floydgator

Being an architect does not make one a construction expert. In fact, in my experience, it's quite the opposite.

I've followed this board on and off for a while, never bothered to sign up until now. I only did so at this time because I grew up in Oak Ridge and have lived in Orlando for about 8 years now. So, for the sake of factual accuracy, I thought I would chime in on a couple of things: 1. I-140 does not continue to Oak Ridge. It continues to Pellissippi Parkway which in turn leads into Oak Ridge. The interstate spur itself stops at I-40. 2. Knoxville does not have a sustained, viable downtown. Revitalization of downtown has been cyclical. Probably 10 years ago, it went through a period of renewal with restaurants and bars and whatnot. That all came to a crashing halt. It has recently gone through another revitalization period. However, if you transposed Knoxville's downtown into Orlando, it would be embarassing. The two cities just are not comparable. 3. The Riviera is a new 8 screen theater that is doing very well. For now. Check back in a year or two. As I said before, Knoxville's downtown has not sustained any kind of success. I don't know that this adds anything to this discussion, but I wanted to set the record straight. I believe that Orlando's "problems" downtown are similar to Orlando's overall real estate market's "problems". Simply put, prices were driven out of control by high population growth, low interest rates, shortsighted home buyers, and dumb speculators/investors. I put "problems" in quotations b/c I don't see the current price corrections as a problem. Orlando's growth has been stunted by silly price growth. For example, we bought our house in West Orange for $239,000 in 2002. Had we put our house on the market 2 years ago, we would have sold it for nearly $500k in less than a week. It's the same house. 30% annual home price increases cannot possibly be sustained. As a result, homes in our neighborhood (all comparable) are now listed for mid to high $300s and they sit unsold for months, if not more than a year. Once the market correction is complete, everything will be fine again. I suspect that means that this time next year, we will be able to sell our house for mid to high 300s in a reasonable period of time (2-3 months). That would mean an annual return of 7-8%. That's about what you should expect from your home, maybe even slightly less. And when all of this comes full circle, people will actually occupy those downtown condos and a movie theater will become viable.