The sounds of construction are echoing across Central Florida and builder Alynne Cordray is glad to hear it.
[WEB EXTRA: Extended interview with builders ]
"I love real estate. I fell in love with real estate. I fell in love with building," she said.
Cordray, the owner of Alynne Homes, was like many builders, who scraped through lean times when the housing market started to crash in 2009.
Property values plummeted and Cordray says banks wouldn't lend.
"Everywhere we went there was no financing, so we ended using alternative routes, credit cards, hard money lenders, our own money that we could put together to kind of get houses built," Cordray said.
But things are turning around. Cordray has found a bank to partner with and has gone from building $200 thousand dollar starter homes, to a four thousand square foot, lakefront property in Delaney Park.
She plans to list it for $1.1 million.
"I have a partner, Commerce National Bank and Trust, and that partner helps me make my plan move forward," Cordray said.
"That's something that from 2007 to 2012, I just thought was never going to happen again," Cordray said.
It's not just Cordray who's experiencing a shift in the market.
"I'm kinda surprised at the pace we're keeping," Peter Duke told Local 6.
Duke and his partner with Beaulieu Builders built six homes inside of a year and sold them with almost no advertising.
They have six more new builds in the pipeline, along with five renovations according to Duke.
"If the market is hot you need to make the most out of that time, and right now in Orlando the market is definitely hot, that's why we're working so hard and using all the resources we have available to put up these homes," he said.
But is this type of recovery too much too soon, and could it lead to another crash?
"I think the uptick in construction that we're experiencing at this point in the cycle is a good thing," Dr. Sean Snaith told Local 6.
Dr. Snaith is an economics professor with University of Central Florida and says the building we see now is based on the regions job and population growth--and less on speculation.
"As a homeowner right now, I wouldn't be worried about over building and leading to a possible bubble even if there are some echoes of things we saw back then," he said.
Cordray is keeping her fingers crossed that the good times will continue to roll.
"Now that I have this great bank, I feel like I get to have the career that I always wanted to have," she said.
If you already own a home the good news is property values continue to rise.
Mortgage interest rates remain low, but Snaith says many lenders have not loosened their restrictions to make it easier to get them.