Northern Florida Home Loan Growth Expected
Will Butler left the Florida State University Real Estate Trends & Networking Conference as a happy man. One of the over 5oo mortgage experts at the event, Butler works for the St. Joe Land Company, a real estate firm in Northwest Florida.
“We’ve recently become a part of Florida now,”he said. He was referreing to the increase in development along Interstate 10 and other area in the nortern part of the state. “I believe - whether we want to see this area of the state change or not - we will see unprecedented growth along I-10,” he added.
Information on condominium sales and Florida home loan growth
That growth will come in stages, experts claim, as many residents still want to live in bigger cities in Central and South Florida. Currently, those cities are seeing exponential growth in condominiums. However, many additional condo projects might not get off the drawing board. Professionals see a slowdown of more expensive condos, as more affordable ones may come into the market. But sales, according to these same officials, didn’t seemed to have been affected by the hurricanes. The rental market, however, has seen a backlash.
The demand for more condos means more condo conversions. Tampa Bay, said Michael Slater, with TRAIAD Research & Consulting, has lost at least 25,000 rental units due to conversions. Slater refers to this as a shame because “it’s a good time to own rental assets. They’re just hard to find.”
Historically, Florida’s rental market growth has grown faster than that around the nation. Nationally, the growth rate was around 2.45%. Most Florida metro markets, though, increased by about 4% a year. Now the rate is closer to 6% to 10%. Similar growth rates also are being seen in the retail office market area.
News on the Florida office market
Trend watchers reported that the Florida office market is outperforming that of any other state. Statewide, vacancy rates hover at about 13.7%. In Florida, retail office space still can be rented around $20 a square foot, according to Paul Ellis, of the Trammel Crow Co.
Because of Florida’s low office rental rates, more companies are doing regional relocations. The state’s natural resources and lack of a personal income tax are also attractive to companies. It also has a strong labor pool. There are at least 50 colleges and universities in the Orlando area alone.
Prices for office space will rise, said experts, because of land and construction costs and operating expenses. But the good news, they say, is that the market will remain competitive. George Banks, Summit East’s operations manager, believes he’s seeing that already.
Banks handles leasing for the technology park at U.S. 90 East and Interstate 10, which plans to build at least 10 to 12 other buildings. Currently, its three buildings are 100-percent leased.
“The demand is there for our product,” Banks said. “And based on this, it looks like it will continue to be strong.”
