Top 6 Florida Cities to Buy a Home in Right Now!

Six of the top real estate buyers markets in the whole country are right here in Florida. Now, if you're trying to sell a home, that sucks. But if you're looking to buy, it's huge. And this is the video for you. Because prices are dropping, homes are sitting, and sellers are starting to sweat. In this video, I'll show you these six Florida cities to buy a home in right now, why sellers are suddenly way more flexible, and I'll give you five steps to score a solid deal in this market. Let's jump in. There was a time when buying a home in Florida felt like trying to score Super Bowl tickets. You'd see something come on the market, and if you didn't make an offer in the first 12 hours, it was gone. People were throwing cash at anything with a roof. It didn't matter if the place needed work, didn't matter if it was overpriced, buyers were waiving inspections, skipping appraisals, and basically doing whatever they had to just to get in the game. It all started during the pandemic when interest rates were rock bottom and everyone suddenly wanted freedom from lockdowns and a better quality of life in paradise. And a lot of people figured, if I'm gonna be stuck at home, I'm gonna do it somewhere warm with palm trees. That brought a wave of out-of-state buyers into Florida. We're talking people from New York, California, Illinois, selling high where they lived, then rolling that cash into something down here. Then added remote work, and people didn't have to be near the office anymore. So they came where the weather was good and the taxes were low. It was like somebody flipped a switch. One day it was normal, the next day houses were getting 10 offers in one weekend. Builders couldn't keep up, inventory dried up, and that just made the frenzy worse. When there's nothing to buy, people fight harder over what's left. Prices went through the roof and sellers knew they could get away with almost anything. Places like Tampa, Miami, and Orlando got red hot. If you had a listing and priced it halfway decent, you were guaranteed a bidding war. It didn't matter if the place needed a new roof or smelled like a wet dog. That's how fast things got out of hand. The whole market got overheated because demand exploded and there just wasn't enough to go around. So here's what happened next. The red hot Florida market, it didn't just slow down, it hit a wall. First thing that changed, interest rates. They went from rock bottom to out of control practically overnight. And when rates go up, buying power drops. People who could afford a $500,000 house at a 3% interest rate were suddenly looking at $400,000 houses because of those higher rates. And they were realizing they didn't like what they saw. That kind of drop can knock you out of really nice neighborhoods and into crappier ones. You lose access to better schools, better locations, and homes that don't need a full remodel. On top of that, all the panic buying dried up. People who rushed to Florida in 2021 and 2022 already made their move. That wave passed. The remote work crowd settled in, the out-of-state cash buyers got their beach condos, and the people left were regular buyers who actually need financing, care about price, and aren't looking to overpay. Then throw in the storms. Florida had a couple rough hurricane seasons back to back. And that hit insurance hard. We're talking skyrocketing premiums, some carriers pulling out altogether, and way more hoops for buyers to jump through just to close. And let's not forget about condo rules tightening after that tragic building collapse in Surfside that took 98 lives in the middle of the night. Older condos started needing reserves. Some buyers backed off when they saw what HOA dues were doing. That added more friction. Meanwhile, homes were staying on the market longer and not just a little longer, a lot longer. We're talking 30, then 60, and now in some places up to 90 days without serious action. And buyers noticed. They stopped feeling desperate. They weren't rushing anymore. They had options. They had time. The urgency was gone. And once that disappeared, so did the crazy over-asking offers. That's how fast it turned. The market didn't crash. It just lost momentum. And when that happens, everything starts to shift. Even when demand dropped off, sellers didn't blink. They kept listing homes at last year's prices like nothing changed. The mindset was simple. We bought at the top of the market, so we need to sell high to make it work. Problem is, buyers weren't playing that game anymore. So listings just sat and sat. In Tampa alone, the number of active listings jumped nearly 20%. That's not just a small bump. That's a backlog. It's like the whole market hit pause. Homes weren't moving because prices weren't realistic and sellers didn't wanna hear it. A lot of them figured, we'll wait. Somebody's gonna come along and buy my overpriced house, but nobody did. So what happened? The market clogged up. You had a bunch of overpriced listings gathering dust and no offers coming in. And the longer they sat, the worse it looked. After 30 days on the market, buyers start asking, what's wrong with it? Even if there's nothing wrong, that listing just became stale. At the same time, newer listings kept coming in, also overpriced. Now you got layer after layer of inventory and still no real movement. Buyers had no reason to rush. They knew they could wait it out. Sellers tried to hold the line, but they were losing leverage by the week. Every time a house didn't sell, it sent a message to the next buyer. This market's soft. That's when the shift started. Not because sellers wanted it, but because they didn't have a choice anymore. Now Redfin just put out their list of the top 10 buyers markets in the country. And Florida owns six of these spots. