Apparently, I chose the absolute worst week to come to Florida! It was 80+ degrees before I cam here, and it will be 75+ after I leave the majority of the 7 days here have been “cold” in Florida terms. Nights have been around 40 degrees F and day time barely reaches 65-68. And with the jet stream pushing down, there is a cold wind blowing through here.
Not fun at all! Though still much better than the cold and snow in Boston. And let’s hope it’s not snowing Thursday when I return.
Ok with that rant out of the way, let’s do a quick update on Florida. As long time readers will remember, I periodically reported on Florida real estate in the past when I visited. Then I spent 3 years focusing on trips to SF:) which derailed me from my regular Florida visits. In the past, I was a proponent of downsizing from the cold northeast to Florida – the house price differential allowed for some serious free cash flow improvement. Through the first half of the last decade, Boston area homes were leaping higher, and even with Florida prices rising, Boston homes, valued higher, were increasing in absolute dollar amounts, at a much quicker pace – at least in terms of the people I work with.
After the crash, it still made a lot of sense as houses in both regions lost value. Now in 2013, many of those boomers who put off downsizing due to the real estate market, are back because (in part):
- they wanted to come here before
- they’re not getting any younger
- another blizzard helped convince
- prices are rising in Florida
I’ll have some more specific ideas in a later post or on my newsletter so keep in touch!
Chris
