2,000 California Disney Employees ‘Trickling In’ to ‘Business-Friendly’ Florida as Company Relocates Jobs

California Disney employees have already begun “trickling in” to Florida following the Walt Disney Company’s July announcement that it will relocate 2000 employees to a new campus in the Sunshine State.

Florida real estate broker Deanna Armel owns Armel Real Estate and conducts a good portion of her business in Lake Nona, Florida, where the new campus will be located, according to Click Orlando. Armel says employees are already relocating.

“They are already trickling in,” Armel told Click Orlando. “I’m working with a Disney relocation right now buying in the Winter Garden area.”

“It’s not just 2,000 employees, it’s 2,000 employees, their families and extended families,” she added. “I also kind of panicked and was like, ‘Gosh, we don’t have enough inventory as it is,’ more buyers coming in is going to make it more difficult to win bids for these buyers and we’re trying to help.

Between September 2020 and September 2021, available inventory in the market plummeted 39 percent, according to a report from the Orlando Regional Realtor’s Association. “Orlando area inventory has fallen from 5,972 homes in September 2020 to 3,789 homes in September 2021,” the report states.

Moreover, the report reveals the median home price in the Orlando housing market was $318,000 in September. In August the median single-family home price in California was $827,940, the Sacramento Bee reported, citing California’s Department of Finance. 

“It’s cash, it’s all cash,” Armel told Click Orlando. 

Real estate agent Sean Faulk of Forever Magic Reality conveyed to Click Orlando he is helping 20-30 Disney employees with the cross-country move. 

“A great deal of Disney employees are contacting me to make that move,” Faulk told the outlet. “Even as crazy as the housing market is, it is still a lot less expensive than their housing market in California.”

“It does change the scale of things,” he added. “There are a lot of people from California, even if they don’t pay it off, there is so much equity in their home that they can pay cash for a house here. So, it makes our market even more competitive and drives prices up.”

Citing Fox Business, Breitbart News reported on the Walt Disney Company’s announcement regarding the relocation in July. The move will continue to happen over the next year according to a July letter sent to employees from Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. In the announcement, D’Amaro acknowledged “Florida’s business-friendly climate” played a role in the decision for the move, according to Fox Business.