Metropolitan Orlando home sales dipped and prices hovered in September as one local professional says buyers and sellers are caught in a waiting game.
The median home price reached $407,000, a 1.2% increase year over year, according to Homes.com research. Prices had fallen by 1.2% in August after rising 1.2% in July.
Broken down by housing type, single-family homes saw the only annual price increase, up 2.3% to $440,000, $10,000 more than the same time in 2024. The median townhouse price fell 1.1% to $345,990. Condo prices, facing ongoing headwinds, continued a downward slide to $195,000, 5.2% below the previous year.
Listings of homes for sale hit 15,640 in the month, a 15% increase in inventory year over year. However, the number of new listings is down 11% from a year ago, according to Homes.com. In contrast, new listings are up 8.1% nationally.
Homes.com data shows Florida is ranked 48th out of the 51 states and Washington, D.C., for total percentage change in the number of new listings. Orlando is ranked 22nd out of the 40 largest markets for new listings, and last for the annual percentage change in new listings.
Interest rates hold back sales
Diane Sterling of Keller Williams Advantage Realty in Oviedo told Homes.com both sides of the market are treading lightly in anticipation of potential action from the Federal Reserve.
“People are still waiting on the fence for those interest rates to drop a little bit more,” she said.
In addition to hesitancy from buyers hoping for a lower rate, Sterling said sellers she knows are slow walking their properties to market in hopes of offering them at a hotter time.
“More of them than usual that I’ve been talking to are just sitting out there waiting to get things done,” she said. “When interest rates drop, it’ll make more their homes more attractive and affordable.”
The average mortgage rate was 6.05% in September, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, down from 6.35% the previous month and the lowest rates have been this year. Still, homes spent an average of 72 days on market, up from 58 days the same time last year, the association said in a new report.
The Federal Reserve cut a quarter percent from its benchmark interest rate last month, and many expect policymakers to cut rates at their meetings in October and December.
“Falling interest rates are beginning to inject some welcomed energy into the market,” association president Lawrence Bellido said in a statement. “We’re not seeing the frenzy of a few years ago, but we’re seeing movement.”
Sales were down 2.6% from August but virtually unchanged from last September, according to the association.
Sterling said she isn’t concerned that the market is sluggish right now. “We’re really fortunate that so many people keep moving here from out of state,” she said. “There are people going out and saying, ‘I can always refinance.’ ”