A housing bubble report on Orlando, Florida. "Competition has thickened in Central Florida's residential real estate market during the last year. Existing and new home inventories have grown exponentially, forcing properties to remain on the market longer and sellers to do more to get their homes sold. The result: The region's once red- hot housing market has morphed from a seller's Shangri-la to a haven for home buyers."

"'The market has definitely transitioned from a sellers market to a buyers market, and it did it rapidly,' says Jack McCabe." "Existing home inventory in January totaled 12,015, a 262 percent increase in the last year, according to Orlando Regional Realtor Association's January Roth Report. 'The last time we saw inventory levels this high was in the mid-1990s,' notes Scott Hillman."

"New homes have not been immune to these market mood swings either, says Anthony Crocco. Metrostudy noted a marked 18.3 percent increase in the inventory of new single-family homes to 16,067. The largest spike was recorded in the finished vacant new homes category, where the number of available units rose more than 97 percent from 1,709 in 2004 to 3,372 last year."

"'Usually, developers want to see only about 20 percent of the homes in their communities finished and vacant,' says Crocco. 'Today, some are seeing as much as 80 percent.'" "Industry insiders point to a mass exodus of investors and speculators from the Central Florida market. 'The investors and speculators who flew through our market fueling the growth in sales and running up home prices have taken their profits and moved on for better investment opportunities elsewhere,' explains Crocco."

"For-sale and for-rent signs pepper the front yards of many Central Florida neighborhoods, wreaking havoc in new communities where these homes compete with new construction for the attention of home buyers."'

"As a result, home prices appear to be leveling off, if not turning slightly south. Despite growing by 35 percent in 2005, the median sale price of an existing home in Orlando actually dropped by $10,000 between November and December 2005 to $239,900, and the median price grew less than 1 percent from December 2005 to January 2006 to $242,050."

"'The market really reached its pinnacle last August,' says McCabe. 'I really believe we will see downward pricing corrections in the near future. This is just a correction, a temporary situation, but it will probably be three to five years before the over-supply is absorbed.'"