Florida real estate news and opinion: florida home builder

Aug 17, 2008

Orlando home builders top 10 lists

In the July 2008 Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando newsletter, the top 10 builders and neighborhoods for May were listed. The results are based on building permits.

Top 10 builders.

1. D.R. Horton
2. Pulte Homes
3. Lennar Homes
4. Centerline Homes
5. Mercedes Homes
6. Ashton Woods Homes
Tie 7. M/I Homes
Tie 7. Engle Homes
9. Meritage Homes
10. KB Home

Top 10 neighborhoods.

1. Tucker Oaks
2. Preston Square Townhomes
3. Stoneybrook West
4. Lake Sawyer South Townhomes
5. Victoria Landings
Tie 6. Windsor Hills
Tie 6. Lakes of Windermere
Tie 6. Blackstone Landings
Tie 9. Thornhill
Tie 9. Barton Court Townhomes

Related Florida real estate news:

Cost for construction climbing for Florida builders

Florida builders meet with Governor Crist

New homes planned for Deland

- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255

Aug 14, 2008

Florida builders meet with Governor Crist

Robert Parrish, President of the Florida Home Builders Association, (FHBA), joined with other Florida business leaders this past week to discuss Florida's economy.

In a message released on FHBA's website, Mr. Parrish noted that in Florida:

81,000 construction jobs have been lost since June of last year.
Building permits are down 48 percent since this time last year.
Florida has a 22 month inventory of housing on the market

Mr. Parrish described Florida's building industry as needing antibiotics not aspirin and encouraged Governor Crist to:

Create a housing and construction task force.
Make emergency funds available for down payment assistance programs.
Stop the rampant increases in impact fees.
Investigate the problems created in the market by appraisers including short sales and foreclosed homes in their comps for evaluating the market value of other homes.

The FHBA encourages all to investigate opportunities to publicize the new $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers.