Things To Do In SW Florida

After a year of construction, the site of Orlando’s last New American Home showcase is organized chaos, but Alair Homes Partner Daniel Kennerly insists that everything is absolutely on schedule.

“We broke ground Oct. 4 of last year on a 16,000-square-foot house, and on Nov. 10, we expect to be picture-ready,” Kennerly told GrowthSpotter.

The ultra-modern estate overlooking Lake Osceola in Winter Park will be unveiled in February at the International Builders Show, and during the show, up to 5,000 people will tour the property. The 43rd edition of the National Association of Home Builders’ The New American Home will be the last in Orlando. The IBS will relocate permanently to Las Vegas after next year’s convention.

Right now, multiple crews are working simultaneously throughout the house in a race to meet the approaching deadline. In the kitchen, they’re installing cabinets, while the tile is going up in the bathrooms and on the infinity pool. Glass railings are being attached to all the stairways and balconies, and slatted wood cladding is going up on the walls, with siding on the exterior. read more

Almost three-fourths of respondents in a new survey of Central Florida businesses expressed confidence about their prospects for the rest of the year — but that sentiment tumbled from a year earlier.

Results from the business conditions survey for the third quarter that came out last week showed 72% had confidence in the outlook for their own businesses in the current quarter compared to 86% for the same period in 2024. The dip comes amid economic tumult worldwide, with resurgent inflation and gyrating tariffs that, some businesses said in the survey, are beginning to hit their bottom lines.

But Neil Hamilton, vice president of research and strategy at the Orlando Economic Partnership who oversees the survey, said even with the drop in confidence levels he views the results as promising.

“There’s a lot of noise right now but they can only go by what they see in their own business and one in four cite their recent performance as the primary driver of their optimism going forward,” Hamilton said. “That’s despite the national headwinds — the headwinds being political uncertainty and increasing inflation which we saw in this last quarter. read more

By Nicholas Takahashi, Bloomberg News

Carmakers around the world are planning to scale back production after an export freeze on a Chinese semiconductor company based in Netherlands threatened to disrupt the industry’s supply chains.

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Honda Motor Co. said it has cut or suspended production this week at some plants in North America as a countermeasure to the chip shortage, which stems from China blocking Nexperia BV — owned by Chinese company Wingtech Technology Co. — from exporting products made at its local plants. That was a retaliatory move after the Dutch government took control of Nexperia under emergency powers to protect strategic production. read more

By ALEX VEIGA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The number of U.S. homes that typically change hands as people relocate for work, retire or trade-up for more living space hasn’t been this low in nearly 30 years.

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About 28 out of every 1,000 homes changed hands between January and September, the lowest U.S. home turnover rate going back to at least the 1990s, according to an analysis by Redfin.

The home turnover rate represents the number of homes sold, divided by the total number of existing sellable properties. While sales data show whether more or fewer homes are selling in a given period, the home turnover rate helps illustrate how homeowners are staying put longer. read more

By M.K. WILDEMAN

KENT, Conn. (AP) — For most Americans, there’s less reason than ever to worry about finding chargers to fuel up an electric vehicle. But charging worries remain a top hesitation for potential buyers, second only to sticker shock.

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Those concerns linger even as fast chargers multiply. More than 12,000 have been added within a mile of U.S. highways and interstates just this year, an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows. That’s about a fifth of quick-charging ports now in operation.

Yet a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago finds about 4 in 10 of U.S. adults still point to range and charging time as “major” reasons they wouldn’t buy an EV. That’s significant considering only about 2 in 10 Americans say they would be “extremely” or “very” likely to make a new or used electric vehicle their next car purchase. read more