Things To Do In SW Florida

By Abby Badach Doyle, NerdWallet

It won’t be impossible to buy a house in 2025 — just be prepared to play on hard mode.

According to a November 2024 report from ICE Mortgage Technology, the monthly principal and interest payment on an average-priced home is $2,385. While that’s not the highest it’s ever been, it’s still a sharp increase — nearly 80% — from just three years ago. In November 2021, when mortgage rates averaged 3%, the monthly principal and interest on an average-priced home was $1,327 per month.

So here’s the key to buying in 2025: Look ahead, not back. Regret won’t help you budget for today’s new normal.

And with this year’s election also in the rearview mirror, so is some uncertainty among buyers and sellers that historically slows the market during every presidential election cycle.

“People have just been kind of sitting waiting to see what’s going to happen,” says Courtney Johnson Rose, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, an industry group for Black real estate agents. “I’m hopeful that the new year will bring more attention to real estate, more excitement to real estate, and more opportunities for first-time home owners to get in the game.” read more

Troy Brown is a modern-day underwater treasure hunter.

As the owner of Nature Boy Troy’s Coastal Adventures, he often dives in search of submerged items.

“I’ve been in Florida since 1970 and scuba certified since I was 12 years old. I probably do about 150 tanks a year diving,” said Brown, who often is tasked with finding underwater lost items for people. “Troy Sorenson is my friend and he runs Dive Florida on Cortez Road. He has a service where he searches with an underwater metal detector for precious jewelry and wedding rings, things people lose when they come down. He sends me his overflow of people looking for other objects besides jewelry. I’ve found GoPro cameras, cellphones, glasses amongst other items.”

In the middle of last week, Brown received a call from a man named Adam from Rochester, New York. Adam’s worst fear came true. While on vacation on Anna Maria Island, his fishing cart blew into the water and with it his $1,000 prescription glasses.

Publishers, authors reject state argument picking school library books ‘government speech’ read more

Bob Iger wants out of the culture wars.

Walt Disney Co. and its chief executive have made a sharp pivot since doubling down on diversity and inclusion efforts in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis 4½ years ago. At the time, Disney’s top executives, including then-Chairman Iger, vowed in a message to employees: “We intend to keep the conversation going … for as long as it takes to bring about real change.”

The Magic Kingdom dropped its pomp greeting to fans for its nightly fireworks display. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” became a gender-neutral salutation to “dreamers of all ages.” Pixar’s animated movie, “Lightyear,” included a brief kiss between two women characters; and Disney’s animated film, “Strange World,” featured the company’s first biracial queer teen hero.

But in the past week, Disney acknowledged that a transgender athlete storyline had been removed from an upcoming Pixar animated series, “Win or Lose,” about a middle-school softball team. In a statement, Disney said it recognized “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.” read more

Workers at more than 300 Starbucks across the country went on strike on Christmas Eve, union organizers said, as baristas escalated a national walkout that began in three cities on Friday.

Workers at a store in Oviedo and another in Tampa were among those that picketed Tuesday, said Glitter Felten of Central Florida Jobs for Justice.

About a dozen Oviedo workers stood outside Tuesday morning in front of the store on East Mitchell Hammock Road, she said, joined by a half dozen supportive community members. The store closed for the day.

Kevin Beljan, a shift supervisor at the Oviedo store, said the one-day strike at the busy cafe aimed to “raise awareness” of the dispute between unionized Starbucks workers and the company.

Like counterparts at unionized Starbucks stores nationwide — about 5% of the company’s more than 10,000 company-owned stores in the United States — Beljan and his coworkers want the company to reach an agreement with the union for a better wage package than what has been offered. read more

Amanda Hernández | (TNS) Stateline.org

CHICAGO — Shoplifting rates in the three largest U.S. cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — remain higher than they were before the pandemic, according to a report last month from the nonpartisan research group Council on Criminal Justice.