Brief Overview of the 2018 Land Market Survey by RLI and NAR

If you are not familiar with this annual survey conducted each fall by the joint venture between the REALTORS® Land Institute and the National Association of REALTORS® Research Group, let me give you a brief overview as well as access to the full report, and further information from the organizations. 

This survey is used as a tool for real estate land professionals in all sectors of the business to use for an information resource to better inform their client of market conditions, throughout the country and how to relate to their own local market. The survey is designed to reveal current trends and state of land markets across the United States, which can show growth and negative patterns to be aware of that may affect local economies. 

As noted on the RLI website where this survey is posted, the 2018 Land Markets Survey showed sustainable growth in both national land sales and land prices. Respondents reported a gain of 2% year-over-year increase in land sales and a 2% increase in land prices between October 2017 and September 2018 period being measured. Although the survey indicated an increase in both measurements, overall growth in the market was at a slightly slower rate than the previous year. This is likely due to many factors that will affect a national and local market that cannot be ignored. Factors such as interest rates, negative impacts of tariff/trade wars (that can be traced for many years) and commodity pricing. The slowdown of the land market can be attributed to the modest gains across residential land sales (4% to 5%,) commercial land sales (3% to 4%) and agricultural land (1% to 2%) compared to previous years. One highlight of the survey is the decrease in the "days on market" with typical results being on average of 90 days compared to typical 95-100 days in past surveys. Please note that this is gauged as a national average as market days will be different based on the property type and local markets. 

To follow along with any references covered in this overview, please feel free to scroll through the image slider below, which is the full report. 

2018 Land Markets Survey from REALTORS® Land Institute

So, if you are wondering what the state of Florida's land markets reveals in this survey, let's cover that. Let's start with page 5 of the survey, which outlines the region where Florida fall, as noted as REGION 10 for the Southeast Area of the United States. As noted on page 10, our region along with other regions, #7, #8 & #9 accounted for 80% of the U.S. land sales in the survey time span. These regions represent many different land types that are crucial to our nation's economic table such as agricultural, urban growth of residential land and recreational land use. 

Now, let's skip to page 23 will further show the level of growth specific to our Region 10; indicated as an increase from 16% to 18% from 2017 to 2018, just being beaten by Region 8 by a small percentage. Now onto page 25, showing the property types for our region's sales, which is dominated by Residential at 32%, then Recreational at 23% followed by Commercial at 14% which should be no surprise to anyone who follows the economy of Florida as our year-to-year growth in population increases and has no signs of stopping anytime soon. It is also important to notate that Florida indicates it has sales in all eight categories of land types surveyed, which is the ONLY region that shows this in the report. Way to Go Florida!! 

Continuing on... just a little more to cover. So we move forward to pages 34 & 35 where the survey reveals what has affected land sales over the past few years. Florida respondents to the survey reported that zoning regulations are high on the list of difficulties in the process of land sales, which should not be a surprise to anyone who works or lives in Florida. Referencing my previous comment regarding our continuous growth in population requires municipalities to constantly review their zoning rules along with their growth regulation for future planning. This can definitely hinder the process of selling land which is a part of doing business in this state. Also, one cannot rule out the fact that our landscape is changing with the ever-growing amount of hurricanes and storms that affect our entire state, which will cause our cities to seek more regulation for better construction standards and where these structures are built. This is highlighted again on page 35, on the 6th, 7th, and 8th bullet points as issues reported by respondents. 

In closing of this blog post, let's look toward what 2019 holds for our entire state as well as the Central Florida Land Market. In reviewing this report covering 2018, my takeaway is that our state's market is steadily rising but not too quickly. Our local market, specific to the Orlando area, the growth is showing to be steady, which is also positive. 

I will be expanding further on this data in my future posts, where I will highlight the market data specific to zip codes showing that we are on track for a steady market. Just because there are no reports of significant growth in our local market, this is no indication of what is to come. My reports (coming soon) will cover the first half of 2019 compared to the same time period of 2018 and since we have a lot of positives in our market at the moment, the end of year reports will show our stability and strength. I look forward to reviewing this year-end data myself as well as sharing it with you, my readers. 

I hope that you have gained some knowledge from my post concerning the 2018 Land Markets Survey and my insight as provided.  I welcome your comments and feedback, as we only learn when we are open to the conversation. 

I encourage you to Reinvest in Orlando Real Estate today! 
Visit my website for more information about my real estate services: 
https://www.reinvestinorlando.com/

Reference Links:

https://www.rliland.com/

https://www.rliland.com/about-realtors-land-institute/land-markets-survey/




Copyright 2019 Theresa M. Kraa, REALTOR®
Associate of Premier Sotheby's International Realty.
All data references are linked and credited within the content of this blog post. 
All rights reserved, Any opinions expressed in this publication are that of the opinion of the editor, not of the brokerage of record and all data is deemed reliable with sources provided within the content.

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