"Market Headlines "

The Market
Will it be spring, summer, or fall when we will see a notable pick-up in home sales? Difficult to say, but it will happen in 2008.

In spite of gloom and doom of recent news reports, "If you're thinking of buying a house, there's probably not much to be gained by holding out at this point," says Wayne Archer, director of UF's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. "It doesn't look like [Florida housing prices] are going to fall anymore. We see that as a benchmark. When prices maintain the same level as inflation, then we're probably in some kind of equilibrium. It indicates the market is stabilizing."
Buyer confidence will have a significant impact in reviving the housing market and in lifting the economy. One policy measure that can lift buyer confidence is raising the GSE (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) loan limits. A simple lifting of the loan limit from its current $417,000 to $625,000 would enable more households to enter the housing market using a conventional mortgage. The direct higher sales would likely induce other hesitant buyers into the marketplace. More home sales will lower inventory and thus strengthen home prices. Any strengthening in home prices could possibly have the biggest impact in lowering foreclosures. All this will help improve our economy.

Reported by Susan Kennedy & The Kennedy Team

Communities 
Construction of the Nocatee Town Center's first retail space, office park and apartment complex, along with the adjoining community park, is expected to start in early to mid-2008. "It's got a lot of different uses that are integrated -- that's what a town center is," The PARC Group Inc. partner Greg Barbour said of the project. "We're trying to create a place that people would like to come to."

Composed of about 500 acres in the center of the 14,000-acre PARC Group project that straddles the Duval-St. Johns County line, Nocatee Town Center will provide retail, cultural, entertainment and governmental services to residents in an eventual total of 13,000 residential units.

Jacksonville-based Regency Centers Corp. (NYSE: REG) will develop the first retail phase, beginning with a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood shopping center anchored by a 54,340-square-foot Publix Super Markets Inc. grocery store on the east side of the town center. The 135,000-square-foot shopping center will start construction within 30 days and should be completed by summer 2009. It will have attached and detached restaurants, shops, banks and neighborhood services along with outdoor seating areas, pockets of green space and a central event lawn.

The developer expects Nocatee to have about 1 million square feet of total retail space at build-out. Future phases of retail development will include big box retailers located near, but separate from, the Publix-anchored shopping center, a hotel and gas stations. Flagler Development Group will develop the first corporate office park in the town center. The multibuilding complex totaling 675,000 square feet will be the Jacksonville-based office and industrial developer's first fully sustainable development project in Northeast Florida. The company plans to apply for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the office park.