How many of you knew that Disney was in the home building market? it’s not something they do a lot of, but they do have at least one major housing community, Celebration, which is near Orlando and was built in 1996.
They’re about to try to make magic again, this time with an upscale housing community called Golden Oaks. These will be high priced vacation homes geared towards visitors who love coming to the Orlando area on a regular basis. What they’re planning on doing is creating around 450 homes over just under 1,000 acres, as well as adding a hotel. The prices of the homes will start around $1.5 million and going all the way up to $8 million, and they’ve already started selling lots.
It’s quite ambitious; how realistic is it? First off, Disney isn’t hurting, so they can afford to take chances. Second, though the Florida market has been depressed, they’re not gearing the homes to local residents, but to out of state visitors who just might have the money. Adding two golf courses to the area won’t hurt the market either. If Disney can pull this off, it just might be the shot in the arm Florida needs to get things moving in the right direction once more.
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Mitch writes on real estate, finance, and many other things.