10 Surprising Facts about Orange County Real Estate

If you were to ask Orange County property appraiser Rick Singh, he’d tell you that the real estate market here is the healthiest that it has been in years.

Singh recently hosted the first State of Real Estate Forum at Full Sail Live. The appraiser talked about many of the positive trends occurring over the last year, such as more people opting to buy over rent, climbing home prices, and nearly $1.5 billion worth of new construction.

“For the first time in five years, every municipality in the county saw growth in property tax revenue,” exclaimed Singh. “What is the state of real estate? It’s unbelievable.”

Singh engaged in a lively debate with a whole panel of real estate professionals at the forum. The discussion covered a range of topics, including:

• New developments
• Transportation
• The current lending environment
• The housing market in Orange County

Here are just a few of the statistics that the panelists were most excited about during the inaugural forum:

• Residential construction in the area totaled $1 billion last year and commercial values were at $562 million. This equated to about $4.4 million worth of construction taking place daily around Orange County.
• The most promising markets for new developments are Winter Park, Lake Nona and Winter Garden.
• New apartment buildings accounted for more than half of all commercial construction in 2013 for Orange County.
• Real estate agents earned $170 million in commissions from single-family home sales last year (a $55 million boost from 2012).
• There are plans to construct 50 new residential developments (that would include 3,800 homes new homes) over the next couple years.
• Central Florida is still seeing plenty of interest from foreign investors (Canadian investors alone spent $624 million in 2013).
• Central Florida housing markets report that cash home sales are still king.
• Corporate giants like Walt Disney and Universal have invested $1.1 billion into promising business assets in Orange County.
• 5,200 new business accounts were created just last year in the county.
• Last year’s valuations for local theme parks topped out at a whopping $7.6 billion.

Here’s more than enough reasons to feel optimistic about the current state of the housing market here in the Sunshine State. The first half of 2014 has certainly looked positive, and there’s no reason things won’t continue moving forward. If you’re interested in seeing what else was discussed at the State of Real Estate Forum, you can see the full presentation here.