Main reasons for investing in the Disney-Orlando area:

Florida home values are still substantially lower than those in California. On the other hand, the rent-to-home values for Florida properties are considerably higher than those in California. Therefore home values in Florida provide good appreciation potential while properties in California may have already peaked.

Good appreciation potential in Florida homes is confirmed by the statistics from OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/1q04hpi.pdf). The majority of the twenty cities that experienced the highest appreciation in property values during the first quarter in 2004 are in Florida and California.

There are 47 million visitors per year to the Disney World area. Therefore vacation rental homes within 30 min driving distance from Disney World are in demand + high rent (rents for vacation homes are rising). In fact, this area is called vacation capital of the world since besides Disney World, this area has many other attractions, e.g. Universal Studios, Sea World, Splendid China, etc.

Tourists start to find out vacation homes offer better deal than hotels. This is especially true when families (60% families) bring children and/or elders. Besides saving money, vacation homes offers amenities that hotels do not offer, e.g. private pool, kitchen, large living area, etc.

There are many well-established management companies in Florida-Orlando area that can provide worry-free property management for out-of-state clients. Many of these companies provide online status update of your rental property.

Alternatively, if you do not want to manage your homes, you can pay the deposit for a new home and then earn the appreciation by selling it when it is completed a year to a-year-and-a-half later.

Orlando area is not near coastal areas and therefore tropical storms usually do not cause serious impacts in this area.

Many of the vacation homeowners in this area are Europeans. This reduces the investment risk since Euro is rising against the US dollar and the European interest rates do not move in synchrony with the US rates.