CNN just named Orlando the fourth most desirable city in America to reside. With our beautiful weather,  professional sports, booming hospitality, health and technology industries, world recognized colleges and universities and of course our domination of the theme park universe, it’s hard to argue with them. You then add the new SunRail systems, Arts and Entertainment facility and continued growth of downtown residential projects and things are looking good for the Orlando area.
The Orlando Regional Realtors Association (ORRA) just came out with their numbers for June and though the numbers are still positive, there are some areas that should be watched in my opinion. 
Year to Year comparisons from June of 2013 shows us that conventional sales are up 11.31%, Short Sales are down 57.20% and Foreclosures are up 54.66%. The overall median sales price for #OrlandoRealEstate is $165,100 and the median sales price for conventional sales only is $194,003 for just under a 10% increase. The total active listings are up 51.23% however, new contracts are down 15.36%.
A county by county breakdown of sales in June vs. May shows the following:
Lake:  sales up 4.14%
Orange: sales down 5.06%
Osceola: sales up 14.16%
Seminole: sales up 6.47%
Active listings are still at a three year high though down 5.59% from May. However, withdrawn and expired listings have risen and new contracts for sale and purchase have continued to decline. These are the numbers that are worth watching for a couple of reasons. 
Institutional Investors are winding down their purchase cycle. These large cash investors were major players in Central Florida’s #bankowned and #shortsale markets. Their cash purchases, sometimes sight-unseen, at market value and sometimes higher, did somewhat stabilize an unstable market but also caused, in my opinion, slightly inflated home prices. You add their exit from the market with strict lender qualifications and sellers with a false sense of home value and you may create a buyers vacuum where many potential buyers are simply forced to watch from the sidelines. Thus, you have the potential for the continued pattern of more expired and withdrawn listings and less executed contracts for sale and purchase.
A separate phenomena but related and still very important to the health and continued recovery of the Orlando real estate market is the lost art of negotiation. Is it due to the “take it or leave it” pricing of bank owned properties or the “wait and pray” process of many short sales through our last seven years of recovery? Maybe it is just simply the lack of training and/or experience for many real estate agents? Regardless, there seems to be a large void of real estate professionals who truly know that buying and selling a home is not just a simple “yes” or “no”. You have to understand your client, the market, the neighborhood, the home, the personalities and circumstances involved to bring two parties to an agreement. So make sure you properly interview candidates before selecting the right professional for you.
Before I get off on a tangent, my point is, buying and selling real estate is no longer: “give me your highest and best”. It is becoming more and more dynamic and requires a professional who understand the information that I provided above and understands how to educate you and use the information and their experience to your advantage.
Central Florida is an amazing place to live and a great place to buy and sell real estate. Especially when you have someone who knows how to put the numbers in your favor.