The Daily Soak - October 24

I-4 Corridor: "Important Piece of Political Real Estate"

Eleven days to go and polls are tightenting in the race for the White House. Most battleground states like Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Virginia are considered "in play" for both McCain and Obama, and one of the most coveted swing states is our beloved Florida. Barack Obama held a rally Tuesday night in downtown Miami, while John McCain spent all day Thursday hosting campaign rallies along 200 miles of the I-4 Corridor. USF political expert Susan MacManus told The Wall Street Journal the Corridor is "a very important piece of political real estate. It has a good representative of urban, rural and suburban voters and a higher than average percent of independent voters."


Among Foreign Buyers, Florida Still Reigns Supreme

The presidential race may be close, but Florida ran away with a different nationwide survey. The National Association of Realtors just released the 2008 Profile of International Home Buying Activity, and the Sunshine State racked up 25% of all home sales to foreign buyers. The next closest states were California with 8.9 percent and Arizona with 8.7 percent. Brent Handeland, a retired Norwegian carpenter (pictured), just bought a 3-bedroom condo in Indian Harbour Beach condo for $300,00 and-like 47% of all foreign buyers-he paid cash. In sharp contrast, only 7% of U.S. buyers paid cash for homes bought between May 2007 and May 2008. "Handeland said he enjoys living near the beach and riding his bicycle to nearby stores on State Road A1A. He posts a Norwegian flag outside his door. He has a son in Deltona, and enjoys visits with his family and friends."


Florida Companies Reinvent Themselves To Stay In Business

Such was the case for Creative Mailbox, a Tampa-based company that carved out a profitable niche during the boom making custom signs and mailboxes for real estate developers and master-planned communities. When the HousingBath hit, the residential business vanished, so Creative Mailbox switched gears and started chasing commercial business and lucrative government contracts. The gamble paid off for CEO Jamie Harden when Creative Mailbox landed a big account to manufacture signs for the Florida DOT's I-75 Expansion Project. “There was no capital investment, just investment in brain power,” Harden said. “We’ve truly reinvented ourselves. We had to do it out of survival mode.”