The continued increase in Orlando pre foreclosures and completed foreclosure filings has enabled the city to issue stimulus bonds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which was passed by Congress in 2009.
Under the stimulus bond program, the city of Orlando can issue federally subsidized bonds so it can raise funds to finance its economic development projects. A city can only issue this kind of bond if it has been designated a federal recovery zone – an area that has been devastated by unemployment, high rates of foreclosure and general distress.
With the still rising rate of properties entering homes auctions in Orlando and in nearby areas, the city and the counties of Seminole and Osceola counties have been authorized to issue collectively up to $50 million in stimulus bonds. The city and the counties can use the money to expand current public infrastructure or construct new public facilities to be able to create new jobs for unemployed residents.
In addition to continuing Orlando pre foreclosures, the metro area is also clobbered by a 12.4-percent unemployment rate as of January, higher than the statewide rate of 12.2 percent and much higher than the national rate of 9.7 percent.
Encouraged by the efforts of its nearby counties, Lake County has also started considering the federal stimulus program so it can issue about $17 million in subsidized recovery bonds.
Recently, economist Sean Snaith, head of the University of Central Florida Institute for Economic Competitiveness, spoke at a commercial real estate conference and said that Orlando and the rest of Florida will come out of the recession last because of their current unemployment and housing problems.
Orlando foreclosure homes are still overwhelming the area housing market. In February, 70 percent of the almost 1,900 properties sold were short sales or bank owned, dragging home prices further down. The median price for short sales in February was $105,000, down from the January median of $115,000.
The price median for bank-owned properties and nondistressed homes posted slight increases if computed separately, but the median for all resale homes dropped. In February, the median for bank owned homes was $71,000 while the price median for nondistressed sales was $168,100.
For all types of existing homes, the median price was $109,200, a drop of 26.7 percent from the February 2009 median price of $149,000. The continued rise in Orlando pre foreclosures and completed foreclosures has been dragging prices down.