Articles

Mapping the Change in Florida Property Value

The map shows the change in cumulative just value[1] of residential and commercial property by ZIP code from 2013-2022. Doesn’t include vacant land. Some ZIP codes omitted because of missing data. Values in Walton County’s 32459 tripled to $17 billion Values in Liberty County, which includes two ZIP codes, totaled $187 million in 2022 — [...]

The construction of Odyssey by Solutra in Fort Myers is a neighborhood of tightly spaced small homes for rent

Horizontal Apartments in Fort Myers: Odyssey by Solutra

Completed in the summer of 2022, Odyssey by Solutra in Fort Myers is the first of eight build-to-rent communities financed by Halstatt Real Estate Partners to meet a growing demand for detached rental units. Danville Leadbetter of Naples-based Soltura Development, Halstatt’s partner, said it’s taken some time to learn how to market these small rental [...]

A white home with an orange front door in Odyssey by Soltura

Going Horizontal in Southwest Florida

On May 8, 1923, the Florida Legislature created Collier County in honor of Barron Gift Collier Sr., who had amassed over 1 million acres in Southwest Florida and funded the construction of the Tamiami Trail to connect Tampa with Miami. Now 100 years later, his great granddaughter, Katie Sproul, is quietly carving her own path [...]

Painting of a cloudy sky with the sun trying to shine through creating some dramatic colors

Clouds with Some Sun

If Florida’s real estate industry is the weather, then our Bergstrom Real Estate Center survey is the local forecast. And while the newest forecast isn’t exactly sunny, the skies aren’t dark and there’s even some sun peeking out of the clouds. In the latest survey of advisory board members, nearly two-thirds of the respondents gauged [...]

Spoken Here: Brian Gale, David Kern, Todd Jones and Jim Heistand

The Alfred A. Ring Distinguished Speaker Series brings real estate leaders to campus to speak with UF real estate students and faculty. Brian Gale started his real estate career by going in the side door: he sold a copy machine to CBRE. Gale’s persistent salesmanship impressed the folks at the giant commercial real estate firm [...]

The letters ESG overlaid on an illustration of people doing various tasks and interacting with various objects

Keeping the ESG Score for Investors

Environmental regulations, societal expectations and political pressures are arguably impacting commercial real estate like never before. The Paris Accord international climate treaty and a 2019 New York law that regulates the energy efficiency of buildings are just two examples of how environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations are increasingly influencing the real estate market. Wall [...]

Lee County's post-Hurricane Ian destruction

An Island unto Itself

Florida stands out in many ways. The peninsula has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States, the world’s largest amusement park and one of the biggest wetlands anywhere. Also, Florida is the nation’s fastest growing, with about 320,000 people moving to the Sunshine State in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Photo above: [...]

A for sale by owner sign in front of a residence

Do Real Estate Agents Provide Value?

As far as professionals are concerned, real estate agents have had a remarkable history. Despite being a major part of one of the nation’s largest industries, constant economic, legislative, and technological changes, licensed real estate agents have managed to maintain a fairly constant industry structure related to their services. In a day and age when [...]

Inside a new construction project using a lot of wood for floors, ceilings and walls

Mass Timber Primed for Wider Use?

Despite obstacles, the innovative building material is used in a growing number of projects The father-and-son team Thomas and Keith Kovatch weren’t planning to be pioneers when they decided to construct an office building in Central Florida. Then they received a random email about a seminar on an innovative building technique known as “mass timber,” [...]

An aerial view of a neighborhood construction project

Looking at the Big Picture: Housing Affordability

Housing affordability has been a growing concern in the United States in recent years, particularly given the spike in mortgage rates and surge in home sales prices in 2022. A worsening housing supply shortage and wage stagnation are commonly cited as among the main factors for the affordability issue. We analyzed the long-term trends in [...]

Florida Consumer Sentiment: March 2023

The mood of Florida consumers ticked lower in December as Floridians were increasingly concerned about rising inflation, according to the latest survey from the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR). The monthly index tracking the economic outlook of Floridians dropped to 64 in December, down 11% from 72.3 a year earlier [...]

Florida’s Tallest Buildings Through Time

Our infographics shows the tallest buildings in Florida at the time they were built, since 1925. Also included is the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences, which will take the crown as the tallest when completed in 2027. Each building’s height is scaled in relation to the others. Illustrations by Savannah Doremus Freedom Tower, Miami* Built [...]

Marshall Place mall housing Hobby Lobby, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Burkes, Boot Barn, Panola College, and others

Repositioning a Texas Mall: Marshall Place

Marshall Mall could serve as an example of the fate of U.S. shopping malls, which have swung high and low since their heyday. Built in 1980, the mall is the first and only mall in the small town of Marshall, Texas. But in time its original developer faltered, and the mall ended up in foreclosure. [...]

Not Dead Yet: Reinventing Shopping Malls

In the summer of 2017, the mall in Marshall, Texas, appeared to be on life support. JCPenney, its last remaining flagship store, closed and only seven retail tenants remained in what threatened to become a cavernous shell. “East Texas shoppers are coming to terms with the fact that this could spell the end for the [...]

Looking skyward at the base of three tall buildings

Outlook for 2023

The past year was one of change. It is time to take stock of where we ended and what to anticipate in 2023. As a backdrop to our real estate survey, 2022 brought significant relief to the pandemic concerns, and a let down from the dramatically high residential performance of 2021. We also saw the [...]