Sales Pace of Orlando Luxury Communities

The high rollers are headed west in Metro Orlando.

More million-dollar homes were sold in Keene's Pointe in west Orange County during the first half of the year than in any other luxury community in the four-county area. An analysis of area Realtors' resales reports by ERA Williams Real Estate Group found that 16 of the 140 homes that sold for $1 million or more from January through June are in Keene's Pointe, a Castle & Cooke development near Windermere.

Average sales price: $1.49 million.

Alaqua Lakes in north Seminole County came in second with 11 sales topping a million dollars. But Isleworth, another west Orange community near Windermere, reported eight homes sold in the elite-luxury category -- with an average price of $4.5 million, tops for any development or neighborhood in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. And a dozen other homes worth more than $1 million sold in various other west Orange developments in the Top 10.

Overall, the survey found that Metro Orlando resales of million-dollar homes were down 39 percent compared with the first half of 2007, with 140 properties changing hands this year vs. 231 a year earlier, reflecting the nationwide housing slump and economic slowdown. But the average sale price was up a bit, $1.78 million vs. $1.71 million, and that was not because larger homes were selling, because the price on a square-foot basis was also up, to $346 from $343. Orlando Sentinel 9/23/08.