Florida: The #1 Future Home To 15 Of The 50 States
This is the Treu Real Estate 911 podcast, with Lisa Treu. Lisa will share up to date real estate information with you that you need to know.
Brian Mudd:
Welcome to Treu Real Estate 911. This is Brian Mudd along with your local real estate pro, Lisa Treu, and as we head down the home stretch of 2018, well we know where folks want to be in 2019. Latest research from Lending Tree shows a pretty strong story that a lot of folks are looking to come to Florida. So what does that mean to you? We're going to talk about it throughout the course of today's show.
Brian Mudd:
But first, want to remind you that if you're not already at TreuRealEstate911.com, well go there. What are you waiting for? It is the best local resource you're going to find for real estate information, and as soon as you talk a look around, it'll make perfect sense to you, like the ability to search the MLS in real time, the ability to obtain some up to date videos on the latest trends and changes in Palm Beach County real estate. You have the ability to sign up for the new research that comes directly to your email showing you specifically what your home is worth in the current market conditions on a regular basis.
Brian Mudd:
Just some of the features that are available with TreuRealEstate911.com and, of course, if you're looking to buy, sell, if you have question, even throughout the holiday season, the Treu's are ready to help you. Call them, 561-972-8326. That's 561-972-8326.
Brian Mudd:
Lisa, so here we are. We are wrapping up the year, holiday stretch. A lot of folks go ahead and pack it in until January. What's your guidance at this point as we are more than half way, really, through December at this point?
Lisa Treu:
Well, if you think that the buyers from the northeast are not coming down here between now and the first of the year, I have news. They are. They are taking their holidays or they are taking their break and they are coming south to enjoy our weather, to enjoy all of our great things to do and to look at real estate.
Lisa Treu:
We already have people that are booked for showing appointments with us during the holiday season because they want to spend either this season or they just want to move south permanently and they're making those plans. So, if you've thought about selling, your property really should be on the market earlier than most people think, which is let's put it on during season, or put it on, obviously, for the spring selling season if you have a traditional spring selling market. But I would tell you that a lot of those people already out there looking, so why wait?
Brian Mudd:
Yeah, really makes sense when you put it that way. If folks are here and they're looking and you're not listed, you're not in front of them. You miss out on all those potential buyers. And when you say that there are folks that are coming from the northeast, wow, you are not kidding. When we take a look at this research from Lending Tree, holy cow. First, the big takeaway, more than anywhere else in this country, folks want to come here.
Lisa Treu:
We are the number one move to destination for 15 of the 50 states. I mean, think about that.
Brian Mudd:
That's huge.
Lisa Treu:
The number one. And so why? Well, I mean, first of all, we have the weather, we have the ease of travel. So, many of these states, we have direct flights from two to three airports with ease to get them back and forth because they're moving here, so they might have family, they may have businesses in the northeast, and so it's so easy to get to paradise and fly back and forth.
Lisa Treu:
And so, the tax favor in Florida is also one of the reasons why I think it's causing people to say, "Okay, it's time." They've had the goal, they've had the thought, they've had the dream, and now they're saying, "Look, last winter was awful." And of course, winter's already started this year very early, and now, the tax issues that they're going to have in the northeast, so many are just saying, "It's kind of time to do what I've always wanted to do, which is come to Florida and enjoy this year round paradise weather."
Brian Mudd:
Boy, you aren't kidding. We aren't even at winter yet and already in states like North Carolina, they have had snow storms that have equaled a year's worth of snow before we even get there. It's pretty remarkable. When we take a look at the 15 states that are most inclined to want to move to Florida more than anywhere else, it's an interesting mix with a lot of the states that you would anticipate being right at the top.
Brian Mudd:
A lot of folks are probably going to end up right here in south Florida, but starting with the 15th, you have Texas, which some people might be a little bit surprised by, but it makes perfect sense if you think about it. Texas, one of the few states that doesn't have a state income tax either, so it makes sense that they don't want to go to a state with one and would want to come here.
Lisa Treu:
Yes, and our weather is really great for Texans because we don't have the coldness that many of the ... They suffer and they tax estates, and then on top of that, summers are so hot there. I mean, people say Florida's hot, go to Texas.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah, you're right.
Lisa Treu:
And so, it is great because it is more of a lateral move for them when it comes to taxation, and of course, let's face it, not everybody on this list is coming to Palm Beach County, and yet, many will and so it's pretty exciting for us here.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah, the 14th, Michigan. This one I find funny, but it always reminds me of a story. There are two people that ended up growing up less than a mile from each other in a suburb of Detroit and they met each other for the first time in their seventies down here.
