The Henin Group Inc. expects to start development next year of dozens of homes three miles from Wekiwa Springs State Park, CEO Jerome Henin told Orlando Business Journal.
The Winter Park-based residential developer will build Wekiva Ridge, featuring 71 single-family homes, on a 28-acre site at 1401 and 1433 Votaw Road in Apopka. Orange County already approved the zoning request needed to build the community; Henin Group must get a preliminary subdivision plan approved before construction can begin. Henin Group plans to submit a conceptual site plan to the county early next year, and groundbreaking is expected in late 2022, Henin told OBJ.
The community's proposed 50-foot and 65-foot homesites will accommodate homes ranging from 2,500-4,000 square feet. Prices may start in the mid-$400,000s, more expensive than the $307,635 average sales price of an existing home in Apopka's 32703 ZIP code.
Henin Group is considering partnering with a homebuilder to construct the homes, instead of Henin Group building them itself. If that happens, the home sizes and prices may change, according to Henin. Maitland-based Civil Design Solutions LLC the project engineer.
The project is good news, as local new home construction activity fell in October. A total of $600 million in new residential construction started in metro Orlando in October, a 5% drop from November 2020 and a 6% decrease from September, according to the most recent data available from Dodge Data & Analytics.
Housing markets in metro Orlando and across the U.S. in the past 18 months have faced limited inventory. The supply of homes nationwide is projected to tick up 0.3% in 2022, according to Realtor.com. That's not much of an increase, but it's better than the 18% decrease the nation experienced in 2021.
An increase in new home construction "will eventually feed into this positive trend as well," Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale wrote in a Dec. 1 report. However, homebuilders first need to catch up after severe construction delays throughout 2021, Hale wrote.
Trends in the residential real estate market are important, as every home sale in the state has an estimated local economic impact of $90,300, according to the National Association of Realtors. In addition, the housing market often is considered a reflection of the local economy's overall health.
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2020 C. Fla. total housing starts
| Rank | Prior Rank | Homebuilder |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | PulteGroup Inc. |
2 | 2 | Mattamy Homes |
3 | 3 | Park Square Enterprises LLC |