Seminole’s growth, lack of vacant land, means rising housing costs

As more people move into Seminole County every year, they will find it increasingly difficult to buy a new home as large swaths of vacant property to build residential subdivisions diminishes in one of the state’s smallest but most densely populated counties, officials said.

“We’re running out of land very quickly to build on, so we definitely have a supply and demand problem,” Seminole Property Appraiser David Johnson said this week during a presentation before county commissioners. “We’re not going to have people saying: ‘We’re not moving to Seminole County.’ And that’s because of the quality of life. So, we’re going to have to figure out a place where to put these folks at some point. … We are critically underhoused in this county.”

That increase in demand and drop in supply will continue to raise property values and rent prices, analysts said. The median sales price of existing single-family homes in Seminole bumped up by more than 14% in the past year from $314,250 in 2020 to $359,000 in 2021, according to county data. And the median sale price of a new townhome last year was $346,350, a jump of nearly 11% from the previous year.

It also means that more apartment buildings with 300 units or more are expected to go up in Seminole’s core, particularly along the U.S. Highway 17-92 corridor between Casselberry and Sanford, as land becomes scarce and developers look to build up, Johnson said.

His office estimated that 3,240 apartment units are scheduled to be built in Seminole this year. Renters will find eye-popping prices. The current average rent for apartments in the Seminole area, which includes Maitland, is $1,672, well above the national average of $1,570, according to CoStar Group, a real estate analysis firm. And a year from now, the average rent is expected to soar to $1,825.

But it’s not just in Seminole. Rent in the metro Orlando area — which includes Seminole, Orange, Osceola and Lake — climbed 24.3% in 2021, faster than in any other area in the South, according to CoStar. “We have a supply and demand imbalance Seminole’s growth, lack of vacant land, means rising housing costs in most of the Orlando area,” said Lisa McNatt, director of Market Analytics for CoStar Group in Orlando. “And even though the metro area has 16,000 new apartment units under construction, it’s not enough to offset the robust renter demand from in-migration.”

Seminole also is moving away from becoming a bedroom community for Orlando and Orange County, as more businesses move into the county and residents find professional jobs closer to home. “We’re becoming more urbanized,” Johnson said, pointing to large corporations, including Verizon and Deloitte, that have moved into the Lake Mary area over the past two decades. Seminole residents “realize that they don’t have to get on I-4 every morning to go to work in Orange County and come back home every night. We have our own economic incubator or dynamics that were not there 20 years ago.”

Today, about 65% of Seminole’s total value of its property tax roll is residential and 35% is commercial property. About 30 years ago, it was 85% residential and 15% commercial. By comparison, about 51% of Orange County’s total value of its property tax roll is residential and 49% is commercial, according to data from the Orange County Property Appraiser’s Office.

The sale of commercial properties in Seminole more than tripled in the past year from $425 million in 2020 to $1.3 billion in 2021. Seminole’s population is expected to jump by nearly 11% from the current 475,000 residents to 526,400 in 2030. However, at 309 square miles, Seminole is the fourth-smallest county in Florida. And about one-third of Seminole is protected from high-density development, including within the rural boundary east of the Econlockhatchee River, where development is limited to one home per five acres or one home per 10 acres.

“We all know that we’re very small geographically. So that’s an issue we’re going to have to address as we move forward” in planning for future growth, Johnson said to commissioners. Commissioners said people wanting to move to Seminole is not a bad thing. “What makes us special is that people will want to move here because of our quality of life,” Commissioner Lee Constantine said. “So we want to make sure that our quality of life stays at a premium.” mcomas@orlandosentinel.com

Slapfish Review – Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Slapfish was on the menu for a Saturday afternoon for my wife and I.  Nestled in the mega shopping district of Waterford Lakes, the location is in a good spot in terms of parking and getting to the location.  The mistake made by ownership was to provide a fish eye view of The Brass Tap next door, to which I continually looked in that direction wishing I had chosen that spot instead.  Right off the bat, as I venture into the establishment at noon on a very busy Saturday in Waterford, My wife and I and just one other couple are the only patrons.  It feels like the place is going to close soon.  

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The ordering procedure is much like Tijuana Flats (which I hate terribly)… You walk up to a counter that is devoid of any crew members and wait for the college age kid to finally make his way to the register to take our order.  Another college type kid looks through from the kitchen with a look that screams, Oh my God, we actually have another customer.  The Sub- Millennial that took our order had an expressionless face and made no comments at all.  I thought for just a moment that I was in a scene from Gattica.  A robot from 70’s sitcom TV has more personality.  I almost apologized for bothering him.

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Streaming local: A cord-cutting guidebook for Central Florida

Ready to break up with your cable provider? Paying too much for channels you don’t watch? Cord-cutting offers consumers the flexibility to pay for the channels they want, without subscribing to those they don’t. While signing up for purely entertainment-based services like Netflix and Disney+ is generally a pretty straightforward process, it can be a little bit more complicated to retain access to local news content after ditching a cable provider. Though all local channels can be picked up by digital HD antennas, direct browser or app streams are available for all major local networks, which each have their own in-house streaming services:

WKMG: News 6 has its own streaming service called News 6+, which streams live newscasts and events, and also shows highlights from News 6 broadcasts in between livestreams. This service can be accessed via browser at clickorlando.com/watch-live and through the Click Orlando app which is available for Apple and Android devices.

WOFL: FOX 35 uses the LiveNOW platform to stream news from Orlando during local news broadcasts. LiveNOW can be accessed via browser at fox35orlando.com/live or through the FOX 35 app. In between local news broadcasts, the stream will feature highlights from the national LiveNOW Fox service. The FOX 35 app supports AirPlay on Apple devices, making it possible to stream
content from this service on compatible devices like Apple TV.

WFTV: Channel 9 has a streaming news hub called WFTV Now that features several channels that include regular newscasts, breaking news, and 24/7 weather. All channels are accessible at wftv.com/video and inside the WFTV News App, which is available on Apple and Android platforms.

WESH: Channel 2 uses NowCast to stream local news broadcasts as they air on TV. In between broadcasts, the NowCast stream will air repeats of the most recent broadcast. This service is available at wesh.com/nowcast and inside the WESH app, which is available on Apple and Android platforms. The WESH app supports AirPlay on Apple devices, making it possible to stream content from this service on compatible devices like Apple TV.

In addition to accessing direct channel streams through apps and websites, select local channels (currently WESH and WFTV) can also be streamed directly to your TV with the NewsON app, which is compatible with Apple, Chromecast, Roku and Amazon streaming devices. More information on this service is available at newson.us.

For those looking for a more structured, all-in-one option that livestreams all content (not just news) from local channels, third-party subscriptions to Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV or YouTube TV work like cable and allow consumers to access full channel streams from networks that users choose individually. Plans that include live local TV options start at $54.99 per month. Sling TV is a less expensive option with plans starting at $30, but this service only includes live local streaming from FOX 35, with no other major local Central Florida channels currently available.