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Friday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
› Home prices in Sarasota-Manatee fail to keep up with state and national gains
Home prices in the Sarasota-Manatee region lagged behind the latest state and national gains. Local home prices rose 2.8% over the year in June, slower than the increases of 4.6% in Florida and 4.9% throughout the U.S., according to a new report from real estate database CoreLogic. Sarasota-Manatee ranked 90th lowest for price growth among the 403 U.S. metros studied.
› Luxury Realtor experiences major successes despite pandemic
Other than having to wipe down door handles with disinfectant on the way out of a showing, the pandemic hasn’t slowed down Realtor Kim Ogilvie. Despite the coronavirus, Sarasota-based Ogilvie, of real estate firm Michael Saunders & Co., has had a season of success in the luxury real estate market.
› Olive Garden is a No. 1 restaurant in COVID crisis, survey says. But not in Florida
Since the spring, when COVID-19 shut restaurants faster than a ticked-off food inspector, fast-food joints have outperformed sit-down restaurants in customer visits once restaurants started reopening with restrictions. A new survey on casual dining by Top Data found that on average, casual dining places saw 58% less traffic since the start of the pandemic in March, but fast-food restaurants experienced a smaller 30% decrease.
› Port Tampa Bay safety officials hope to learn from Beirut port explosion
When Mark Dubina saw footage of a cataclysmic explosion at a port in Beirut, Lebanon on Monday, he found it as shocking as anyone. Dubina is the vice president of security at Port Tampa Bay, which traffics millions of tons of hazardous materials in and out of Tampa every year, including fuel, phosphates and anhydrous ammonia used in fertilizers.
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