna Armel listed a $2.2 million home in the Lake Nona neighborhood of Water’s Edge, it took a mere two hours to attract not just one but two full-price offers.
That’s fast for any home, let alone one in the top 5% price point of houses on the market in Central Florida. However, what the CEO of Armel Real Estate Inc. experienced was just an extreme example of the historic speeds at which pricey local homes trade hands.
In fact, the October report by the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing lists the average days on market for a metro Orlando luxury home at just 11 days.
Of course, not every luxury property will get snatched up that quick. Still, the top end of the local housing market moves much faster than it did 18 months ago.
To see Central Florida’s priciest home sales of Q3, check out the gallery above.
For example, Premier Sotheby’s International Realty agent Peter Luu told Orlando Business Journal his $6.2 million listing at 13337 Kirby Smith Road in Orlando, which hit the market Oct. 14, is likely to find a buyer in 60-90 days. Before March 2020, a home with that price tag may have sat on the market for nine months to a year, Luu added. “This market is different.”
Indeed, the more expensive homes typically take longer to sell. For example, online real estate brokerage Redfin Corp. reported in fourth-quarter 2019 that homes in the top 5% spent a median of 60 days on the market, while homes in the other 95% of the market typically sold in 43 days.
However, a flood of new residents from the Northeast, West Coast and South Florida have made their way to Central Florida in the past 18 months, mostly drawn by the relatively cheaper cost of living. These buyers have more money to spend, and are competing for limited inventory of high-end homes.
For this reason, Luu predicts the Kirby Smith Road property will sell to a Walt Disney Co. executive relocating from California to Lake Nona.
Even record-setting estates are gobbled up quickly. Orange County’s priciest single-family home sale, a $12.5 million Orlando mansion near Walt Disney World, sold in an all-cash deal on Oct. 13 after less than three months on the market.
While these homes sell fast and often are all-cash transactions, that doesn’t mean the deals are simple. In the case of the Water’s Edge home, the sellers owned multiple homes and didn’t want to take their furniture with them. However, the buyers had no need for it either, Armel told OBJ.
Armel’s response? Reach out to residents throughout Lake Nona Golf & Country Club and let them know the chic furniture was for sale on the cheap, she said. “My phone blew up. I got everything in the house sold in two days, all from Lake Nona Golf & Country Club people.”
Meanwhile, local luxury home sales got a bump last month. There were 146 metro Orlando luxury sales, up 62% from 90 sales in August, according to the Dallas-based Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. Orlando’s high-end home sector is a seller’s market, with more demand than available homes, according to the report.
Trends in the residential real estate market are important, as every home sale in the state has an estimated local economic impact of $90,300, according to the National Association of Realtors. In addition, the housing market often is considered a reflection of the local economy’s overall health.
