Buying in South Florida? We have five tips for prospective new homeowners

Rebecca San Juan
·2 min read

Looking to buy in South Florida? We’ve got a guide just for you.

Since the pandemic, out-of-state buyers have been crowding into the market. A favorable tax environment, company expansions, the trend of working remotely and, yes, the climate are drawing more residents from California, Chicago and states across the northeast.

Competition exists, but an educated buyer can get a leg up when searching for a condo or house in Miami-Dade County or Broward. Here are five tools and tips to makes the search easier:

▪ Set a realistic budget: Real estate experts recommend that buyers spend a maximum of three-and-a-half times their annual income on a home purchase. A household that earns a total of $100,000, for example, could spend up to $350,000 on a condo or house. Check the Miami Herald’s interactive tool to find ZIP codes that meet that your individual criteria. Our tool includes information about school rankings and crime rates.

▪ Look beyond the center: Miami-Dade’s median home prices are hovering at a record high of $470,000. Buyers looking for bargains have found them in Homestead, where the median sales price of $300,000 buys 1,926 square feet, according to Realtors.com. Condo buyers have found well-priced options in North Beach — where units bring a median sales price of $250,000. The county median for a condo is $255,000, according to the latest sales report by the Miami Realtors Association.

▪ Go north. You’ll find better values in Broward County — provided you can weather the hour-long car commute or the price of a 30-minute Brightline ride when you want to go to Miami. Broward’s median sales price is lower than Miami’s both for houses ($433,000) and condos ($200,000), according to the latest Miami Realtors Association sales report.

Hallandale offers the best deals for condo buyers. The waterfront community had a median sales price of $190,000 in 2020. For houses, the slice of Hollywood west of the Florida Turnpike offers

a median sales price of $329,000 — one of the region’s best values.

▪ Millennials, check out South Miami. Millennial first-time home buyers — those between the ages of 25 to 40 — made South Miami hot in 2020. With a 139% year-over-year increase in sales, the community had the largest uptick in closings for homes priced over $750,000. Still, the city isn’t exactly cheap; the average sales price was $1.4 million.

▪ You gotta eat: Our local’s guide to dining will help ensure that any home buyer is well fed from the time they start a search to long after they’ve settled into their new home.