Property
for sale Florida
Property
in Florida
Reports
of the death of Florida as holiday-home heaven
are much exaggerated. As fashions in overseas property change, so
the Caribbean is coming to be seen as top long-haul
choice for Brits. Florida property is overpriced, they say, the
bubble must burst, the over-supply of “cookie-cutter”
(i.e. all the same) villas and tacky condos has ruined the market
– and the landscape.
There
might be credence for all this were it not for the glorious advantages
Florida still has over the Caribbean. For a start, there’s
Disney, Universal Studios, SeaWorld and all the other theme parks
based in Orlando, that keep families coming back
time and time and time again. Fifty million tourists come to Orlando
each year so buy-to-lets are always popular.
Add to that the snow-white sands
of the Gulf coast and Panhandle, the shuttle launches
of the upper east coast, the rolling horse and cattle country of
the interior and the excitement of Miami, all with
year-round sunshine, hurricane-proof buildings, budget flights from
every corner of the UK and a beautiful exchange rate, and it soon
becomes obvious that Florida isn’t going out of fashion any
time soon.
But property prices
rose in 2005 by 27 per cent, so could a crash be coming? No, say
government experts, due to the demographics of America. While the
population of most countries is going down, America’s is expected
to increase by more than 30 per cent over the next generation. With
some 1,100 people moving to Florida every day, prices must go up,
though not necessarily at the same overheated rate. And if tourists
start to ebb away, the Americans will surely do everything in their
razor-sharp business brains to bring them back; in May they sank
an old aircraft carrier off Pensacola, just to encourage the local
scuba business.
In 2005 the move was all to the
west coast, to pretty towns like Fort Myers and
Naples. But these prices have become overheated
so smart buyers are looking to the central towns like Ocala or north-eastern
coast around St Augustine.
Airports: Fort Lauderdale/Jacksonville/Miami/Orlando
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