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If a banker offers you a loan, back up a truck and rake in the cash, says economist Henry Fishkind. That's what he would do.
Banks are beginning to lend again, Fishkind said at a recent luncheon in Tampa. In fact, some lenders are soliciting borrowers, including creditworthy entrepreneurs and executives who want to expand existing businesses. That indicates the strength of the recovering economy, he says.
“We will never see interest rates as low as they are now. Go and get all the money you can,” he says. He expects rates to remain “extraordinarily low” through 2014, and to begin rising in 2015, to as high as 6%.
Plenty of cash awaits the right commercial real estate development or corporate opportunity, says Fishkind, principal at Orlando-based financial consulting firm Fishkind & Associates. “There is an ocean of liquidity," he says, adding that federal deficit and budget issues act as a fiscal drag, but the economy has been strong enough to sustain those challenges.
In Florida, that underlying economic strength is fueling a degree of recovery in the housing market, even though prices remain well below the peak of about seven years ago. Increased productivity is fueling population growth and job creation, Fishkind says. Hillsborough, Lee, and Pasco counties are among the top counties in population and job growth. New unemployment filings have declined in those counties and in Pinellas.
Challenges remain, however. Foreclosures pose a problem, with 20,000 filings a month — far more in 2012 than in 2011. Thousands of Florida homeowners remain upside down on their home loans, but in an encouraging sign, mortgage delinquencies are declining, Fishkind says.
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