Trying to analyze a market

[Mickael Castillo]

Not sure if this is the right forum to to post in but I'll post here anyway. So my family and I planning to move to Florida in the next few months and so we are trying to analyze a decent market to move to. We plan to rent for 1 year and then buy the next but while googling locations and demographics, I ran into the website areavibes.com and i was wondering if anyone knows of this site and if its accurate enough to place research on? Should I disregard the entire site or does it have any credible statistics that I can use?

[Tanya Solomon]

I have never seen areavibes.com but plugged in an area I know well and the area I live in now and it seems pretty accurate for info on schools but WIDLY off on real estate prices. I wish that an "area matchmaker" was a real thing and one could talk to someone that is an expert on a given area and could give good, sound advice. I think it is hard bc it can be so subjective and ppl generally only pay attention to what is going on around them when "something" happens or they are unhappy.  

Can one access Nextdoor in a community they do not live in yet? That might be a good way to get an idea of what it is like to live there. 

I have moved twice in the last 3 yrs bc we had to get out of CA (costs of living, quality of schools, and community needs were all serious issues in NorCal) and how I did my research is to do some "soul searching" and come up with a list of 3-4 non-negotiables like "must have excellent public schools/affordable enough to pay for private schools" and or "must be within x distance to work" and or "must have a strong community of x kind of ppl."

Be honest with yourself and your needs. Stereotypes are there for a reason. Believe the good AND the bad. If you are a religious person or have strong feelings politically, look only at areas that have large concentrations of ppl with similar belief systems. It sucks to live in a town/city where you feel you do not fit in. When your kids make friends, you can feel akin to the friends' parents. 

Once you have a few areas/towns in mind, go there and stay in an airbnb/vrbo so you can get a good idea of what the neighborhood is like. A dog is a great thing to have bc when you walk the dog, you can watch what goes on in the neighborhood and casually meet ppl to get great intel.   

What part of FL are you planning on moving to? Our family moved from CA (with a 2 yr pit stop in NJ) to South Florida (Boca Raton area) about 2.5 yrs ago. We had the same plan as you in that we wanted to rent for the first yr and buy after getting to know the area better. BTW we LOVE our move and have zero regrets. There is A LOT of ppl moving to FL, so you will not be the only "new kid in town." 

I am less than 4 months away from having to renew my lease (It doesn't auto-go month to month) and there is not much on the market that would be a good fit for our family. The market here is IMO "schizophrenic" bc properties 2x in value between 2020 and July 2022. Most sellers want big $ and overprice their properties, so they sit on the market. Prices are going down but stubborn sellers are holding out. 

I found the same to be true about rentals too. I got a decent rate of rent bc I approached a landlord that had his home on the market for over 8 months (bc it was 1k overpriced) and offered to pay 6 mnths in advance.

Hope this helps