Winter Haven Florida Housing Report for January 2009

February 21, 2009 | Kevin Sandridge |

Housing prices continue to fall throughout the Polk County region, and Winter Haven’s January stats show this to be the case for our town as well. Average sold prices have decreased to $114,306 ($68.30 per sq.ft.) a decline of 10% from the previous month and a sharp drop of 30% for the month of January as it stood in 2008.

A total of 44 homes were sold in Winter Haven, showing a 25% decline from December 2008, but reflecting similar totals from this time last January.

jan-2009-housing-totals

Winter Haven, Florida’s Absorption Rate

We’ve talked about absorption rate before. Basically, the absorption rate reflects that time it would take to sell the homes currently on the market if all other construction and listing activity were to immediately come to ta halt. Absorption statistics are useful in that they give us a firmer understanding of how bloated or lean our Winter Haven housing market is at any given time.

At present, with more than 1,260 properties currently for sale and pending, we are experiencing a 31 month of supply for the regular homes and distressed homes. In other words, it would take us about 2 years and 7 months to clear out our current inventory.

A Closer Look at Regular vs. Distressed Winter Haven Homes Currently on the Market

Regular properties – The current inventory of active and pending homes is at 932, resulting in an unprecedented 58 month supply.

Distressed properties – our present inventory of active and pending homes is at 330, resulting in a 14 month supply.

Distressed properties are homes in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, are bank-owned, are are in the process of going through short sales.

Of the 44 homes sold last month here in Winter Haven, 25 distressed homes were sold with an average sales price of $97,213 ($59.99 per sq.ft.) compared to only 3 homes that were sold the previous as either short sales or foreclosures.

Take a look at my spreadsheet below. I’ve separated the report by zip code instead of school zones; it gives you a more accurate report in my opinion. The data for this report was obtained from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS, it is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This report does not include “For Sale By Owner”.