The worst of the Central Florida housing market slowdown is over, and the state’s economy withstood the damage without slipping into negative territory. (more…)

The looks on the faces of builders and Florida mortgage brokers may be rather glum these days, but Central Florida’s less-than-red-hot housing market may lead to smiles for home buyers. (more…)

Building homes for those who can’t afford the median sale price of $250,000 in the Central Florida housing market may be the wave of the future.

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New home inventory in the Central Florida housing market fell during the first quarter, as builders continued to cut back on construction amid slowing demand.

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Home builder George Glance wants to price homes reasonably in the Central Florida housing market.

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When Florida mortgage demand declines and housing sales wane as a result, trouble often heats up in the title industry.

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Florida construction industry employment fell in March for the first time since 2002 as the Central Florida housing market faltered, but demand for workers remained strong statewide and in the region.

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Winter Park-based Engineered Homes of Orlando Inc. is clearly bullish on the Central Florida housing market, despite the current sales slowdown.

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Although a number of people from the United Kingdom have bought homes in the Central Florida housing market in recent years, the European continent is a largely unexplored market for local Realtors.

But with home sales and Florida mortgage activity slowing in the area, some are hoping second home buyers from Europe will pick up the slack.

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The torrid growth of the Central Florida real estate market has slowed.

The net increase in residents in the region fell by more than 20,000 last summer.

The slower growth - up only 2.8 percent from 2005 to 2006 - mirrors a statewide shift but doesn’t necessarily signal the start of a downward spiral.

Instead, it’s more a return to normal.

The breakneck surge of people moving to Florida that saw local numbers jump by more than 3 percent a year in 2004 and 2005 could not last forever, say experts such as University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith.

“Before, we had been a black hole of net migration,” said Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at UCF.

“People moved in until they died. But in the future, I think we will see a more complex picture, with some people packing up their home equity and moving to other locations.”

Still, all of the region’s seven counties added some population between July 2005 and July 2006, fueled by record low Florida mortgage costs and steady economic growth.

Central Florida grew by roughly 87,500 people in that period, compared with peak increases hovering at about 100,000 people for each of the previous two years, when the real estate market was booming.

The counties that already had the most population, Orange and Seminole, saw decreased growth rates. Brevard County, Lake and Volusia also gained fewer residents than they had the year before. Bucking the trend: Osceola and Polk continued to attract slightly more people.

Overall, the Central Florida housing market expanded by more than half a million since 2000, to more than 3.5 million as of last year. Florida’s population surpassed the 18 million mark.

Local officials said they were not concerned with the population growth slowdown, partly because the reduced numbers are still above the increases at the beginning of the decade.

Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno said “real estate is more expensive, the property taxes are more expensive, the insurance rates are more expensive” - all contributing to the slight reduction.

But he doesn’t think that modest growth would necessarily be a bad thing in a county struggling with taxes and home insurance problems, and which already absorbed many residents from other parts of Central Florida.

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