The Daily Soak - December 19

Tampa Website Seeks to Help Unemployed Real Estate Workers

A new website poses the question, "Have you lost your Tampa real estate job?" The sub-heading then offers the following words of encouragement, "You haven't lost friends at RealEstateLives.org, helping you get back on your feet and back to work!" According to the St. Pete Times, the non-profit organization based in Hillsborough County seeks to help unemployed construction workers, brokers, engineers and other real estate workers network and find jobs to get them through the current recession. And unlike the glamorous high-rise construction days during the boom, today's jobs--repairing dikes in Lake Okeechobee or driving pylons in Mobile, Alabama--are certainly more emblematic of a full-blown depression.


Not So Studly: Florida Horsemen Fighting "Perfect Storm"

Central Florida's thoroughbred industry is suffering from a fall in global demand for yearlings at major auctions in Ocala and Kentucky. Double-digit drops in revenue coupled with a doubling of the buyback rate, the percentage of horses that didn't sell at auction and were bought back by the owner, have put horsemen in a tough spot. Several farm owners are now breeding with non-Florida stallions, despite a "Florida Only" program originally designed to enhance the image of the state's industry abroad. But today's Florida horsemen like Bridlewood Farms (pictured) manager George Isaacs are more concerned with basic survival. "In my heart, I know that 2009 will be as difficult a year as our operation has faced," Isaacs said.


Lennar CEO Wants Federal Bailout Money, Policy

Are we the only country that privatizes profits and socializes losses? Because three years ago, Miami-based home builder Lennar cracked the $1 billion mark in profits for the first time in the company's history. $1.4 billion to be exact. At the time, government intervention wasn't sought to slow the double-digit gains in Florida home prices or the historic run-up in shareholder equity. But now that Lennar is posting billion dollar losses and Florida home prices are "in freefall," Lennar CEO Stuart Miller wants the incoming Obama administration to stimulate demand with "measures that shove mortgage rates further downward and push wary buyers back into the market." Ahhh..."shoving" and "pushing"....that sounds like a winning recipe for forcing already debt-saddled Floridians into highly-amenitized homes they can no longer afford.