There’s an interesting phenomenon happening during the Covid pandemic of 2020.
The Florida real estate market is booming. The Tampa Bay real estate market is red hot.
Makes no sense, right? Actually, it does.
I talked to my friend and local realtor Stephen Gay about what’s going on. If you want to see the entire interview I did with him on air… here it is.
Here’s my takeaway from it though:
Everybody still wants to move to Florida—and these days, they can.
Because of the Covid pandemic, people have realized they can work remotely from just about anywhere. No need to go to an office in a city anymore. No need for face-to-face meetings anymore, thanks to Zoom.
But there’s another thing, too. For the money, you can still get a lot more house in Florida than you can in New York City. At least for now. It should be interesting to see if NYC real estate prices start to drop and by how much…
Another thing about living in Florida, you can spread out. I think the Covid pandemic has taught folks about the need for a little extra elbow room.
Here’s the thing though. With everybody moving to Florida, can we handle the influx of people? Is our infrastructure up to it? Driving through South Tampa is tough enough as it is.
What about the politics? With a new population, might Florida go from red and blue to predominantly blue? It’s possible.
There’s a lot to think about here. I’m not so sure New York City and the Northeast are totally over the pandemic, so its possible more people will continue to move to the Sunshine State. But maybe not.
If you get a minute, read Jerry Seinfeld’s opinion piece in the New York Times about why New York is not dead. It’s great.
So… what are we supposed to do if we already live here in Florida? Well, I think it might be time to spruce things up a bit around the house. Get a little “curb appeal.” See how much we can get for the place.
Now, I have no idea where we would go. New York? Maybe. We could take advantage of the temporary price drop. I could finally afford a place there. Jerry Seinfeld paints a pretty good picture.
In that case, I guess the only thing to say is… Welcome to the Sunshine State!