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Orlando Real Estate Market

Orlando, FLCentral Florida's tourism and tech corridor, balancing growth with Florida's insurance squeeze

Key Market Stats

Last updated:
Median Price
$419K
-1.4% YoY
Month-over-Month
0.0%
vs. last month
Active Listings
13,218
homes for sale
Months of Supply
3 mo.
Balanced market
Days on Market
68d
median
Cash Buyers
28%
of all sales

Prices are median active listing prices (Realtor.com via FRED), not median sale prices. Days on market measures time listed, not days to close. Months of supply estimated from active ÷ new listings.

AI Market Analysis — Orlando

Orlando's housing market reflects a dual engine of theme-park-anchored hospitality employment and the Lake Nona–Medical City cluster drawing healthcare and simulation-tech workers. Short-term rental demand has historically kept investor share elevated, though Florida's insurance crisis and tightening STR regulation are pulling that down. Inventory has rebuilt materially and price growth has flattened.

Analysis generated from Redfin, FRED, and Census Bureau data. Updated monthly.

Sun Belt Weekly Digest

Market data, migration trends, and analysis for 5 Sun Belt metros — every Friday.

The City Beautiful

Orlando

The City Beautiful — theme-park capital of the world

Industries & employers in Orlando

BLS / Census · 2025-Q3

Total jobs

1.5M

Nonfarm employment, 2025-Q3

Unemployment

3.6%

Seasonally adjusted

Job growth YoY

+2.3%

Year-over-year change

Median HH income

$73K

Census ACS estimate

Industry mix

Share of total nonfarm employment

Tourism20.4%
Professional services12.9%
Retail12.1%
Healthcare11.8%
Government9.1%
Construction7.3%

Major employers

Metro-area headcount estimates

  • Walt Disney World Resort

    Tourism
    82K
  • AdventHealth

    Healthcare
    33K
  • Universal Orlando Resort

    Tourism
    27K
  • Orange County Public Schools

    Education
    26K
  • Orlando Health

    Healthcare
    23K
  • Publix

    Retail
    17K
  • University of Central Florida

    Education
    13K
  • Lockheed Martin

    Manufacturing
    8.5K
  • SeaWorld Parks

    Tourism
    6.5K
  • Siemens Energy

    Manufacturing
    3.5K

What the job market looks like in Orlando

America's most tourism-concentrated economy, plus a legitimate defense-simulation cluster and growing healthcare — concentration is both strength and vulnerability.

If you're moving to Orlando, the theme parks dominate the job base in a way no other Sun Belt metro's top employer does. Disney employs roughly 82,000 cast members locally — the largest single-site employer in the United States. Universal, SeaWorld, and the adjacent hospitality ecosystem push total tourism employment past 300,000. That concentration is both the metro's strength and its genuine vulnerability — wages in hospitality trail every Sun Belt peer, and recessions hit here harder than anywhere else on this list.

The less-advertised opportunity for P1 movers: the modeling, simulation, and training cluster around UCF and the Naval Support Activity base in east Orlando. Lockheed Martin's missile and simulation business employs around 8,500 locally, and contractors like L3Harris, Northrop, and Leidos add thousands more. Healthcare (AdventHealth, Orlando Health) is the other stable pillar. If your target is hospitality, expect consistent hiring but plan for below-peer wages and budget accordingly.

Timing: Epic Universe opened May 2025 with 14,000 permanent jobs. Disney's 2023 cancellation of its 2,000-job Lake Nona campus is the cautionary tale — don't bank a move on a single corporate announcement. NeoCity's semiconductor initiative in Osceola is Orlando's diversification bet, still early-stage. For defense and healthcare careers, the 24-month pipeline is steadier than headline tourism numbers suggest.

Recent corporate moves

  • 2025

    Universal Orlando

    Expansion

    Opened Epic Universe in May 2025, adding roughly 14,000 permanent jobs across the new park and adjacent hotels.

  • 2024

    Lockheed Martin

    Expansion

    Added roughly 1,000 engineering roles at its Orlando missiles and fire control campus to meet sustained defense demand.

  • 2024

    Siemens Energy

    Expansion

    Announced a $150M expansion of its Orlando gas turbine plant, adding around 500 manufacturing and engineering jobs.

  • 2023

    Disney

    Layoffs

    Cancelled the planned Lake Nona campus that was to relocate roughly 2,000 California roles to Orlando, after a public dispute with state leadership.

Climate in Orlando

NOAA 1991-2020 normals

Days ≥ 100°F

0

Extreme-heat days per year

Days ≥ 90°F

99

Hot days per year

Days ≤ 32°F

3

Freezing days per year

Annual precip

51.5"

129 rainy days/year

Climate hazards

Cfa · Humid subtropical

HurricaneHigh
WildfireModerate
FloodHigh
HailLow

Hazard levels are editorial ratings aggregated from FEMA, USDA wildfire risk, NOAA storm tracks, and NWS hail climatology. Not insurance or investment advice.

What movers should expect in Orlando

Sunny, warm, and inland — but Orlando's hurricane and flood record disproves the 'safely inland' assumption.

