Economic Outlook
Source: www.realopportunitycfl.com
Homebuyers in Central Florida couldn't be in a better time - or a better place. Our region remains one of the most popular growth areas in the nation. In fact, between 1994 and 2004, Orlando's population increased by more than 32%, trailing only Phoenix and Atlanta as America's fastest growing cities, according to Woods & Poole Economics 2006 Profile.
This explosive growth is expected to continue well into the future, at a rate projected at more than 23% in the decade between 2004 and 2014. In fact, only Phoenix is expected to grow more rapidly.
New residents arrive in Orlando by the hundreds each day. Last year |
alone Orlando welcomed an average of 1,249 new adult residents each week, according to the Orlando Sentinel Communications Databook.
Tourism and convention business, a burgeoning high-tech sector and continued growth in the housing industry contribute to a healthy Central Florida economy. In fact, the regional unemployment rate averaged just 3.6% during 2005, lower than both state and national figures. According to Workplace Central Florida, as of November 20, 2006 the local unemployment rate stood at just 3.1%.
If history is any indication of future prospects in the residential market, it's important to note that between 2002 and the end of the third quarter of 2006, |
the median price of a home in the Orlando metropolitan area almost doubled, going from $136,600 to $271,000.
And strong appreciation is expected to continue. According to Kiplinger's Personal Finance, seven Florida cities are among the nation's top 20 markets where appreciation rates will be the highest from now until 2010. Orlando ranked 4th, with 72% appreciation projected.
What this all means is that demand will soon match the supply. A home purchase today is still one of the best investments you can make. And as long as today's buyer's market lasts, a real opportunity exists. |
Market Conditions
ORLANDO, Fla. – Feb. 1, 2007 – Florida’s housing markets slowed in 2006 in nearly every geographic region, according to a new report from the Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund. The report also shows that Florida’s economy has downshifted from a period of spectacular growth to a period of strong growth and that will continue through 2007 and into the first half of 2008, before giving way to more robust growth.
“As the 2007 Real Estate Index Forecast report indicates, Florida’s housing markets bottomed out in 2006 across most of the state,” says economist Hank Fishkind of Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates Inc.
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“However, the shape of the bottom varies widely across Florida’s metropolitan areas based on variations in the degree of speculative overbuilding that has occurred, the pace of household formation, and the changes in pricing.”
Commissioned by Florida-based Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund’s Consumer Education Campaign, the Real Estate Index Forecast was created by economist Hank Fishkind of Fishkind & Associates, Inc., using The Fund’s online system of deed data for more than 30 Florida counties. The report provides a snapshot of the national economic outlook and county-specific forecasts for 2007 through 2009.
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Orlando is the strongest residential real estate market in the state because of its strong household formations, driven by robust gains in employment and its relatively low levels of speculative housing inventory, according to The Fund’s 2007 Real Estate Forecast.
Conversely, the report indicates that Fort Myers and Miami are the weakest residential real estate markets in the state because of their large speculative housing inventories compared to somewhat lower trends in household information.
To see the full report: click here
© Copyright Business Wire 2007 |
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“This explosive growth is expected to continue well into the future, at a rate projected at more than 23% in the decade between 2004 and 2014.” |
Development is still on track for Monte Vita to open for home construction in May of 2007. A good majority of the roads, infrastructure and all of the golf course are already in place. 
Let’s use the example to the right for this discussion. We can see that both homes are the exact same square footage but shaped differently. Do you think they would cost the same? If you said no then you were correct. The bottom design would be more expensive because it has 4 more lineal feet of exterior walls and is a more complex design (corners add costs).
Now what do think happens to the sales price and square foot price if we took the top example to the right but increased its size proportionally by 10%. The sales price would obliviously increase because there are more materials and labor needed to construct the home but the square foot price would actually come down. This is because costs are being distributed over a greater area but is, typically, only the case if both homes contain the same quantities of bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, garages, and so on. If we were to add another bathroom to the larger design then the square foot price may have not gone down and any accurate comparison between the two examples is obscured. 
Dave Brewer, Inc.