Central Florida: Growing Fast

"In downtown Orlando, you see it in the new office towers and upscale apartment buildings with street level shops. On the edges of suburbia, it's the construction crews busy paving cul-de-sacs for new neighborhoods named after the oak hammocks they're about to replace. All year long, development was transforming the horizons of Orange County, the anchor of one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas. By some estimates, at least 25,000 people were added to the county's population, pushing it close to 890,000. . .In east Orange, new neighborhoods and shopping centers continued to pop up along the Alafaya Trail corridor, with the largest and newest community -- Avalon Park -- getting under way with its first 250 homes. Plans call for about 3,800. Like Disney's Celebration, Avalon is getting a lot of attention in real estate circles for its compact, pedestrian-friendly design and a budding town center where apartments will sit above storefronts."