I visited the upcoming Winter Garden Village website to get a list of shops that have signed up for leases in this now much anticipated project although local residents fought it tooth and nail during the initial approval process. The current list of shops as of today are:

Longhorn Steakhouse
Mimi’s Café
Chili’s
Chick Fil-A
Macaroni Grill
Pizzeria Uno
D’Angelos Subs
Peterbrooke Chocolate
Coldstone Creamery
Starbuck's
Quizno's
First Watch
Planet Smoothie
5 Guys Burgers
Cracker Barrel
McDonalds
Panda Express
Lowe's
SuperTarget
Cost Plus World Market
Linens ‘n Things
Kirkland’s
Haverty’s
Fifth Third Bank
BB&T
Wachovia Bank
Lovely Nail
Hess
Sports Clips
Lens Crafters
Hair Cuttery
Lifestyle Family Fitness
Cingular
Verizon Wireless
Best Buy
Sports Authority
Staples
Bath & Body Works
Party City
Petsmart
Ulta Cosmetics
Mattress Giant
Kay Jewelry
Barnes n’ Noble
Marshall’s
Ross
Old Navy
Joann’s
Beall’s Department Store
Coldwater Creek
Van Heusen
Geoffrey Beene
Bass
American Eagle
Justice
Pac Sun
Lane Bryant/Cacique
Dress Barn
Famous Footwear
Jones NY/Anne Klein
Nine west/ Easy Spirit
Izod Golf
NY & Co
Payless Shoes

Pulte Begins Selling in Meadow Ridge Today

Pulte begins selling of new homes today in the much anticipated community of Meadow Ridge located at the corner of Maguire Road and Roberson Road in Ocoee. The neighborhood should fit in nicely with its neighbor subdivisions such as: Wesmere, Belmere, Windsor Landing, Cross Creek, Oaks of Windermere, and Windermere Cahse. Prices are between $400,000 to $450,000 and some nice upgrades included are granite countertops, paver driveways, tile roof, and 3 car garages. The floorplans here are the same as the ones Pulte built in Stonebridge Lakes located in Metrowest and with only 152 homesites it should be an intimate little neighborhood when it is done.

Real Estate Market Numbers for Dr. Phillips & Windermere

The market stats for SW Orlando real estate mirror the trends taking place in rest of the city with growing inventories, falling prices, and longer days on market. For this report the zip codes included are: 32811, 32821, 32819, 32824, 32830, ,32835, 32836, 32837, 34786, and 34787. These zip codes include areas commonly known as Dr. Phillips, Williamsburg, Bay Hill, Hunter’s Creek, Windermere, Winter Garden, Metrowest, and Veranda Park. As of July 7, 2007 there were 5,191 properties for sale in this area with only 291 of them selling. That means the area has 21.5 months of home inventory. Home sellers were getting 97% of the asking twelve months ago but now they are only getting 93%. The average days on market has grown from 55 days twelve months ago to 97 days.

All these numbers have been skewed by the condo market in the area which is much worse than the market for single family homes. Inventory for condos stand at 41.5 months of supply with only 30 out of 1,373 condos selling. Looks like condos are out of fashion again.

FHA Raises Loan Limits for Orange, Seminole, & Osceola Counties in Florida

The limit for FHA loans increased today to $268,850 in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties. Since FHA loans are insured by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development agency, it allows buyers to get into a home with a down payment as little as 3%, lower closing costs, and makes it easier to qualify for the loan. If the down payment is still a problem HUD has local down payment assistance programs. To find out more about obtaining a FHA loan you can visit the FHA homepage for more details. This loan program has always been very popular with first time home buyers since it requires very little cash up front and much of the cash required can be a gift from either your relatives or a local government program such as HANDS of Central Florida who assist with finding a down payment.

Engle Homes Takes Over Independence

Engle Homes has taken over the development of the Independence neighborhood in Winter Garden recently. The original developer, Transeastern Homes, is no where to be seen. I spoke with one resident there that mentioned many people that had complaints with construction problems and lack of responsiveness with Transeastern Homes but that doesn’t explain why they would walk away from something that will bring money into the company so I did a little digging and found out that Transeastern Homes was bought by TOUSA in August of 2005. TOUSA is the company that owns Engle Homes. I tried visiting the Transeastern Homes website and the Engle page pops up when you visit the Transeastern site. My guess is that Engle will be building out the rest of Transeastern’s numerous central Florida communities.

Finally Some Good News about the Housing Market

Woohoo! The sale of new single family homes rose 2.8% in July according to the Commerce Department today. Although this is probably the only good news about the real estate market in ages builders are still scaling back on their new projects so the bulls for housing are not running yet. According to the same report the supply of new homes is the lowest its been since January of 2006 and that there are 7.5 months of supply of new homes on the market. My guess is that the next report will show a slowing market but heck I’m glad we’re hearing some good news and hope for a turnaround or at least a stable market. You can download the entire report at www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf