Some Upbeat On Housing: Two involved in market think national media
missing real Central Florida picture.
Throughout the year, Florida has frequently been held up as an example
of just how bad the housing market can get.
But not everyone thinks the state has a longer period of correction ahead
before the situation improves. Two people involved in Central Florida
housing think the national media are missing the real picture here, that the
market is showing some signs of improvement.
"Geographically, Central Florida is going to be the recovery point for the
state of Florida," said Roger Soderstrom, owner and founder of Stirling
Sotheby's International Realty. He said "pent-up demand" is finally bringing
people back into a buying mode.
"In the sub-market we're in, I see stability, and I feel we are on an upward
swing," Soderstrom said. "We are beginning to see positive trends." The
difference this time around, is that for much of 2006 and 2007, prices
remained stubbornly high as buyers waited to recoup the large investments
they'd made just a few years earlier. Today, buyers have gotten serious about
cutting the price tag, and people who had been nervous about the market are
starting to see good bargains. "We feel that the market will continue to improve, and 2009 is when
I really think we'll begin seeing strong movement of activity coming in. I
see it as being a steady increase."
Soderstrom is not the only one who thinks that. Cole Whitaker, an Orlando
partner in the firm Hendricks & Partners is predicting that the construction of a massive health-care
and medical research facility at Lake Nona in east Orlando will help spur
more development across Central Florida in the next few years, improving
both job growth and the housing market.
Posted: 28 August 2008
Source: The Ledger
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