Indicators show West Volusia real-estate upswing

BEACON FILE PHOTO
Volusia County Property Appraiser — Morgan Gilreath

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Apr 25, 2009 - 8:49:03am

Volusia County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath has been looking at the numbers in home sales, and they’re good, for a change.

There’s proof the residential real-estate market has finally turned around in Volusia County, especially in DeBary, which bumps up against Seminole County, he said.

The median price of a home sold in DeBary went up 6 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 2008, from $206,000 to $220,000.

“The demand market is coming in out of the Orange and Seminole market, and finding homes that far exceed what they can buy over there, for the same money,” Gilreath said.

It’s the first turnaround in the Volusia County market, he said. Gilreath believes the DeBary market has already bottomed out. Prices will go up, from here.

In DeLand and Orange City, Gilreath advised, “You’d better go looking soon, because they’re turning now.”

In those two cities, the median sale prices dropped only 3 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. That’s still 32 percent less than prices in the first quarter of 2007, but a very good sign, Gilreath said. “The market is ripe for a turn.”

Home prices hit an all-time high in 2006, during a real-estate boom. Market conditions drove up the prices to an inflated “bubble” high. Then, when the economy hit the skids, so did the housing market.

A graph of Volusia County single-family residential sale prices 1996-2009 shows a steady increase in home prices, and prices now “precisely where they would have been without the bubble,” he said.

The graph shows a gentle increase upward from a $78,082 median price in 1996 to a $146,729 median price in 2009 if the “bubble” is discounted.

Though Deltona prices are still down, for now, the market in DeBary is a harbinger of things to come there and for the whole county, Gilreath said.

He did not have statistics on the number of sales for the first quarter of the year. There’s a lag between the time a house is sold and when the record goes to his office.

West Volusia Association of Realtors Executive Pam MacConnell does, however.

“All of our members are talking about being busier,” MacConnell said.

Realtors are listing, showing and selling more homes.

The data back that up.

In March 2009, the inventory of homes for sale in West Volusia was 15.47 months’ worth. That’s the lowest it’s been since April 2007.

The smaller the inventory, the fewer the homes available for sale, and the better the market for sellers.

In March 2009, the median sale price of a home in West Volusia was $128,793, down about $5,000 from February, but higher than January’s $124,456. MacConnell believes that January figure was the bottom of the market.

She said prices are more realistic than the median price of $225,669 in January 2007. “We’re not in a bubble.”

“It’s a good time to buy,” MacConnell said.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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