Florida’s housing market is showing more signs of normalization, but statewide numbers mask sharply different conditions across Orlando’s diverse submarkets.
Active single-family listings in Florida reached 83,832 for the week ending Aug. 29, according to HousingWire Data. That’s well above the roughly 53,000 homes available in early 2023, though below a peak of about 107,000 in mid-2025.
The statewide median list price was $474,999 — down 2.9% from $489,000 a year earlier, while 43.9% of active listings had undergone a price reduction. Orlando is experiencing a similar shift, with 8,887 active listings in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro and a median list price of $485,000.
Nearly half, 49%, had reduced their asking price. Average days on market stood at 123, compared with 138 statewide.
But local agents say those figures do not tell the whole story. Orlando’s housing market is increasingly defined by the neighborhood, property type, financing, insurance and, above all, pricing.
Joe Doher, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Results Realty in Orlando, has been in the business for 33 years and tracks the market across Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties.
“The consumer in Orlando wants immediate gratification,” he told HousingWire. “The weather’s good. They want open houses — and access to the home is critical. And communication, they don’t want to talk to a bot. They don’t want to talk to text or email. If you can get a live person, that’s where the execution is happening.
“Hiring the right pro is the key to selling in Orlando, and there’s still a lot of movement and a lot of buyers that want representation.”
For Pozek Group founder and Orlando agent Jeremy Pozek, those aggregate numbers can obscure the radically different conditions within the metro.
“It’s a very siloed. Orlando’s [metro area] is very tough to follow from the outsider’s perspective,” he said. “It’s because we have so many different kinds of markets within the same [metro]. You have the short-term rental market down in Kissimmee, Champions Gate — sort of the southwest Orlando area that’s really tough right now. The Airbnb market dried up in terms of buyers.
“So, we have months’ supply of homes, and there’s price reductions left and right. But the well-priced, good-looking houses are still selling within a week or two. It’s the ones that think it’s 2022 and try to price super high [that] sit forever.
Doher ranked No. 1 across Orlando in both volume and sides last year, according to RealTrends Verified, while Pozek Group earned top placement in both categories among mega teams.
Pricing draws line in the sand
Veronica Figueroa — CEO of eXp Realty-affiliated The Fig Team in Orlando— said sellers are having to reset expectations about how quickly their homes will sell.
“We do see still properties go under contract within days in a multiple offer situation in these pocket markets,” she said. “It’s very specific communities that are highly desirable. Then, on the flip side, we are seeing some distressed properties. We’re starting to see a lot more short sale scenarios of people saying, ‘You know, I’m behind or I’m underwater.’
“But these are very specific buyers. Maybe they bought in 2023 or at the height of the market, and they’re just in a situation that’s unfortunate.”
Rather than simply telling a seller that the price is too high, Figueroa guides them through the evidence.
“I say, ‘Help me understand how you came to this conclusion that your house is worth what 2021 and 2022 told you it was,” she said. “A lot of times we take them on a path of self-discovery, and if they’re really serious about selling, they come to that conclusion themselves.”
The Fig Team ranked No. 4 in Orlando among enterprise team last year for both volume ($160.6 million) and transaction sides (465). That was also good enough for respective statewide ranks of No. 12 and No. 9.
Pozek similarly said sellers have to look at what’s happening now rather than relying on older transactions.
“You have to look at pending comps more than ever, and then it’s about figuring out where the market’s trending,” he said. “If you’re not paying attention to those minute details, you’re going to get left behind.”
Builder incentives, soft vacation season
Pozek said current builder incentives are creating substantial pressure on existing homeowners.
“You look at some of the suburban markets that have a lot of new construction,” he said. “Builders are offering wild incentives. I just closed a deal. It was the biggest incentive I’ve ever had in the 23 years I’ve been doing this, just wild, to get the deal done. But then the core markets where there’s not a lot of new construction — there’s still not a lot of inventory. The prices are holding strong and days on market right around 45 days is not bad; [it’s] pretty typical.”
The rise in price reductions has also fueled questions about whether Florida is moving toward a distressed housing market.
Doher expects vacation markets to face additional pressure as the year progresses. “I think [the overall market] will stabilize a little bit, but the vacation markets will feel a little more pain points because they have a high vacancy rate now,” he said. “The season seemed to soften a little bit earlier this year. Talking to the property managers that manage vacation rentals, I think the vacation mark will see a really rough fourth quarter. The primary housing market buyer demand is still there.”
Affordability the bigger issue
For buyers outside the vacation segment, affordability remains a central concern. Insurance costs have become particularly consequential for Florida homeowners, with Doher citing upcoming changes in coverage requirements.
“Something that many people don’t know about the Florida market is that starting January 2027, if you have a [Citizens Property Insurance] policy, even if you’re not in a flood zone, you’re required to have flood insurance,” he said. “These are things that people don’t know. That’s going to make it another affordability issue.”
Figueroa, meanwhile, sees evidence that buyers remain motivated when financing can be structured to make the monthly payment work.
“We sell 500 homes a year, and we’re seeing buyers are still excited about buying right now because we can take them to a builder, and they’ll get a three-two-one buydown,” she said. “We’re giving them alternative ways to get creative financing or financing that works for them right now. Even though interest rates are not the most competitive, they can start off with the three-two-one buydown with the hopes that they can refinance later on.” A three-two-one buydown lowers the interest rate for the first three years of a fixed-rate loan.
Doher also points to continued migration into Central Florida, particularly among higher-end buyers.
“The main thing that is driving the market is that the high end is recession proof, and there’s still demand,” he said. “I’ve seen all the data showing that the people are still moving here in droves. You know, the U-Haul data — inbound migration is still there.”
Execution matters more in a balanced market
Doher said technology is changing how consumers discover properties and agents, but he believes credibility remains important.
He’s even had two Tesla automobile owners contact him after their vehicles directed them to his business.
“It’s not 2022 anymore, no more demand ahead of supply like that,” said Doher. “Now it’s a balanced market when professionals shine and having the right tools and tech helps. AI is a big part, but it’s still about getting out there. Being ranked number one [on RealTrends], I’ve really been able to lean into that and I’m thankful for it, for the exposure.”
Pozek believes the market’s biggest challenge may simply be expectations coming back down to Earth.
“The collective conscious of what’s actually going on in the market needs to catch up,” he said. “On the flip side, sellers and buyers weren’t really understanding [in 2020 and 2021] that the market was as hot as it was until we were already a year or 18 months into that. So, all of a sudden, now they understood multiple offers and they understood waving appraisals.
“They understood these crazy things. Now, it’s completely shifted to the other side with the sellers needing to catch up.”
Figueroa makes a similar distinction between today’s conditions and the extraordinary market that preceded them.
“This is a normal market, but I’ve also been doing this for 20 years, so I understand this type of market because the market we lived five years ago wasn’t a normal market,” she said. “We just don’t have interest rates at 2.625% anymore. I remember my first home that I sold was a 6.75% interest rate when I first started real estate. So for me, this is just back to reality.”
For sellers, the message is increasingly straightforward — price for the market that exists, not the one that existed three years ago. For buyers, the increased inventory and negotiating room represent a return to a more familiar housing environment.
And for Orlando’s real estate professionals, the opportunity is in navigating differences between those markets rather than treating Central Florida as one housing monolith.
