Some interesting commentary yesterday from the Natural Resoures Defense Council on the Urban Land Institute's annual joint report with PriceWaterhouseCoopers entitled Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/major_real_estate_report_shift.html). As the NRDC's Kaid Benfield points out, this otherwise gloomy report shines some light on the types of real estate that investors may want to seek out as enduring assets, chief among them being those properties that are located along transit corridors and are proximate to job centers and cultural offerings. Mr. Benfield also notes that the report cautions real estate investors to stay away from fringe areas "with long car commutes or where getting a quart of milk means taking a 15- minute drive." Keep in mind that this is a well-respected report from two highly-competent organizations; the kind of report that finds its way into broad circulation within the real estate community.
Uh-oh - seems like we might have quite of bit of those fringe areas that fit the above description here in Orlando. Are those areas destined to wither away as their current residents tire of spending time in their cars? For those areas that remain distant from job centers and cultural opportunities, the answer is probably "yes." But doesn't that mean that we must move with the utmost urgency to connect these same areas with jobs and culture via transit? For if we do not, doesn't it mean that Orlando will start to contract in a way that will bleed talent from our population as those residents flee to cities that have figured out how to move them around?
Orlando, this seems like yet another wake-up call to me. We've been able to ride our cheap land and abundant sunshine for a long time, but our land is not so cheap (particularly if we are serious about protecting our natural environment) and sunshine isn't as much fun if you have to view it through your car window most of the time. Once again, here is another national report that exhorts the value of transit and urban-style living in today's global marketplace.
Will we wake up and change our ways? Will we get serious about bringing transit to the area, not just to downtown Orlando but linking all of our job centers and cultural institutions?
If we don't, another report shows that Orlando might be a very bad real estate bet...
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