Florida is the third most populous state and, because of its year-round warm climate, contains the most golf communities of all. Indeed, The Villages, a huge retirement community in the north central part of the state, can boast of 35 separate golf courses alone. During the early years of the recession that began in late 2007, Florida real estate prices crashed, with homes in many golf communities losing between 30% and 50% of their value. But now, prices have rebounded to near pre-recession levels in the most popular areas of the state, including Naples, Sarasota and Jacksonville. Because summers can be too hot for many, Florida golf communities are a magnet for second-home owners who are tired of cold winters, still enjoy spring and summer in the North and appreciate the lack of an income tax in the state. Many "snowbirds" stay in Florida for six months and a day to take best advantage of the tax situation.
Golf course operators who open a new club in the current environment should have their heads examined, right? Not so fast. According to a recently released report from the National Golf Foundation,...
Economists and other housing industry watchers tend to look at inventory levels for a signal of where the real estate market is going. Typically, the boundary between a buyer’s and seller’s market is...
As the story goes, some years ago, a mighty hurricane blew in from the Atlantic, made a direct hit on the Palm Beaches, picked them up and deposited them across the state at the edge of the Gulf of...
Many of the best cities for golf don't offer many good options after the round is over. For example, after a day of golf in Myrtle Beach, if your taste does not run to neon lights and honky tonk...
According to USA Today and Zillow.com, the Internet real estate site that keeps tabs on home prices nationwide, “housing has turned the corner from its five-year slump." Zillow Chief Economist Stan...
I don’t know anyone who lives in The Villages, the 20,000-acre retirement community in central Florida that comes in for both celebration and lampooning, the latter most famously in the 2008 expose...
Whenever I visited my late parents at their winter condo in Florida, I would kid them about living in “God’s waiting room.” After all, the folks that congregated with them around the pool were...
Our friend and occasional real estate agent provocateur, Toby Tobin, the publisher of the popular Sunshine State blog GoToby.com, has referenced an interesting article in Business Insider, an...
It is shortly after noon on Sunday, and I am staring at a current-temperature map at weather.com. Lost in this week’s news reports about the heat wave’s effects on the Midwest and northeastern U.S. is...
Our friend Toby Tobin, the Florida real estate maven and blogger, has posted at his web site, GoToby.com, an excellent overview of the inhibitors to a housing recovery. What will be of special...
A little costly, but you get what you pay for The March issue of our free newsletter, Home On The Course, will explore the three broad types of golf communities on the risk/reward continuum -–...
Sugarloaf Mountain, the Minneola, FL, golf course designed by the hot team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is like a beautiful painting that has been vandalized with a splash of paint. The course just...