A docked boat in a marina with a blue sky

A Tight Ship

The stiffest headwind most boaters face these days isn’t from a storm. It’s finding a place to tie up. Slips at marinas are so hard to find that Florida boat and yacht brokers advise clients not to buy a watercraft until they have first found somewhere to store it. “There’s just too many boats and [...]

Looking down a street in New York City from a high vantage point with tall buildings and orange clouds in the background

New York’s Local Law 97

New York City’s Green Energy Local Law 97 (LL97) is a significant component of the Climate Mobilization Act passed by the New York City Council in 2019. The New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability presents this law as “one of the most ambitious plans for reducing emissions in the nation.” One of [...]

A city skyline along water reflecting the buildings with graph lines overlaid on image

Predicting Property Returns

During times of market uncertainty — such as a financial crisis, pandemic or spike in interest rates — the illiquid nature of private equity real estate (PERE) leads to questionable valuations. Appraisals rely on recent transactions of comparable properties to estimate the most probable selling price for a property. But commercial property transactions typically drop [...]

A row of new townhouses with garages along a street

Narrow Track of Housing Affordability

A simplified measure of housing affordability is the ratio of median household (HH) income over income needed to own a median-valued home. This is a gauge of broad-based affordability that can help determine if a market is balanced. Using the input choices shown in Figure 1 yields a current index of 1.07 for Florida indicating [...]

Looking up at skyscrapers from street-level

Wall Of Debt

There is no question that debt markets face some challenges and current maturities are elevated by any standard. In February, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported 20% of the outstanding $4.7 trillion in U.S. commercial mortgages held by lenders and investors will mature in 2024. If commercial mortgages range from one to 10 years maturity, then [...]

Florida Consumer Sentiment: A Mediocre Economic Outlook

Florida consumers are not pleased with the economy these days, but at least they’re more upbeat than a year ago. Survey respondents’ overall sentiment fell two-tenths of a point to 73.1 in May from the previous month (Figure 1), but it’s an improvement from a year ago when it stood at 69.1, according to the [...]

Recent Findings: Latest from Real Estate Researchers

7-9% ADUs in Los Angeles: How much do they raise property value? Using data from Los Angeles, researchers found the presence of an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) raises a parcel’s assessed value and selling price 7% to 9%. The results show that ADUs are less likely found on large parcels containing newer houses, in certain [...]

Florida’s Rising Population and Income

By the Numbers 701 Net mitigation of people added to Florida’s population per day in 2021 $83K Average gross income (AGI) of people who moved to Florida in 2021 $42K AGI of people who moved out of Florida in 2021 Sources: IRS, UF Bergstrom Real Estate Center Sources: IRS, UF Bergstrom Real Estate Center Percentages [...]

Aerial view of Cypress Ranch in Pasco County, Florida

Cypress Ranch

Ferber Co. spent $28 million to develop Cypress Ranch, the largest land development project in the company’s 117-year history. The mixed-use project in Pasco County includes retail businesses, single family homes, townhomes, and apartments. Work began in 2018 when Ferber applied for governmental approvals to rezone the 164-acre tract. After navigating delays related to the [...]

Model mobile home with a covered porch

Not Your Grandpa’s Mobile Home

Jim Ayotte is convinced if you tour one of Florida’s 10 house-building factories you will change your mind about the quality of the manufactured homes. “I spend a lot of time bringing people to see the factory-built housing process and every time I do they’re totally impressed,” said Ayotte, executive director of the Florida Manufactured [...]

Bergstrom Survey: Summer 2024

The overall outlook for the real estate market has begun to return to levels last seen in 2021, when the UF Bergstrom Real Estate Center first started surveying its advisory board members. Responses to questions about the housing sector yields the best evidence of this general direction. Rapidly rising interest rates in mid-2022 caused concern [...]

Anna Glass introduces speaker Peter Ma in a classroom for the Ring Speaker Series

Spoken Here: Peter Ma, Aaron Wessner and Lisa Dilts

The Alfred A. Ring Distinguished Speaker Series brings real estate leaders to campus Peter Ma earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from UF and spent most of his career at England-Thims & Miller, a Jacksonville-based civil engineering firm, where he serves as executive vice president. He specializes in land development for all manner of commercial [...]