DOOMSAYERS AREN'T TALKING ABOUT ORLANDO

Yep, it’s all over the headlines. The real estate market is tanking; the sky is falling. Inventory is up; the world is coming to an end. Those talking heads do love to hear themselves spread doom and gloom throughout the land. 

The problem is, most of them are looking at real estate trends in the country as whole — so we get bundled together with places like Yuma, Arizona. 

Before you say anything, yes, I have been to Yuma, Arizona. It’s a fine place for people who want to live in the middle of nowhere, where the landscape is various shades of brown, it’s always over 100 degrees and career opportunities are limited. 

Let’s agree that type of community has limited appeal, so the housing numbers in Yuma would, naturally, be vastly different than ours.

So, what’s happening in Central Florida’s real estate market? Simply put, it is still a seller’s market. Granted, the frenzied buying has slowed down and the number of homes available have increased slightly — but demand is still outpacing supply. 

Folks with the means to buy at the top of the market have bought, so they’re no longer in the market. Rising prices and interest rates have knocked other buyers out of the market. 

In normal times, we’d have about six-months’ worth of housing inventory locally. As of this writing, however, Central Florida was sitting at just over one months’ worth of inventory.