[marteck]

Hello everyone,
I am a contractor from homestead, who deceded to move up to west palm beach. things are pretty slow around here as far as construction( new homes, commercial buildout). I heard that up north in ocala, gainesville, and orlando area things were starting to pick-up, is anyone in this forum from these areas or has anyone seen the growth there or any other area in florida for that matter. My wife and I were thinking about moving a little further north with our two kids, she is an R.N., and I have basically done concrete flatwork my whole life w/ a couple of homes under my belt. I would appreciate any response,or comments from you all.
Thank You

[discontented lot owner]

Originally Posted by marteck

Hello everyone,
I am a contractor from homestead, who deceded to move up to west palm beach. things are pretty slow around here as far as construction( new homes, commercial buildout). I heard that up north in ocala, gainesville, and orlando area things were starting to pick-up, is anyone in this forum from these areas or has anyone seen the growth there or any other area in florida for that matter. My wife and I were thinking about moving a little further north with our two kids, she is an R.N., and I have basically done concrete flatwork my whole life w/ a couple of homes under my belt. I would appreciate any response,or comments from you all.
Thank You

I am in a semi-retired position here in Ocala and thank GOD I have enough money to squeak by and dodge the sxxzjfg## wages up here. I was in WPB for over 18 years making a non pressure $24 per hr (most of the time keeping track of my own hrs) I arrive in Ocala Feb 06 and say my rate is $20 per hr-they look at me as if my fly is down. $8 to 10 per hr is the norm around here. I could make as much money feeding horses as I could in a skilled trade. I being serious. The reason is there are so many builders stuck here because their houses dont sell and they will work for nothing just to get by. I woulod advise you to wait until another hurricane comes through southern Fla-thus creating a North exodus then we will have demand for the houses that have been sitting around here for the last year or so. Just keeping it real.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by marteck

Hello everyone,
I am a contractor from homestead, who deceded to move up to west palm beach. things are pretty slow around here as far as construction( new homes, commercial buildout). I heard that up north in ocala, gainesville, and orlando area things were starting to pick-up, is anyone in this forum from these areas or has anyone seen the growth there or any other area in florida for that matter. My wife and I were thinking about moving a little further north with our two kids, she is an R.N., and I have basically done concrete flatwork my whole life w/ a couple of homes under my belt. I would appreciate any response,or comments from you all.
Thank You

I don't know if this helps but I was on the phone today with a guy I know in South Carolina in the concrete business and he is very busy. You may want to check it out. We know just from this forum people are going there and they may be experiencing a little bit of a building boom.

[backtofla]

no, there is nothing "booming" about sc, especially development. look into northern fla, or lake/polk counties in central fla.

[marteck]

thanks for the info I will look into that, my cousin who is also a G.C. just went up to N.C. to invest in some property, but i'll look into S.C.

[marteck]

Originally Posted by backtofla

no, there is nothing "booming" about sc, especially development. look into northern fla, or lake/polk counties in central fla.

heard good promising things about these places to. See, my problem with the south (miami,lauderdale,etc.) was i was always getting underbid by people that probably never had a license or workers comp. liability, etc.( that stuff is pretty expensenve in florida) so i dont want to move somewer were im not going to make enough money.:

[marteck]

what counties in the north of fla look good as far as commercial construction?

[carnut]

Everything is dead on the southwest coast line. More homes on the market than you can shake a stick at. I guess if you were looking to buy then now might be a good time. But if you are selling you will need to get in line with the other 100,000 or so people that are trying to sell.

Developers are abandoning developments because they paid hundreds of millions too much for the land.

[firemed]

Originally Posted by carnut

Everything is dead on the southwest coast line. More homes on the market than you can shake a stick at. I guess if you were looking to buy then now might be a good time. But if you are selling you will need to get in line with the other 100,000 or so people that are trying to sell.

Developers are abandoning developments because they paid hundreds of millions too much for the land.

Given the enormous gains in the value of Florida real estate. It has much further to fall than other states. Winter is the selling season in Florida and if its not selling now it will be a long hot summer. If you think its bad now, The worst is yet to come.

[ssg II]

Here's a prime example of how bad things are up here: I work for an underground construction company and most of our work is contract with one of the cities. Last year at this time we had over 300 jobs on the books, today we have 11.

Anybody with a Bob-Cat or lawn mower has gone into land clearing or lawn maintenence and bidding for the few jobs there are is cut-throat.

My brother has been a commercial super for decades. He moved over here from Tampa last July & is still out of work.