"Sales have been running smoothly all year long and we expectthe same in 2005," Carter tells GlobeSt.com. "Buyers seem to besensing that prices will be going up, not down, in thenear-future." Carter is president of 27-year-old locally basedMaury L. Carter & Associates, the oldest land-brokerage firm inCentral Florida.

In the largest transaction, Carter and broker Patrick Chisholmof Maury L. Carter & Associates represented the CarterOcoee-Apopka Land Trust in its all-cash sale of 203 acres in a407-acre tract to Dallas-based Centex Homes for approximately $7.8million or about $38,286 per acre.

Centex paid about 88 cents per sf for the dirt located at thenew Western Beltway (State Road 429), Ocoee Apopka Road (CountyRoad 437) and the planned Maitland Boulevard extension/ApopkaBypass. Carter and Chisholm also figured in a second all-cash dealwith another homebuilder, KB Home Orlando LLC, which purchased 22.6acres in a 63-acre tract owned by Carter-US 192/Partin SettlementLand Trust. KB paid $1.6 million, or $71,576 per acre ($1.64 persf), for the property located between US 192 and the FloridaTurnpike. KB plans to develop Amber Point, a townhome community, onthe site.