COMMUNITY INVESTOR
SPOTLIGHT: ORLANDO
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS in Orlando, Florida, these days, and the numbers are looking pretty hot. The city recently made headlines as the fourth-hottest market in the nation, the “28th-Best Place for Careers and Busi- ness” and third-best city in the nation for job growth, per Forbes and online real estate data and sales giant Ten-X. Add to that a nearly 9 percent year-over- year real estate appreciation in the metro area, 4.7 percent home sales growth, 43 consecutive months of payroll growth and 2.6 percent population growth (well over the national average), and you’ve got what looks to be a magic combination right next door to the Magic Kingdom. Of course, just like any Disney fairy tale, Orlando does have a “darker side” to all this investing sunshine. The area was hit hard, late and long during the housing crash and continues to suffer from massive fallout from overdevel- opment in the form of condominium communities that still, in some cases, sit empty or that have been converted nearly entirely to rental communi- ties, making them less attractive to owner-occupants. Often, disrepair and disarray set in because condo boards are unable to collect monthly maintenance fees or enforce codes on absentee landlords. However, thanks to some upcoming easing in feder- al lending and mortgage insurance requirements, and growth potential that simply won’t quit, the Orlando, Florida, housing market appears to be, on the whole, on the mend.
upsurge” in terms of job growth and economic growth heading into 2017. One economist did add, however, that the state is known “to be a boom-bust” rather than an area of steady, predict- able growth. This is likely due in large part to the area’s heavy reliance on the tourism industry, which tends to react quickly and dramatically not only to actual economic turbulence, but also to negative consumer sentiment. While that technological “backbone” can certainly help fortify the overall state of the economy in the area, investors must be prepared for potential volatility should they choose to put their money in the “Theme Park Capital of the World.” There are three local legends on how Orlando got its name. According to one, the city was named after the character Orlando in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” Some historians say that the area’s original name, Jernigan, was changed by a local gentleman named James Speer, who was a great admirer of Shakespeare and felt the area was truly as magical as INVESTING IN ORLANDO: AS YOU LIKE IT, LITERALLY
than 2.3 million people call Orlando home and 62 million visitors make its airport the 13th-busiest airport in the country. The weather is great. The entertainment is outstanding. And the city has an often-overlooked backbone of technological industry supporting and actively engaging with many of the more obvious tourist attractions. Not only is Orlando home to thriv- ing film, television and electronic gaming industries, as well as Universal Studios, Disney World and a variety of other theme parks, it also supports multiple major- and minor-league sports teams and hosts a $13.4 billion tech industry. It’s home to the country’s seventh-largest research park, the Cen- tral Florida Research Park; Lockheed Martin; a number of U.S. military research branches; and a vast array of related companies and their complexes and headquarters. Not surprisingly, thanks to all of this technological growth, coupled with an extremely attractive climate and afford- able cost of living, Moody’s Analytics recently predicted that Orlando in par- ticular as well as the state of Florida in general are headed toward a “multiyear
ORLANDO’S ‘SECRET JOBS MARKET W hen you hear Orlando, Florida, is Forbes’ third-best place for future jobs growth in the United States and Gallup’s first-best city for employment, you probably picture mouse ears and princess slippers. However, behind the razzle-dazzle of an admittedly gargantuan tourist industry, the Orlando employment market has many, many more opportu- nities to offer. According to the Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC), the city added nearly 150 jobs per day in 2015, many in the IT sector. IT jobs are particularly attractive from a real estate investment standpoint because these jobs create many other jobs as a result of a single IT employee entering the workforce. Some economists say that a single IT job creates an additional five jobs in a local economy, while others speculate that the number is as high as nine. Here are some of the “big names” in technology currently building, expand- ing and hiring in Orlando:
• LOCKHEED MARTIN • SIEMENS
SIMULATION TRAINING • GENERAL DYNAMICS • MITSUBISHI POWER SYSTEMS • VERITAS/SYMANTEC • DELTA CONNECTION ACADEMY • HEWLETT-PACKARD • AT&T • RAYTHEON COMPANY
• NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER TRAINING SYSTEMS DIVISION • AIR FORCE AGENCY FOR MODELING AND SIMULATION • U.S. ARMY RESEARCH • BOEING • CAE SYSTEMS FLIGHT &
LIVING UP TO ‘THE CITY BEAUTIFUL’ There are a few reasons why more
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