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it depends if you're buying or selling. The list is based on how many sellers there are compared to buyers. If there's more than 10% of sellers than buyers, Redfin calls that a buyer's market. If there's 10% fewer sellers than buyers, that's a seller's market. Makes sense? The data came out at the end of May and it was based on home listings from April. That's when Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale topped the list as the most buyer-friendly markets in the entire country. Let me say that again, the entire country. That's how serious this is. Now, Miami took the number one spot. Right now they got 21,672 home sellers and only 7,280 buyers. That's insane. That's 197.7% more sellers than buyers. It's the biggest gap out of any major Metro in the United States. Number two is West Palm Beach with 182% more sellers than buyers. Number three is Fort Lauderdale with 179.3%. Then you get Jacksonville at number five with 119.5% more sellers than buyers. And Tampa comes in at number six. There are 26,917 homes for sale and only 12,313 buyers. That's 118.6% more sellers than buyers. And the median home price in the Tampa area right now is around 371,000, down 1.3% from April, 2024. And rounding out the top 10 is Orlando. It's number nine on the list with 92% more sellers than buyers. Outside of Florida, the rest of the list goes like this. Austin, Texas is number four. Then you got Phoenix at seven, Las Vegas at eight and Nashville at number 10. Now Redfin premier agent, Tim Harper in Florida said it's absolutely a buyer's market right now. He's seeing buyers get homes for around 5% under list price plus $10,000 in seller concessions. That's exactly what we're talking about here. Sellers are making deals because they got no choice. If you're a buyer in one of these Florida markets, the timing couldn't be better. So what does this all mean for you and how can you take advantage of it? It means absolutely nothing if you don't know what to do with it. So here's my five steps to take to grab a great deal on a Florida home. Step one, figure out where you wanna live in Florida. I'd start with any of those six markets we just talked about because that's where you're gonna get the most bang for your buck. Step two, get yourself a solid realtor. Somebody who does a lot of deals in the market you wanna buy in and isn't afraid to write an aggressive offer. You don't want a part timer or somebody just opening doors. You want somebody who'll go to bat for you and isn't scared to push a little. Step three, have your agent set you up on a 30 days on market search. That way you're gonna get email alerts when a house has been sitting for 30 days. That's right about the time when sellers start getting nervous. At that point, they're ready to drop the price or negotiate a lower offer with a buyer because if they don't, they're risking sitting on the market for another two months. That's your big advantage. Step four, and this one's important, understand that your property taxes are gonna uncap the year after you buy. That means they're gonna go up. A lot of people don't know this and I can't stress this enough. So many people get screwed because of this one and it's not just a Florida thing. This happens all across the country. When you look at the current taxes on a listing, that's what the current owner's paying, not what you're gonna pay. Your new taxes could double or maybe even triple depending on how long that current owner's owned the house. So you need to find out what your taxes are gonna be before you make an offer. If your realtor doesn't bring this up or doesn't know how to get you the number, find a better realtor. Most counties have websites to help you figure this out and if you're in Pinellas County, this is the website you can use to figure it out. And finally, I'd be looking to make offers at 7% below list price and ask for $15,000 in seller concessions. Now that's just an example and it's not set in stone. Every deal's different and there's a lot of factors that come into play with offers and what's allowed with a loan. But remember, it's a negotiation. If a seller hasn't seen an offer in 30 days, he might come back with 5% off and $10,000 in concessions. And that's right where realtor Tim Harper said, he's seeing a lot of homes sell right now. That sounds like a pretty great deal to me. The best part, you don't have to waive inspections. You're not stuck in bidding wars. You can negotiate again for price, for repairs, or maybe money to buy your rate down. And maybe best of all, you got time. You're not bidding against anybody. You're choosing the home that works for you, not the one that happened to be available. That's how buying should feel. And if the price and the terms aren't what you want, don't be afraid to walk away. But walk away before you go under contract, not after. So here's the truth. Florida's market didn't collapse. It's just resetting. And for the first time in a long time, buyers finally get to call the shots. So if you're ready, you got options. You got leverage and you've got a real shot at landing the deal that actually makes sense. And don't let the news fool you. Florida's still paradise. People still wanna move here. That is not changed and it's not going to. But if you're buying a home you plan on living in for the next 10 years, you're gonna be fine. And if interest rates do come down later, you can refinance and lower your payment. But when those rates drop, the frenzy's coming back. The buyers are still out there. They're just sitting on the sidelines right now. But they're gonna be all in when the news tells them it's time to buy again. And that's gonna bring prices and multiple offers right back up. But you, you'll already have the house. No bidding wars, no rushing, no competing. That's the power of buying during a reset while everybody else is still waiting around for somebody to tell them that it's okay. One of the smartest things you can do right now is watch what investors are doing. They're the ones jumping in during a downturn and snapping up deals while everybody else is frozen. Click here to find out what city these investors are moving into and buying everything they can while regular buyers are running scared. What do they know that you don't? Click here to find out.