Lisa Treu:
Oh, too funny. And 22% of people from Michigan are planning to move to Florida. They prefer Florida, and so, most of these numbers of people that are looking to come to Florida, many of them are in the twenties. I mean, you think about that. We're going to get about 20% to 25% of many of these state's interest when they're coming to leave their states. They want to make Florida their home.
Brian Mudd:
And they're Michigan's neighbor, Ohio, same deal. We're taking a look at nearly 21% of them that want to come to Florida, and then one that might not surprise a lot of folks given the geography and it certainly is my story. You have 27% of the people, essentially, that want to leave Georgia and want to come here and that includes quite a bit of my family that made the trip.
Lisa Treu:
Yeah, I mean, Georgia, obviously, sometimes they just kind of move a little further south, and yet, we also see Georgia moving for warmer weather down on the west coast of Florida and also the east coast of Florida.
Brian Mudd:
I can tell you what, and it's real easy to take that vacation as when you're working and when you're younger, and go, "You know what? I want every day to be a vacation." And then not have to deal with the state income tax either. This is a really easy choice.
Brian Mudd:
And then, Alabama. We know that a lot of folks refer to the panhandle as the lower Alabama as it is. We see that 22% of the people there want to move, and another mid western state, Indiana, is 10th in terms of the people that want to relocate with about 16% of them looking to come to Florida.
Brian Mudd:
Now, it'd be interesting, having run across a lot of folks from Indiana, perhaps more on the other coast, but then we see Tennessee as yet another southern state and it's interesting, Lisa. Recently, I've run into a number of people from Tennessee in this area and I didn't used to come across folks from Tennessee.
Lisa Treu:
We're seeing a lot of that kind of region, and I mean, Steve and I are from Indiana. We both said, "Look, we want to be far enough south that summer's every day." And you almost have to get this far in order to have summer every day. I mean, when you get into like areas like Orlando, Orlando and further up, the Cape Canaveral, it still gets a little bit cool.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah, it does.
Lisa Treu:
So that's why we wanted to come down here, and many people from Tennessee, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, they just said, "Okay, our weather's not terrible, but we just want to get to that summer every day effect." And so I think you will start to see people coming into Martin County a little bit more. For those that want a little bit more laid back feeling, they may choose Martin County versus Palm Beach, but certainly some will say, "I want all the activity and benefits of Palm Beach County." So I think you'll see that as well.
Brian Mudd:
And its neighbor to the north, Kentucky, is right above it. The 8th most likely to want to relocate and relocate to Florida yet again.
Lisa Treu:
Yeah. I mean, why not, right?
Brian Mudd:
When you take a look at the next grouping here, we're talking all about cold weather climates, you have Wisconsin, 7th most likely, and then Maine at 6th, and then you got the ... Well, Maine story's kind of funny. The former governor of Maine was term limited and is out. The first thing he did, the first day out of office, "I'm moving to Florida."
Lisa Treu:
Yeah.
Brian Mudd:
And in fact, Maine's last two governors are going to be full time residents of Florida. Definitely a story there.
Lisa Treu:
They're smart.
Brian Mudd:
And then you have the top five that sounds awfully familiar, especially right here in Palm Beach County. You've got Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. So what we have seen for years absolutely is continuing.
Lisa Treu:
Starting from, I would say, number five and above, that is about weather, and yet, it's also about taxes and the lack of affordability that they experience. And one of the funny things is that, when you look at little lifestyle things, and I don't know that everybody always puts two and two together because they don't realize how different it is, our average commute, just to give you an example, in Palm Beach County is 23 minutes.
Brian Mudd:
Okay.
Lisa Treu:
Think about that.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah.
Lisa Treu:
23 minutes versus, which is one of the best commutes in the country, versus the northeast where all these people are coming from, right, where they're spending an hour and a half, two hours sometimes to commute into the cities. And so, when you think about the quality of our lifestyle because that's really what it's about. It's about, yes, it's about great weather, it's about better taxes, but all that together is about the lifestyle we're able to have and even, for example, so Steve and I were at a business conference in the Keys. You can be in Key West, which is a totally different kind of experience, right, in four hours from Palm Beach County.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah.
Lisa Treu:
You can be at Disney, in what, two and a half, three hours. You can be in Miami, which once again, has a whole different culture, in an hour-ish. I mean, we have-
Brian Mudd:
You can take a day trip over to the Caribbean.
