The numbers combined with good public policy spells opportunity
Florida continues to enjoy terrific economic news as we wind down 2018. The real estate market remains hot (boosting property insurance!), tourism has set another record, and the incoming Governor’s administration guidelines include low taxes, reasonable regulation, and promoting a well-trained workforce. That and 70-80 degree weather in the winter – is this a great state or what?!
Florida’s housing market reported more closed sales, rising median prices and more new listings in October compared to a year ago, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Sales of single-family homes statewide totaled 22,272 last month, up 8.5% compared to October 2017. Condo-townhouse sales are up, too: 14.1%, due in part to rising inventory of active listings. The statewide average sales price for a single-family home is $253,853, up 7.6% from last year.
Governor Scott’s office last week announced that Florida has set another tourism record, welcoming 95.8 million visitors from January through September, according to Visit Florida. This is the highest number of visitors in any nine months in Florida’s history and represents a 6.7% increase over the 89.8 million visitors during the same period in 2017. This includes 85 million domestic visitors, 8 million overseas visitors and 2.8 million Canadian visitors.
Getting those visitors around our great state to explore the diversity of our regions is becoming easier. The Brightline high-speed rail line is already ferrying passengers to and from Miami and West Palm Beach in an hour, with a stop in Ft. Lauderdale. Future expansion underway now to Orlando will allow a train trip to/from West Palm within 2 hours. Then this past week, the company announced it’s won state approval to begin negotiation for land to add high-speed passenger rail service from Orlando to Tampa. The planned route would be right alongside Interstate 4. Stations are expected in Orlando, Tampa, Celebration, and Lakeland. Brightline recently signed an agreement with new minority investor Virgin Group, with Brightline planning to rename itself Virgin Trains USA.
Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’ administration is also weighing in on economic matters, announcing the incoming administration’s guidelines. They include: maintaining a low-tax environment for individuals and businesses; creating a predictable and reasonable regulatory environment; providing a reliable and advanced hard and soft infrastructure; building a well-trained and highly skilled workforce; and fostering a responsive, efficient and accountable government.
