'Bottom-Feeding Activity' Continues to Drive Down Orlando Home Prices

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While many markets in Florida show signs of stabilizing, Orlando prices continue to drop.

After an 8 percent dip from July to August, Orlando's median home prices are now under $100,000, a decrease of more than 60 percent from August of 2006. The median price for a condominium was $44,000 in August, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

Foreclosures and short sales continued to dominate the market, accounting for 71 percent of deals, according to the association's latest report. The median price of a bank-owned sale was $70,000 in August, while short sales hit a median price of $100,000, down from $116,000 a month earlier.

On the upside, affordability in the popular tourist destination is "at an all-time high," the association announced in a press release. (Or as OPP magazine put it, "Florida is ripe for the picking.")

Thanks in large part to the bottom-feeding activity; the number of sales is actually up 36 percent from this point in 2009, according to the association's latest report. The number of new contracts filed in August was up 17 percent from August in 2009.

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