An article in today's Orlando Sentinel showed that downtown Orlando condo developers are finally facing the hard reality that we are overbuilt. This has been one of the head scratching issues for the last year. Why are developers continuing to make plans to build more when what is available is not selling.

I think it was several things that made some in the developer community ignore what seemed obvious to many of us.

1. A number of people believed that the real estate press was over reacting to the market indicators and that things would stabilize soon. Wrong - I think the press in general is underestimating the problem. when mortgage companies started folding faster than you could compile a list, the financial press did not connect the dots to the domino effect that was to come.  

2. A lot of companies felt that if they could hold while others folded that they would own market share. Wrong - Many of the companies that ignored the market demand are now paying a stiff financial price for their efforts.

Let's hope developers in the rest of Central Florida see that their area is no different than downtown Orlando.  There are several condo conversion projects in my Longwood neighborhood that are stagnant, there are several high priced buildings in Altamonte that are 60% - 70% empty. We do not need more until we digest what is on our plate. 

Continued unrealistic development is hurting everyone equity, oversupply drives price down. I know I'm preaching to the choir, maybe we can get development to join the choir.