Month: May 2008

Housing Starts Post Surprise Rise

As reported by the Wall Street Journal:

By JEFF BATER
May 16, 2008 9:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Home construction turned up unexpectedly in April and showed surprising vigor, making the biggest increase in two years. However, the increase was driven by a surge in multi-family housing, while single-family starts dropped.

Housing starts increased 8.2% to a seasonally adjusted 1.032 million annual rate, driven higher by a surge in apartment building construction, the Commerce Department said Friday. Starts plunged 13.8% in March to 954,000, the data showed; Commerce initially estimated March starts down 11.9% to 947,000.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected April starts to drop by 1.4% to a 934,000-unit annual rate. The 8.2% increase was the largest monthly climb since a 14.0% jump in January 2006.

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Florida's Existing Condo Sales Improve in 1Q 2008 Compared to 4Q 2007

Panama City Beach had the second least negative percent change in all the state of Florida according to the numbers below with regards to single family home sale, Q1 2007/Q1 2008.

ORLANDO, Fla., May 13 /PRNewswire/ — Florida Realtors(R) reported positive signs in their local housing markets during first quarter 2008, noting a slower rate of expansion for inventory levels and an increase in
pending home sales (based on contracts signed but not closed) in some areas.

In another positive note: Sales of existing condominiums improved from fourth quarter 2007 to first quarter 2008, according to the latest housing statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors(R) (FAR). A total of 8,581 existing condos sold statewide in 1Q 2008, an 8.3 percent increase over 4Q 2007 when 7,923 units sold.

“If we look at what is happening month-over-month for 2008, it appears that the bottom [of the housing slowdown] may be here,” says 2008 FAR President Chuck Bonfiglio. “We are now seeing more activity, more sales and even prices starting to rise in some markets. So I believe that there are some really good signs in many areas of our state.”

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Construction Update – New Panama City Bay County International Airport

Panama City Airport Aerial

Huge progress has been made since construction began at the beginning of the year at the new Panama City Bay County International Airport site north of up Highway 79 north of Highway 388 in Bay County.

The entire site consists of 4,000 acres that can be used for the airport and all future expansions with a total 1,300 acres permitted for construction right now. Phase I will include a primary runway of 8,400 feet and a secondary cross-wind runway of 5,000 feet. The primary runway will run almost due north at 340 degrees with the secondary at around 50 degrees.

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Beaches Chamber’s Community Board Room

Panama City Beach, Florida (May, 2008) – The Greater Panama City Beaches Chamber of Commerce recently launched its new Tourist Information Center at the Beckrich Centre in Panama City Beach, where the Chamber offices have been relocated. Another new amenity is the Chamber’s new Community Board Room, available to all Bay county non-profit organizations for their meetings and gatherings.

“Our number one goal, as a non-profit membership organization, is to help our business members and other non-profits grow,” says Debi Knight, President and CEO of the Chamber. “Part of the plan has always been to provide a venue for these organizations to conduct their business.”

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My Safe Florida Home Program

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 14, 2008 – The My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program will achieve its goal of 35,000 grants to homeowners by the end of this month, and the first-come, first- served program will stop accepting grant applications.

The MSFH program will transition to an inspection-focused program beginning June 2008, offering free wind inspections for eligible homeowners until it reaches the Legislature’s goal of performing 400,000 inspections or until the program sunsets in June 2009.

“With hurricane season less than one month away, I encourage Floridians to sign up for a free wind inspection to learn how to harden their homes against hurricane damage,” says Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who oversees the Department of Financial Services. “The response from homeowners has been overwhelming, and I thank the Legislature for creating this program and allowing us to enable more than 35,000 Floridians to make their homes more storm-resistant.”

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Panama City Beach TDC CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline

I was able to get my hands on the Bay County Tourist Development Council Panama City Beach CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline. It spells out where we are wanting to take Panama City Beach over the next couple of years and how we are going to get there. Following are excerpts from the document with the option to download the whole document at the end.

In January, the Bay County TDC initiated a strategic planning process to help chart the course for the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau in coming years.

Building off of the initial work conducted, the CVB developed four key initiatives and potential funding strategy to serve as the framework for discussion as the initiatives are explored and articulated in advance of the final plan. This document includes the initiatives, as well as the notes from the retreat.

In June, a final strategic plan will be presented to the TDC for adoption.

Key Initiatives:

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5/13/08 TDC/CVB Meeting: Indian Summer Festival, College Spring Break

Only 6 of the 9 Board members were present. Absent were Mike Nelson, Rick Russell, and Gary Walsingham.

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL UPDATE

President Dan Rowe reported that things have not gone as planned since the April 18th Marketing Committee meeting. To begin with, Mr. Jeffrey Wolfe of Multi-Media who was selected by the committee to operate the festival this year revoked his commitment to operate the festival with only $10,000 of the traditional $60,000 financial support from the CVB. In addition, Beach Events who I believe was not chosen by the committee mainly due to the reduced funding requested from Mr. Wolfe, now no longer is interested in promoting any fall festival for 2008. However, a group headed up by Marketing Committee member Jack Bishop is working on a proposal for the 2008 festival and expects to make a proposal and request for funding to the Board at the June meeting. Corky McCollum, from Beach Events, advised that his company was proceeding with their plans for an October 2009 festival, but did not anticipate requesting any marketing funds from the CVB. Board Member Buddy Wilkes asked Mr. Bishop whether his group was planning to operate the festival just for 2008. The response from Mr. Bishop seemed to show that his group’s interest was not limited to 2008. So we might end up with two competing Indian Summer Festivals in 2009.

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May 2008 Panama City Beach Condo Market Update from condosaletrends.com

We recently updated our Panama City Beach condo sales data through the end of April 2008. The statistics don’t look much different than earlier this year. The graph below illustrates the number of monthly re-sales from the 70 Panama City Beach condo buildings in our database. The 2008 monthly re-sales through May mirror the number of re-sales from the same period in 2007 even though there have been a substantial number of new units come on line.

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Is the housing crisis over?

The Housing Crisis Is Over

By CYRIL MOULLE-BERTEAUX
May 6, 2008; Page A
The Wall Street Journal

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won’t happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.

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