Florida’s luxury homes are struggling to find buyers
The price of luxury homes in the U.S. rose 8.8 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2023, according to a recent Redfin report—reaching an all-time high that is scaring off potential buyers, especially in states like Florida. The typical U.S. luxury home sold for a record $1,180,000 between April and June, jumping up almost 9 percent compared to a year earlier—the biggest increase in nearly two years. [Source: Newsweek]
Housing difficult to find for some as Florida’s population swells to 23 million
Florida State University economist Tarik Dogru is optimistic regarding Florida’s swelling population, and says the growth is good for the state’s economy. “Overall I think this growth is very good,” Dogru said. “Companies are also coming to Florida. Their headquarters are maybe moving here. They want to be in a state where can operate more freely.” However, a downside to the increasing population is housing can be hard to find. [Source: WCJB]
Florida Trend Exclusive
Florida boomtowns: Westlake wows
In December, Minto Communities USA notched its 2,000th sale on the way to a 4,500-home buildout at Westlake, the city it founded in 2016 in Palm Beach County. The 3,800-acre Westlake development regularly makes John Burns Real Estate Consulting’s national list of the top-selling master-planned communities. Single-family home prices start in the $400,000s. Coconut Creek-based Minto began sales in February for a townhouse product starting at $359,990. [Source: Florida Trend]
3 best Florida cities to buy property in the next 5 years, according to real estate agents
Which Florida gems hiding in plain sight are worth exploring? To find out, GOBankingRates spoke to Southeast Florida-based real estate agents Julio Ybanez and Raul Gastesi, a Florida-based attorney at Gastesi Lopez & Mestre who has practiced real estate law for the last 30 years. Best of all, the three Florida cities they recommended are significantly less expensive to move to than Miami. [Source: Yahoo Finance]
‘We lie to ourselves about progress’: Exhibit laments the loss of South Florida’s trailer parks
Over the last decade, mobile home parks — or trailer parks, as they are commonly known — have become something of a rarity in South Florida. As the price of land has creeped up to unprecedented heights, investors have increasingly targeted these sites and the acres they sit upon as being ripe for development. [Source: WLRN]
$4.399 million
The most expensive place to live in all of Florida is Palm Beach, specifically the 33921 zip code. The median home value for this zip code is a whopping $4.399 million. [Source: iHeart]
› New insurer offered Citizens customers steep premium hikes. Then the state stepped in.
As the largest participant in Citizens’ depopulation program, Slide Insurance sent hundreds of thousands of letters that Citizens policyholders could have easily overlooked among piles of junk mail. Ignoring those letters — and crucial deadlines to respond — put them in jeopardy of being automatically transferred to Slide, where many faced renewal premiums far higher than what they were paying Citizens.
› You can now buy an entire Florida spring in Tampa Bay for $2.7 million
It’s believed Florida only has around 700 natural springs, collectively delivering nearly 8 billion gallons of fresh, near 70-degree water to the surface every single day. Now one of them is for sale in Tampa Bay. Mud Springs is a a second-magnitude freshwater spring located in Spring Hill. Named after the brownish macroalgae that sits at the bottom, Mud Springs is a popular cave diving and fishing site.
› Developer eyes Osceola County for more affordable housing
One of the nation’s largest owners and developers of for-profit affordable housing has a 67-acre site in the ChampionsGate-Reunion area of Osceola County under contract for a combination senior and family housing development. Minneapolis-based Dominium is eyeing the site on Goodman Road, just north of Bella Citta Boulevard and the proposed Sinclair Road extension that will link the two resort communities.
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