Lisa Treu:
You can absolutely take ... I mean, you can be, in 20 minutes by air, you can be in the Bahamas.
Brian Mudd:
Yep.
Lisa Treu:
And those type of things, I think, are not the reason they come, but it's the reason people stay.
Brian Mudd:
Yeah. It's funny you mention that. I was thinking even about some of my family. My family, with the exception of me, from New York originally, and even some of the extended family. They recently, an aunt and uncle bought a place to be a seasonal home, and after less than a year of being seasonal, they were like, "No, let's just do it full time." They sold their place in New York. I mean, I think increasingly, we're seeing that, aren't we?
Lisa Treu:
We are and people think, "Oh, I'm just going to come down here for the winter." And one of the things that happens is everybody just thinks that our summers are so miserable.
Brian Mudd:
Right.
Lisa Treu:
Right? And then they realize, with few exceptions ... There was an interesting day last summer where Florida was almost the coolest place in the country and when you think about that and you add in our ocean breeze-
Brian Mudd:
And that's what it really is. Yeah.
Lisa Treu:
Right? That there's almost, almost everywhere in July is hotter than it is in Florida.
Brian Mudd:
That's always my joke. I'll point out New York City. People want to talk about the summer. On like any given summer day, if you take a look at New York City and you compare it to, say, West Palm Beach for example, you'll see that it's hotter there and without the breeze, which obviously can make a huge difference too. So, yeah, I think you're right. I think as soon as people figure out, "You know what?" It really isn't necessarily better, just staying up here.
Brian Mudd:
And again, the tax piece, we've talked about this forever, but it's becoming worse. The one thing that we tend not to realize is that, considerably, taxes are rising up there and it can be local taxes in addition to some of the state income taxes as well.
Lisa Treu:
I have a future client that owns in Chicago and she owns a beautiful luxury home in downtown Chicago and she said, "I just can't afford to stay here. And so, on top of the fact that winter we're literally kind of in. It's too cold to go out, we have too bad of weather." And yet, she said, "The taxation just keeps getting more and more and more." And she said, "And as the wealthy is leaving, as they are selling and leaving and going to other states, it's getting worse every single year because they still need to raise the same amount of revenue."
Lisa Treu:
And so, there comes a point where truly she is being, in her mind, forced out. Now, forced out isn't terrible for her because she's forced to come to Florida. Right? So it could be a lot worse, and yet, it's because of, yeah, the weather is a factor, but every year since she's lived there, there's been winter. Right? What's changed is the cost to live there and the lack of affordability that she says, "At some point, it doesn't even make sense for me to still be here."
Brian Mudd:
And with all this information in hand, it's just not kind of interesting information. It's something that you put to use. So you actually have marketing strategies based on this information that you target to make sure that you're getting as many people that are interested in relocating down here in front of the homes that you have listed.
Lisa Treu:
We are marketing in the northeast exceptionally heavy. We've been marketing to Illinois and to the Chicago area once again, quite, quite extensively because this study just came out. We've been talking about this for years. We could see the trend, we could see what was happening, we could see the results of election decisions or about tax changes and tax decisions and it's about forecasting, not looking backwards because once it happens, it happens.
Lisa Treu:
So, we've been saying forever that the northeast is going to continue to impact our real estate here. Now, does that mean that our prices are just going to go crazy forever? No. That's not what I'm saying, but there is an opportunity to help our clients have that great strategy to benefit from this move, and one of the groups that are moving, which that market could use some positivity, is the luxury buyer, and our luxury market just has struggled.
Lisa Treu:
And so, the good news is, many people that are affected and impacted from the tax changes are higher net worth earners and they are going to be buying more expensive homes, and so many of them will do just like you said. They'll come down and try it out, they'll buy maybe that smaller property. We just had that happen where somebody bought a town home just to kind of experience it and now they've bought a stunning luxury home on the water because they wanted to make sure that Florida was what they thought it was going to be.
Lisa Treu:
And so, I think we'll see that happening, and obviously, some will just come down, but I think many will come and try out the lifestyle and then either keep that property for investment or go ahead and sell it and then buy their dream home down here.
Brian Mudd:
So, if you are listening to this and there's about a foot of snow outside, or if you're right here in South Florida and you're thinking about making a real estate decision or just need some information, the Treu's are always ready to help you. Reach out to them at 561-972-8326. Right through the holiday season, Treu's happy to help. 561-972-8326. Or again, if you're not already at TreuRealEstate911.com, go check it out.