Construction Boom Or Bust?

Small billboards show colorful images of condominiums coming to a neighborhood near you.

Glance beyond some of these signs around the county and you won't see any construction workers or signs of activity as the weeks pass.

New housing construction may be stalled, but some big school and county government projects are either under way or in the works.

In the midst of a major school construction effort, the School Board of Highlands County is adding classrooms to eliminate as many portable classrooms as possible.

Memorial Elementary School opened in August. Classroom additions at Hill-Gustat Middle and Sebring High schools are on schedule to open in January. Construction will begin soon on new classroom buildings at Avon Park High and Avon Park Middle schools.

The school board approved on Tuesday the contract for design work on new classroom additions and covered patio areas at Lake Placid High and Lake Placid Middle schools.

Each project is between $4 million and $5 million, depending on the site work, A.D. Morgan Corporation Project Manager Dawn Balsamo said Wednesday.

Aside from the school construction, A.D. Morgan does not have any other current projects in the county, but is looking at the proposed sheriff's building and has been in discussions with South Florida Community College, Balsamo said.

SFCC President Norm Stephens Jr. said the college has a lot of renovation projects forthcoming, including the Lake Placid campus and the auditorium on the main campus. New buildings are contingent on state funding in 2010-11.

County Building Projects

As the school district builds to accommodate growth, county projects will greatly expand the space for three agencies.

The largest of the three major county building projects is the new law enforcement building for the sheriff's office, with an estimated cost of $11.1 million. Contracts are expected be awarded by year's end and construction is expected to start in January.

Next in size comes an expansion of the Children's Advocacy Center, with an estimated cost of $1.5 million.

The county also will build a new facility to house Veterans Services. The cost is estimated at $804,000, with the county paying half and the other half covered by a federal grant. Bids are scheduled to be opened in early October and construction is expected to start in January.

The new veterans building is scheduled to open just before Memorial Day 2009.

Both the law enforcement and the veterans buildings will be built on George Boulevard, where the county already has five buildings housing 10 county departments, plus the Agri-Civic Center.

New Home Construction Turnaround?

New home construction continues to be slow, said Al Moretz, executive director of the Highlands County Builders Association. But, with construction prices down, it's a great time to build a new home or to purchase one of the many existing ones on the market.

What will it take to improve the home construction industry - lower gas prices, consumer confidence bolstered after the presidential election or an overall improvement in the economy?

"I wish I knew exactly," Moretz said. Some people think the election will be part of the turning point, or shortly after the first of the year, the housing market will improve.

Mike Secor, president of the Highlands County Builders Association, said there are some signs the housing market is starting to improve.

The number of listed units versus the number of sales has narrowed to about a 3-to-1 margin after being as wide as 6 to 1, he noted.

Houses are being sold though most of them have been discounted after being overpriced, Secor said. There were a lot of speculators and investors, not the regular builders, who threw the market off everywhere, not just here, he added.

"We are doing the development on the Parkway Villas at Pine Key and we have been fortunate to sell some units this year and we are looking to sell some more over the winter season," he said.

Nationally, existing-home sales - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - declined 2.2 percent in August following a healthy gain in July as tight mortgage credit curtailed activity, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In the South, existing-home sales increased 0.5 percent to an annual pace of 1.86 million in August, but are 15.1 percent below a year ago. The median price in the South was $176,500, which is 3.4 percent lower than August 2007.