Home builders may be rising off mat
November 12, 2007
Is the local new-home market poised for a comeback? Some economists say it could be 2009 before a decent construction pace resumes, but one unofficial barometer is signaling growth ahead: Sean Monett, president of Blackton Inc., a major distributor of roofing and flooring in Central Florida, says his company is seeing "substantial" new orders for work scheduled to occur during the next 12 to 24 months. The company recently wrote more than a dozen contracts for roofing and flooring material for more than 4,000 homes planned in 17 subdivisions, from St. Cloud and Windermere to Tavares and Ocala.
Spreading the pain
Look for the home-foreclosure pain to ease a bit in Orange County, relative to other Florida counties. How so? True, the number of foreclosure suits filed in Orange rose in September in raw numbers, to 376 from 127 during the same month a year ago. But as a percentage of all the suits filed in key counties surveyed by Default Research Inc., Orange County's share slipped from 8.2 percent a year ago to 7.7 percent. Miami-Dade had the most foreclosure notices during September -- 1,006, or nearly triple Orange County's total. In percentage terms, though, Miami-Dade's share of the total was down from 26 percent a year ago to 21 percent.
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