Things To Do In SW Florida

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in November to their fastest pace since March with home shoppers encouraged by a wider selection of properties on the market, even as mortgage rates mostly ticked higher.

Existing home sales rose 4.8% last month, from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.15 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales accelerated 6.1% compared with November last year, representing the biggest year-over-year gain since June 2021. The latest home sales topped the 4.1 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 17th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 4.7% from a year earlier, to $406,100.

Despite increasing in November and October, home sales are still running below last year’s pace, when they sank to a nearly 30-year low.

“Looks like we won’t match last year in terms of the annual total, so it will be the lowest home sales since 1995,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. read more

By MATT OTT, AP Business Writer

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell markedly last week following a big increase the week before.

Jobless claim applications declined by 22,000 to 220,000 for the week of Dec. 14, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 229,000 analysts were forecasting.

Continuing claims, the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, fell by 5,000 to 1.87 million for the week of Dec. 7. That was also fewer than analysts had projected.

The four-week average of weekly claims, which quiets some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 1,250 to 225,500.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs.

Port Canaveral’s busiest sailing season ever got its final homeported ship of the year when Carnival Cruise Line arrived with its Italian-themed Carnival Venezia on Wednesday.

Its debut makes 16 ships calling the Central Florida port home for the winter sailing season, and the fifth for Carnival Cruise Line, a record for one line at the port.

It sailed away before sunset from Cruise Terminal 3 after having arrived from New York where it had been based since its summer 2023 debut.

Unlike other Carnival ships with the signature whale-tail funnel and blue-red-and-white color scheme, this ship has a simple cylindrical funnel amid a yellow-and-black color scheme. The ship is themed to Venice, Italy and sports a moniker on its hull that says “Carnival Fun Italian Style.”

The 135,225-gross-ton, 4,090-passenger ship was originally built for sister cruise line Costa Cruises as Costa Venezia, and thus features Italian design and architectural touches inspired by Venice including the atrium the line is calling Piazza San Marco. It debuted in 2019 and sailed out of China until the COVID-19 pandemic. Carnival rebranded it and a sister ship from Costa that is now known as Carnival Firenze, calling them the line’s Venice class of ships. read more

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tumbled to one of their worst days of the year after the Federal Reserve hinted Wednesday it may deliver fewer shots of adrenaline for the U.S. economy in 2025 than earlier thought.

The S&P 500 fell 2.9%, just shy of its biggest loss for the year, to pull further from its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,123 points, or 2.6%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 3.6%.

The Fed said Wednesday it’s cutting its main interest rate for a third time this year, continuing the sharp turnaround begun in September when it started lowering rates from a two-decade high to support the job market. Wall Street loves easier interest rates, but that cut was already widely expected.

The bigger question centers on how much more the Fed will cut next year. A lot is riding on it, particularly after expectations for a series of cuts in 2025 helped the U.S. stock market set an all-time high 57 times so far in 2024. read more

After circling above the runway for months, Kissimmee commissioners Tuesday evening finally brought in for a landing the issue of fees for airplanes that touch down at the city’s airport.

Despite pushback from pilots, commissioners will implement a $3 landing fee for every 1,000 pounds of aircraft weight for planes not based at Kissimmee Gateway Airport beginning in 2025. Helicopters will have to pay $20 upon landing. The airport will use a third-party vendor, Vector Airport Systems, to monitor and collect fees — for a 15% cut over three years.

Kissimmee becomes the only airport in the state with landing fees for general aviation planes under 5,000 pounds. Any emergency, law enforcement or nonprofit medical aircraft are exempt from the fees.

“This is no different than any other business that needs additional funding to either operate, sustain or maintain,” Commissioner Angela Eady said. “This is what we have to do … there’s no other way around this.”

Nearly a dozen pilots and flight students spoke during the meeting, pleading with commissioners to listen to them. read more