The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • A21

SUNDAY JUNE 19 2022 21AFACEBOOK.COM/MIAMIHERALD TWITTER.COM/MIAMIHERALDMIAMIHERALD.COM BUSINESS he American hous- ing market has flourished during the ongoing CO- VID-19 pandemic. High coronavirus in- fection rates in places like Florida really hurt residential real estate. In fact, changing lifestyles such as many white-collar professionals working remotely have contributed to a blazing housing sector in Miami-Dade County, as thousands of people from other parts of the country have relocated here the past couple years. This week will come the first test for the housing juggernaut to see how withstanding rising in- terest rates, high inflation and persistent recession worries. There are several hous- ing-related economic indicators due out.

On Tuesday, the U.S. existing home sales report will give investors a reading of how springtime homebuyers are dealing with higher borrowing costs. This May data will be examined for the resilience of demand in the face of higher mort- gage rates. It also will reflect how sellers are responding to the jump in interest rates. The June and July home sales reports will reveal more about how the hous- ing market holds up.

The Federal Reserve jacked rates again last week this time by a mighty three-quarters of the biggest bump since 1994. The average 30-year mortgage rate has now hit 5.3% according to Freddie Mac. The rate was close to at the beginning of the year. That increase adds more than $400 a month to the mortgage payment on a $350,000 home. On Wednesday, big homebuilder KB Home is expected to report its second-quarter financial results.

Homebuilders have been waylaid by inflation in two ways. First, been higher costs of doing business thanks to more expensive building materials and labor. Second, the battle against inflation, with interest-rate hikes its prime tool. On Thursday, new U.S. home sales in May will give investors a broader sense of appe- tite and ability to build new homes.

Even if not in the market to buy or sell a home, these reports will provide investors an up- date on a big chunk of the U.S. economy. Housing and housing services make up about of the Amer- ican gross domestic prod- uct. With the stock market in desperate need of re- pair, a healthy housing market could help rebuild confidence. Tom Hudson hosts Sunshine on WLRN-FM, where he is the vice president of news.

Twitter: THE WEEK AHEAD Can pandemic-proof housing market restore investor confidence and revive flagging stocks? BY TOMHUDSON South Florida property values have escalated sharply amid a blazing real estate market. PHOTOS BY JOSE A. IGLESIAS Victor Harvey introduced his Fort bourbon in May. His Victor George Spirits distillery in Fort Lauderdale, which he expects to open in 18 months, will include a restaurant, tasting rooms, a cigar bar, a rooftop patio and a lounge for live music. A fter his 38-year-old mother died suddenly after cardiac arrest, 10-year-old Victor Harvey and his three siblings were raised by their father, a hard-working banker.

Harvey grew up in Mount Vernon, east side of Columbus, Ohio, during the early 1980s. He saw basketball as his oppor- tunity to get into college, a feat nobody in his family had yet achieved. When his aspirations to become a professional ath- lete did not happen, he became a hip-hop artist and invested his earnings in real estate. Today, the money made on real estate investments is helping bankroll ex- pansion of his alcohol spirits production business Victor George Spirits, known for an award-winning premium vodka brand that bears his name Victor George. getting a building permit to start con- struction this summer on the first Black-owned distillery in Fort Lauderdale.

Victory Building will be a three-story structure covering 18,000 square feet that will take 16 to 18 months to finish. The building, named after the former Victory Theatre on Sistrunk Boulevard, will include the distillery, a restaurant, tasting rooms, a cigar bar, a rooftop patio featuring a DJ on weekends and a lounge for live music. The area where the distillery will be built had been an entertainment hub for Black people in Fort Lauderdale, and the historic theater the only one they could go to until the end of segregation in 1964. The project will cost Harvey $6 million and bring more than 100 jobs to Broward County. Late last year, Harvey secured a $2.45 million loan from the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency to help pay for the distillery.

are very popular for people to visit whether local or coming in from out of Harvey said, in a recent interview inside his Palm Beach Distillery in West Palm Beach. exciting for people to see how things are made. Working with the City of Fort Lauderdale, we knew what needed to be fulfilled was an entertainment type of Harvey, 55, hopes Victory AFRICAN-AMERICAN BUSINESS South Florida entrepreneur set to build first distillery in Fort Lauderdale owned by Black spirits producer BY DANIEL OROPEZA Victor Harvey, co-owner of Palm Beach Distillery and a vodka and bourbon producer, plans a three-story building in Fort Lauderdale with spirits production area, restaurant, rooftop bar and lounge. SEE SPIRITS, 22A Summer Piep attaches a label to a bottle of rum at Palm Beach Distillery, first female-operated distillery. Piep is master distiller of Fort and other spirits.

Paola Ospina, a 32-year-old Col- ombian who lives in Australia, seen her family in four years. With travel restrictions relaxed, she recently took her first trip since the pandemic started in 2020 first to her native Colombia and then to Miami with her entire family for vacation. worried about COVID, but restrictions have gone down and I seen my family in so she said Thursday, while strolling through Bayside Marketplace, a popular tourist destination near PortMiami. wanted to come now while I can, because who knows what will happen in the Sydney Hall, 20, visiting from Nash- ville also decided to come to Miami on her first trip in the pandemic to cele- brate a birthday. been over two years, I was ready to finally travel and do some- Hall said.

But the virus has reemerged in a big way in the area, and could throw a wrench into summer tourism. Miami-Dade County is experiencing its largest surge of COVID-19 in- fections, since the omicron variant ripped through the region in January. Yet tourists interviewed last week were undeterred from traveling to South Florida due to greater risk of contracting the pandemic disease. As of June 13, coro- navirus test positivity rate jumped to up from in early April, caus- ing alarm for local public health offi- cials and making the area a coro- navirus hot spot among top U.S. tour- ist destinations.

Last time Miami- Dade experienced positivity levels this high was during the omicron surge when the county hit a positivity rate of of all COVID-19 tests administered. Tourism operators in the Miami- area have rebounded sharply over the winter and are riding strong mo- mentum into the summer season. The industry remains a cash cow for Miami-Dade, and so another pan- demic-induced travel standstill would be devastating for airlines, hotels, cruise lines, local restaurants and bars. Although COVID-19 again men- aces much of the United States, more and more tourists say they are not scrapping summer travel plans since much of the adult population has been vaccinated and boosted. Unlike the winter deluge of the omicron variant in late December and early January, which forced a dip in tou- rism in Miami during the busy winter Visitors unfazed amid surge of COVID infections BY ANNA JEAN KAISER SEE VIRUS, 22A TOURISM.