Orlando's subtropical climate means year-round warmth — January highs near 72°F, July highs near 92°F — and the region averages 52 inches of rain a year, most delivered in sudden afternoon thunderstorms from May through October. Humidity is high. Summer days that don't get a 3 p.m. thunderstorm are unusual. Winters bring pleasant dry stretches and occasional hard freezes that can threaten citrus. The metro's 82-mile inland buffer from both coasts moderates hurricane winds somewhat but does not protect against the rainfall, which is often the more damaging hazard.

Practical realities for movers: Hurricane Ian (September 2022) dropped 13.2 inches of rain at Orlando International and damaged more than 15,000 structures across Seminole, Polk, Orange, and Volusia counties. Critically, only 2–4% of single-family homes in Central Florida counties carry flood insurance, leaving many Ian victims without coverage. The region's lake and retention-pond geography means rain accumulates fast and drains slowly. Sinkhole risk exists in parts of the metro. Homeowners insurance costs have surged along with the rest of Florida's market.

Grid reliability is generally strong between events but drops hard during hurricanes — Ian left much of Central Florida dark for 3–7 days. Climate projections show stronger tropical rainfall and somewhat longer summers. Orlando remains one of the more moderate Florida options from a climate perspective, but the insurance and flood-insurance math now matches the coastal metros in most ways that count. 'Inland safety' in Florida is a matter of degree, not kind.

Historical edge scenarios

  • 2022

    Hurricane Ian inland flooding

    Ian passed directly over Central Florida on September 28–29, 2022, dropping 13.2 inches at Orlando International and 16.1 inches at Sanford. Over 15,000 homes damaged across the metro; Seminole County alone reported 5,200+ structures damaged. Fewer than 4% of homes carried flood insurance.

  • 2004

    Hurricane Charley direct hit

    After an unexpected eastward turn, Charley passed directly over Orlando on August 13, 2004, with 85 mph sustained winds and 106 mph gusts. Parts of Altamonte Springs lost power for 12 days. Charley caused $17 billion in damage across its Florida path and 10 direct fatalities.

  • 2017

    Hurricane Irma

    Irma crossed Central Florida on September 10–11, 2017, bringing 79 mph gusts at Orlando International (91 mph at Disney's Contemporary). Orange County sustained about $110 million in damage; 200+ residents were rescued from Orlo Vista where hundreds of homes flooded.

Neighbourhoods

On the streets of Orlando

Where people actually live — from historic bungalows to new-build cul-de-sacs.

Neighbourhoods in Orlando

Orlando's most liveable neighbourhoods are concentrated in the inner-ring north and east of downtown. Thornton Park around Lake Eola is the walkable urban standout: a pedestrian-friendly grid of bungalows and newer condos, Orlando's densest restaurant scene, and the Lake Eola Park as a daily-life anchor. College Park and Audubon Park extend that character north and east — local-business commercial strips, 1920s–40s bungalows with mature canopy, and the kind of neighbourhood identity that Orlando's theme-park geography otherwise makes difficult to build. Winter Park just north of the city limits adds Park Avenue's upscale walkable retail and the Rollins College campus to an already-desirable historic housing stock, at prices that reflect all of it.

Lake Nona in the southeast is the metro's most ambitious long-term development story. The Medical City anchors a healthcare employment cluster that has drawn UCF Health, Nemours, VA Medical Center, and the UF Health Cancer Center to a single campus — surrounded by master-planned residential communities, top-rated Orange County schools, and infrastructure built for a 300,000-person buildout. Dr. Phillips on the southwest side balances Restaurant Row dining access, top private school proximity, and a mix of established custom homes and newer luxury construction near the theme parks.

The value plays: Hunters Creek in the southwest for master-planned suburban SFH well under the metro median with solid Orange County schools, Avalon Park in the east for new construction with a walkable town center at below-average per-square-foot pricing, and the Edgewood/Belle Isle corridor on the south side of downtown for mid-century lakefront SFH at entry-level prices for buyers who can tolerate an older product with strong appreciation potential.

Common questions about the Orlando housing market

Is Orlando a buyer's or seller's market?

Orlando is currently a balanced market. With 3 months of housing supply and a median of 68 days on market, neither buyers nor sellers hold a decisive edge — homes sell at a steady pace without the bidding-war pressure of a tight market.

What is the median home price in Orlando?

The median home listing price in Orlando, FL is $419,000 as of April 2026. That figure reflects metro-area median list prices sourced from Realtor.com via FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) and is refreshed monthly.

Are home prices in Orlando rising or falling?

As of April 2026, the median home price in Orlando declined 1.4% over the past 12 months and held steady over the most recent month. The annual figure is still negative, but the recent monthly uptick suggests prices may be finding a floor.

How long do homes take to sell in Orlando?

Homes in Orlando spend a median of 68 days on market. That measures how long a typical listing stays active before going under contract — not the time it takes to close — and is consistent with a balanced market.

How many homes are for sale in Orlando?

There are roughly 13,218 active listings across the Orlando metro as of April 2026, equal to about 3 months of supply at the current sales pace. Cash buyers account for 28% of sales.

Data sources: Redfin Market Data, U.S. Census Bureau, FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), local MLS associations. Statistics represent metro-area medians and are updated monthly. Not financial or investment advice.