With housing prices holding at lofty 2005 levels while more properties are hitting the market and lingering longer, home buyers and home sellers are in a virtual stalemate in Central Florida.

With the inventory of existing homes for sale up fivefold in a year, owners, agents and new-home builders in Central Florida are pulling out all the stops -- except lowering prices -- to move houses and attract the attention of prospective buyers.

According to Orlando Regional Realtor Association records, the average resale home spent 27 days on the market last summer during the red-hot market -- a historic low for the Orlando area. Central Florida agents say, some real estate agents have boosted their marketing with added fliers and "talking houses" equipped with small AM radio transmitters. But many sellers are clinging to unrealistic price expectations.

Nationally and throughout much of Florida, median home prices are beginning to slip, especially in places where the price escalation was most rapid -- such as Naples, Miami, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale. Rising interest rates are making loans less affordable, and speculators who bought homes with riskier financing, such as interest-only mortgages, have been selling despite the declining market, adding to the inventory and downward price pressure.

Coldwell Banker's Brady said that pricing a home so that it sells within a reasonable period of time is one of the talents a Realtor brings to the table, which helps explain why homes sell faster when listed through a Realtor. People can take their time. Builders of new homes and condominiums have more options than existing-home sellers, and they have been pouring resources into marketing and deals in recent months.

By M. Sese
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