Why Invest In Florida Real Estate?
One question I get frequently is “Alex, there are investments all over the nation. Why do you pick Florida?” And, if you’ll indulge me, I have a multi-faceted answer on a personal AND professional level.
First, I used to live in Florida, in Largo – a suburb of Tampa. I became familiar with the seasons, the influx of tourism in the winter, the beaches, schools, shopping, etc…
A few years later, after moving back up to my native Minnesota, I drove back down with my mother to scour the coastline to find her a winter residence there. We looked at development after development, city after city, community after community to find her a nice place to retire. While we were looking, I realized just how different these places are and what it really meant to get your money’s worth there. There were so many factors consider. Some places that seemed to be at a good price had over-inflated association fees, etc. Now, for me, that’s all just part of the game: finding the best properties with the best balance of prices and features together.
Now, for the last 15 years I spend at least a month out of every year in Florida, and can hardly believe the changes every year! Starting the leading edge of the bell curve in the late 90’s Florida’s been the target for people wanting to move to a warmer location. For retiring baby boomers (definition below) and splitters (definition below), the trend has only been increasing since their official beginning in 2005. And with the increasing number of retiring individuals and growing number of annual tourists, Florida has been the number one producer of new jobs in the United States for some time. It seems only natural that a state in this scenario would need to have strongly increased markets for health care for the aging, service industries to cater to them also – as well as the vacationers – and education and technology. These are just a few of the reasons that Florida has had the highest net migration in America since 2000. As a matter of fact it has more than 2 ½ times that of the next highest state in net migration, Arizona.
Some people have been watching Florida for a while now and predict that it can’t possibly last. But media has been predicting that everywhere for years, and look where home prices are now. In Florida, the trend of new job creation, tourism and retirees would literally have to stop in its tracks. Florida would have to find a way to stop the momentum of all these industries to stop people from coming. I personally don’t even see how that would be possible. Employers like Lockheed martin, AT&T, Walt Disney World, Florida Hospitals, Siemens-Westinghouse, University of Florida, and film and TV production markets would have to stop their expansion or even relocate to significantly alter Florida’s momentum. The most credible forecasts predict that Florida will create at least 120,000 jobs over the next 24 months in the Orlando and Tampa metro regions alone.
So, I’d be happy if everyone speculating their first purchase was able to get started wherever they feel comfortable. We teach ‘buy and hold’, so just getting started – the “buy” part of ‘buy and hold’ – is the most important factor. But when it’s time to take into account what is important during the “hold” part, one can begin to consider their local appreciation (for example my native Minnesota is historically 6% annually) versus other areas of the country. This is where it’s my goal to find and present a variety of properties ideal for people with these same basic goals.
In reality, I started by looking for opportunities for ME to invest in because I just didn’t like what I was finding around. I just make a point to share the information so that others can reap the rewards of my studies, then they can choose for themselves.
Definitions:
Baby Boomers: a common term used to describe a child born in the time just following World War II and just before the Vietnam war (unofficially defined as 1946 to 1964, although loosely considered to include all 1940’s through 1960’s births). This was a time, due to circumstances, with a largely increased birth rate. This group is now on the leading edge of retirees. In the book Boomer Nation, the author even breaks this group into two: Boomers born between 1945 and 1957, and Shadow Boomers born between 1958 and 1964. The peak of the Boomer births was in 1957 with 4,300,000 births with a sharp decline after 1964.
Splitters: a term commonly used to describe the demographic in the pre-retirement or semi-retirement phase of their life purchasing 2nd and 3rd homes to travel to. They will often stay at these homes as often as a couple times a month and will usually choose a residence with full amenities for their family and friends to come stay also. With the technological advances to be able to work from anywhere coupled with the affordability and convenience of air travel, splitters have become distinct from “snowbirds” that only change residence once or twice a year. Splitters are commonly known to purchase up to 1/3 of Florida’s newest developments and are usually identified as the age 55+ group as they prepare to transition into retirement. The term was also popularized by the Sony Playstation game “Timesplitters” and often used interchangeably with “splitters”.
~ Alex Anderson Specializes In Helping People To Build Wealth And Prepare For Retirement With Florida Investment Property That's Located In Appreciating Markets.
