Aerial view of a neighborhood with tightly spaced houses

Affordable Housing Challenge

The solution is building more supply. But that is not so simple. The news reports are hard to ignore – and seem to come from all parts of the country. “The United States is facing an affordable housing crisis,” wrote Curbed, an online news site that covers U.S. real estate. “Florida is in the throes [...]

Aftermath of the Champlain Tower collapse shows levels of the building exposed with personal property mixed among the debris

Florida Condominium Market Shows Little Impact Since 2021 Condo Collapse

In the early morning of June 24, 2021, the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, suddenly collapsed, killing 98 people. The failure of the 40-year-old condo building immediately generated worldwide attention — and raised questions about the safety of numerous high-rise condo buildings in South Florida and throughout the state. What caused the sudden [...]

An apartment building with palm trees beside it

Debate over rent controls heats up in Florida

Florida has emerged as a surprising battleground over rent control this year as local governments look for ways to manage escalating housing costs. Elected officials in a handful of cities and counties across the Sunshine State have seriously debated the controversial issue in response to increasing demands from residents who face some of the steepest [...]

A graphic with column charts and an upward trending line with an arrow and a house sitting on it

Housing: A Lagging Indicator in CPI’s Marketbasket

You don’t need to be an economist to know that prices for just about everything have soared in the past year. The consumer price index for all urban consumers increased 8.3% in the year ending in August, nearly its highest level in the last 40 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Interestingly, [...]

Aerial view of a large city sprawling to the horizon with location marker overlaid and lines connecting them

Mobile Location Data is Reshaping Commercial Real Estate

It was not that long ago that commercial real estate professionals would draw circles on road maps to help pinpoint the best place to locate a business. These concentric rings might show the one- to five-mile radius from a given piece of property — and served as a starting place to help clients select a [...]

A man scratches his head while facing a giant dollar bill with a downward trending arrow on it

Florida Consumer Sentiment

Confidence on Economic Conditions Remains Low The sentiment of Florida consumers remained fairly gloomy in September. That’s according to the latest survey tracking the economic outlook of Floridians conducted by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR). The monthly index stood at 64.4 in September, down 14% from 74.9 a year [...]

A man holds a tiny twenty dollar bill

Consumers’ Finances Weakened in 2022

Consumers followed some significant ups and downs over the past three years with emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, business closures and work stoppages, government stimulus and expanded unemployment benefits, surprise housing shortages, faltering supply chains, and now 40-year high inflation. Understanding consumers’ positions is important because they account for roughly two-thirds of the U.S. gross [...]

Illustration of many buildings being built with cranes and construction vehicles with a city skyline in the background

Construction Costs

Source: BLS Producer Price Index, FRED Recession: First two quarters of 2020. Sources: CBRE Econometric Advisors, CBRE Strategic Investment Consulting Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Altis Davie, an apartment complex to be built in Davie, Florida

Collaborating with the City

The Altman Cos., a division of BBX Capital, plans to create a vibrant mixed-used apartment community with the aim to help revitalize the downtown area of Davie, Florida. Altman will build Altis Davie, an apartment complex with a retail component, on a four-acre property it controls after finalizing a purchase contract with Davie and Davie’s [...]

A triplex home in Minneapolis

Some Communities Take on Single-Family Zoning in Hopes of Spurring More Housing

A triplex built by Minneapolis homebuilder Bruce Brunner following the city’s adopting a new comprehensive plan that eliminated single-family-only neighborhoods. Just before midnight on a Thursday in August, Gainesville’s City Commission dismantled a nearly century-old cornerstone of municipal planning efforts: single-family zoning. A divided commission voted to allow duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes on land that [...]

Looking skyward at skyscrapers with chartlines overlaid

Partly Cloudy: Outlook of Real Estate Industry Leaders

Surveyed real estate industry leaders saw the skies turn gray in the most recent quarter, a period marked by rising interest rates, increasing costs and a slowing economy. The third quarter of 2022 marked the third consecutive period that the Bergstrom Real Estate Outlook Index showed a decline, and it’s the lowest rating since October [...]

Spoken Here

The Alfred A. Ring Distinguished Speaker Series brings prominent real estate professionals to campus to speak and interact with UF real estate students and faculty. Chris Corr Chris Corr shared highlights of his more than 30 years in the real estate industry, including playing a leadership role in developing Disney’s Celebration, Florida and numerous other [...]