While Florida’s land market may be in a state of transition, large-acreage and institutional land transactions are rising to the fore.

Sanders Real Estate brokerage firm conducted its “Lay of the Land 2024 Florida Market Report” and found more than 72,000 acres of agricultural land was sold and transitioned into residential, solar and commercial development in 2024. The analysis found there were some concerning issues in the trend last year.

“This transformation highlights both the state’s economic growth and rising land values, but it also raises concerns about the pressures on agricultural land. Farmers are facing challenges from rising costs and diminishing land availability, further complicated by the decline of industries such as citrus,” the report concluded.

“As Florida’s land market continues to evolve, the need for effective conservation strategies, including investment in conservation easements, has never been more urgent to ensure the preservation of the state’s agricultural heritage.”

The report followed land values in the Sunshine State since 2013 and found the continuing population growth keeps Florida as one of the nation’s top destinations for land purchases as 2025 plays out.

“Despite a slight dip in overall transaction volume, Florida’s land market remains competitive, driven by large-acreage deals and institutional investments,” said Dean Saunders, founder, managing director, and senior advisor of Saunders Real Estate. “While smaller investors pulled back due to rising interest rates and uncertainty, major players have leaned in, consolidating land and focusing on large-scale acquisitions. However, Florida’s economic growth and rising land values have placed additional pressure on agricultural operations, with higher costs and shrinking land availability.”

According to the report, ranch and recreational land continues to be purchased in the state but the market for tracts in the 50-to-500-acre range cooled. However, tracts in excess of 500 acres ramped up more interest from buyers.

Farmland purchases remain solid as well, with the average size of farmland transaction last year was 397.64 acres. The average price per acre was $10,403.56.

The amount of transactions on citrus land doubled in 2024 over 2023. There were 128 citrus land purchases in 2023 with most of those taking place in Polk and Hardee counties with 34 in Polk and 27 in Hardee. “These numbers indicate the growing interest for citrus acreage in these areas, likely driven by shifting land use trends and demand for agricultural properties,” the report stated.

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For parents of kids with disabilities, advocating for their child can be complicated, time-consuming — and expensive.

Changes at the Education Department are likely to make the process even more difficult, advocates for kids with disabilities say.

When a parent believes their child is not receiving proper services or school accommodations for a disability, they can seek remedies from their district. They can file complaints with their state, arguing the child’s rights have been taken away without due process of law, or even pursue litigation in state or federal courts.

Those processes often involve multiple sessions with hearing officers who are not required to be experts in disability law. Legal fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single case. Legal aid and other advocacy organizations that can provide free assistance often have more demand for their services than they can meet.

But filing a complaint with the Education Department has long been an option for families who can’t afford a lawyer. They begin by filling out the Office for Civil Rights’ online form, documenting the alleged instances of discrimination. From there, the agency’s staff is supposed to investigate the complaint, often interviewing school district employees and examining district policies for broader possible violations.

“It’s known and has the weight of the federal government behind it,” said Dan Stewart, managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network. “The process, the complaint portal, as well as the processing manual are all in public, and it does not require or typically involve lawyers.”

That option seems increasingly out of reach, advocates say.

Under President Donald Trump, the Education Department’s staff has been cut approximately in half — including in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are charged with investigating complaints of discrimination against kids with disabilities. The staff has been directed to prioritize antisemitism cases. More than 20,000 pending cases — including those related to kids with disabilities, historically the largest share of the office’s work — largely sat idle for weeks after Trump took office. A freeze on processing the cases was lifted early this month, but advocates question whether the department can make progress on them with a smaller staff.

“The reduction in force is simply an evisceration of the Office for Civil Rights’ investigatory authority and responsibility,” Stewart said. “There’s no way that I can see that OCR can keep up with the backlog or with the incoming complaints.”

A federal lawsuit filed Friday challenges the layoffs at the Office for Civil Rights, saying they decimated the office’s ability to process and investigate complaints.

While the OCR process was not perfect, reducing the office’s investigative staff will only worsen the challenges families face when seeking support for their kids, said Nikki Carter, an advocate for kids with disabilities and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“It makes them feel hopeless and helpless,” Carter said. “By reducing the number of employees to handle cases, by putting stipulations on certain cases, it only makes it feel intensified.”

Education Department officials insist the staff reductions will not affect civil rights investigations and the layoffs were “strategic decisions.”

In her state of Alabama, Carter said families face an uphill battle to finding legal representation.

“They don’t have the money for an attorney,” she said. “Or the representation they’re getting is not the representation they feel like will be best for their child.”

Even if families can afford the high costs, a limited number of attorneys have the expertise to take on disability discrimination cases. Programs that offer free representation often have limited capacity.

If the backlog of cases increases at the federal Office for Civil Rights, families may lose faith in how quickly the department will investigate their complaints, Stewart said. That may drive them to alternate pathways, such as filing state complaints.

But state and local agencies haven’t always had the capacity or understanding to handle education disability complaints, Stewart said, since those cases so often went to the U.S. Education Department.

“They might not have the infrastructure or the knowledge or the staffing to take on the influx of cases,” Stewart said.

In a separate federal lawsuit filed Thursday, Democratic attorneys general argued the staff reductions at the Education Department may embolden school districts to ignore complaints of discrimination or harassment.

“Students with current complaints will likely see no meaningful resolution, with cases backlogged due to the shortage of employees to resolve them,” the lawsuit said. “Students facing discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual assault will lose a critical avenue to report their case.”

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