The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) lays claim to Theme Park Capital of the World and number one in job growth among the nation’s large metros.
Nevertheless, its respectable 8.3% projected appreciation rate for single-family residences and condo/townhouses over the next year ranks it 27th out of the 358 MSAs included in the VeroFORECAST released last month.
Not only did the renowned theme parks, anchored by Disney World and EPCOT, draw more than 72 million visitors in 2016, our data indicates that the unemployment rate in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA is only 3.3.
The renowned theme parks drew more than 72 million visitors in 2016, and according to Business Facilities Magazine’s 2018 Metro Rankings Report, it “notched the fastest Job Growth rate among large metropolitan areas in the country for 2017. While not the largest in terms of number of total jobs, 3.8% employment growth means Orlando is outpacing … every other large MSA in America in terms of the number of jobs added this past year relative to their December 2016 starting points.”
According to our data, the unemployment rate in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA is only 3.3%, despite a population that has been exploding. It is up over 50% in the last 15 years.
The four counties that make up the MSA, also known as Greater Orlando or Metro Orlando, are Seminole, Osceola, Lake and Orange, which includes the city of Orlando and about half the MSA’s total population, estimated last year at over 2.7 million. That makes it the third-largest metropolitan area in Florida, the fifth largest in the southeastern United States, and the nation’s 23rd largest.
All that is helping drive the housing supply to a low 2.3 months and making this a very good market.
“The big problem now is with affordable housing and just lack of housing stock in general,” said Orlando Sentinel Business reporter Paul Brinkmann in March.
“Florida has been growing in general for decades, and people are moving here for the weather and the fact that there is no income tax,” he said. “So those are underlying things that drive population growth in Orlando. But also here we now have an incredible job market, where there are lots of jobs and we’re adding new jobs all the time, so that is attracting more people all the time.”
According to Brinkmann, Osceola is the fastest growing county in area and the tenth fastest growing in the U.S. The devastation of Hurricane Maria in September 2017 contributed to this growth by displacing many Puerto Ricans, and adding to the number of immigrants already arriving from the U.S. territory.
