Florida multifamily market

[Thomas Weiss]

Hey everyone, I'm currently looking into moving to Florida in June. If I do, I would like to get a multifamily property. Preferably a 2-4plex so I can use a FHA. I'm wondering which cities in Florida have competitive markets for these properties? I assume no large coastal cities due to being priced out and mostly condo buildings already built there. Anyone have experience there or can point me in a good starting direction would be appreciated! Thanks

[Trevor Fleck]

@Thomas Weiss Assuming you want to house-hack a multifamily property? I ask because Cape Coral in particular really lends itself more to SFH build to rent/sell situations at the moment. That said, the numbers are incredible. You can still find a lot and build for under $300k and appraisals are coming in between $360-$410k for a 1650-1774 sq ft 4/2 or 4/3. I personally have 7 of them going right now with the first finishing next month. So you might consider a snowball approach with primary homes where you acquire good financing, stay for at least a year, then move to the next and rent the previous one out. You could also rent out rooms within your SFH or Airbnb rooms like I did before my wife and I had kids. Reach out if you'd like to brainstorm or hear more.

Whatever direction you end up going, I think Southwest FL is the place to be right now. I use a free property management software called Stessa and they sent out a market update this morning and here were some of the highlights to underscore my points:

U-Haul and United Van Lines released migration studies earlier this month highlighting the markets that have the most inward and outward migration. Starting with U-Haul, which calculates growth states using the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving. The top states for growth according to this metric, (including their ranking in 2020) are as follows:

1. Texas (2)
2. Florida (3)
3. Tennessee (1)
4. South Carolina (15)
5. Arizona (5)

Similarly, United Van Lines compiled their , indicating “Vermont as the state with the highest percentage of inbound migration (74%) with United Van Lines. South Dakota (69%), South Carolina (63%), West Virginia (63%) and Florida (62%) were also revealed as the top inbound states for 2021.”

The study also found that “many Gen Xers are retiring (often at a younger age than past generations), joining the Baby Boomer generation. While many are retiring to states like Florida, United Van Lines’ data reveals they’re not necessarily heading to heavily populated cities like Orlando and Miami — they’re venturing to less dense places like Punta Gorda (81% inbound), Sarasota (79% inbound) and Fort Myers-Cape Coral (77% inbound). Similarly, in Oregon, cities including Medford-Ashland (83%) and Eugene-Springfield (79%) saw high inbound migration in 2021.”