Economic question of the week

The U.S. economy is growing, albeit slowly. Florida is outperforming the average, particularly in the areas of net immigration and job growth. Slowing growth, the perceived threat of looming interest rate increases, global geopolitics risks and weak real wage growth are all headwinds that could impact Florida's commercial real estate industry. Even the strengthening U.S. dollar is a challenge, because of its impact on the historically active foreign buyer market in Florida. In spite of these potential headwinds, though, real estate as an asset class remains attractive to investors. The region's property markets, too, do not appear to be grossly overvalued nor overbuilt, so I expect commercial real estate investments to be largely stable statewide throughout 2016.