|
For further information:
Casa Miami Realty
telephone: +1 786 972 2037 (english - spanish)
[email protected]
Why buying in Miami
Real estate investment
Why buying in USA
Why Miami
Real estate market
How to buy
Italy-USA bilateral treaty
USA bank account
Attorney at Law
Offer and closing
Bank mortgage
Miami Beach and surroundings
South Beach
Millionaire's Row
Bal Harbour
Sunny Isles
Aventura
Useful link and news
Airports, airlines and car rentals
Shopping
For the children
Restaurants
Security
Climate
Climate
Real Estate Services provided by Casa Miami Realty 3440 Hollywood Blvd Suite 415 - 33021 Hollywood - FL
|
Untitled Document
The State of Florida, producing
5.3% of the GDP of the United States, is the fourth of 50 states in economic
size behind California at 13.2%, Texas at 8.3% and New York at 8.0%.
If Florida is amongst the
highest ranking states in GDP, brilliantly shining in the lower ranks, it
comes in at 42 to 50 states for the amount of state taxes charged. If federal
taxes are included, Florida ranks in at 36 amongst all the states of Union,
confirming a fiscal backdrop that favors businesses and investments. Tax-wise,
with respects to most other U.S. states and European nations, Florida reveals
itself as highly favorable.
Geographically positioned
favorably, 40% of all U.S. exports pass through Florida on their way to Latin
America. Beyond that, with over 70 million tourists annually, Florida is
one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. With this in
mind, it's note-worthy that overall, Miami's two international airports,
MIA and Ft. Lauderdale International Airport have a traffic that is grater
than
that of Rome Fiumicino Airport, one of the most desired tourist destination
in the world.
Florida's population,
at 18,680,000 inhabitants in April 2007, represents 8% of the population
of all the U.S.A. It's growth rate is high, from 15,982,000 inhabitants in
2000 to 18,089,000 in 2006, 13.2 in just six years. The population is predicted
to exceed 19 million by 2010, 20 million by 2012, and 25 million by 2030.
These figures are supported by both: a growing birth rate, as well as an
internal immigration flux and one from abroad, especially from Latin American
countries. Besides the elevated number of births, young people under the
age of 18 make up 22% of Florida's population while senior citizens over
the age of 65 represents only 16.8% of the total. This trend should sustain
a continued request for housing in the next decades.
| The local
authorities are well-aware that the quality of life, the climate and
the security (guaranteed by a police force that is very attentive to
the area, problem areas exist but they are well-defined and away from
tourist and residential areas) can make Florida a magnet capable of attracting,
not only fluxes of tourists and retirees from the Northern United States,
but also businesses and new residents from all over the world, in the
prime of their lives. In the downtown area in particular -the new financial
center of Miami- numerous office buildings are under construction, transforming
the area into a very new and very modern little Manhattan. |
|
 |
For decades,
Florida's economy has benefited from South and Central America investments
capital flight coming from investors in situation of decline (for reasons
of corruption and criminality) with political and economic instability.
In recent years, the hosing sector's capacity to attract, as a result
of the devaluation of the dollar which has reduced prices square meter
for square meter, has made Florida a very competitive real estate market
with respect to the prices per square meter of properties in Italian
and European destinations. This has further increased Florida's attractiveness
to investors from the old world. |
Initially, investors came
from Spain and England, countries that have greater linguistic affinities
to the residents of this area. In recent years though, investors have emerged
from France, Germany in addition to Italy, in particular in the Miami housing
markets.
| For all
of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, a sudden reduction in real estate
sales was registered. Prices in the most coveted areas, especially those
on the ocean or on South Beach, remained the same. Other areas, like
the new areas in expansion in Downtown and Brickell Avenue, were the
sites of many foreclosures. These foreclosures represent a good opportunity
for more speculative investors. Italian and European investors that acquired
properties within the last year are already benefitting from the recovery
of the U.S. dollar. European investors that buy real estate in these
advantageous months can benefit, with a solid legal support and a good
broker, from the numerous opportunities that judicial auctions and foreclosures
offer those with liquidity. |
|
 |
It's also
worth noting that in order to stimulate the market and contrast the threat
of another economic recession in Florida, a referendum proposing a reduction
of property taxes, the main tax on real estate, will be voted on this
next presidential election. |
The increased property
tax reduction would be for residents while for non-residents the reduction
would consist in taxation at the 2005 rate, and the beginning of a series
of regulation that will probably include raising taxes in the following years.
Frankly, everyone was hoping for a better situation but these new regulations
are a good sign that the reduction of taxes will go hand in hand with reduced
bureaucratic red tape. It is difficult to find a parallel in Europe and especially
in Italy to the rapid implementation of these reductions on the part of Miami
politicians, working on behalf of citizens and investors.
The hope is that this reduction
can further sustain the market and the value of real estate properties, this
obviously to the benefit of homeowners both residents and non-residents.
|
Its geography, history
and dimensions make Miami the natural capital of the South Eastern
United States, in particular the area called the Gold Coast which runs
from North of West Palm Beach down to South Miami.
All of the South
Florida Metropolitan Area contains more than 5 million residents, concentrated
along the coast. That area, the "Greater Miami, Fort Lauderdale and
Miami Beach" metropolitan area makes up the 6th largest metropolitan
area in the U.S. and the 45th in the world. It's also the only metropolitan
area of the U.S. in which less than 500,000 inhabitants (380,000) remain
in the city, Miami, while the rest of the population is dispersed along
the coast. This speaks to the incredible livability of this multi-faceted
growing urban area. |
 |
The Golden Coast of Florida
includes seven airports: Miami International Ariport (Miami-Dade), Opa-Locka
Airport (Miami-Dade), Homestead General Aviation Airport (Miami-Dade), Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport (Broward), Palm Beach International Airport
(Palm Beach), and Boca Raton Airport (Palm Beach). Some specialize in executive
flights, others in domestic U.S. flights and others in International ones
(see airports). In the next months, thanks to the "Free Sky" agreement that
is becoming operative between U.S. and the E.U., numerous direct flights
will be inaugurated that will involve various regional Italian airports connecting
Italy and Europe with the main airports in the United States. A doubling
of air traffic across the Atlantic Ocean is predicted as a result of this
agreement.
Of Miami residents, 55%
are of Hispanic origin, with a strong presence of Cuban exiles. The Caribbean
Ocean influences the weather in Miami, differentiating this region from the
North of Florida. Miami is more temperate in the winter and more subject
to tropical storms and hurricanes in the summer, especially during winter
months, and a point of departure and passage for cruises in the Caribbean.
From a tourism point of view, the area has a high season for 8 months of
the year, from November through June. In summer months, though increasingly
subject to hurricanes, this area has in recent years counted on a number
of European travellers nonetheless. During the summer of 2006, in which no
hurricane was recorded near Miami, the tourist season stretched out through
the year.
 |
What will be the
future of urban development in Miami?
In Downtown, in the area between Brickell Avenue, bordered by Edgewater,
between the Miami River and the historic Coral Way, a huge part of
Old Miami is quickly disappearing in a cloud of dust.
|
In its place, a new Miami
is emerging. A plush forest of steel and glass towers is going up amidst
the debris. Along Biscayne Bay, 114 new projects have been approved or are
under construction already, many of which rise above 40 floors. Real estate
contractors are about to put forward the construction of more than 61,000
apartments, that's more apartments that have been built in Miami in over
the last 10 years. Amongst the projects are: a 74 floor building that will
be the tallest residential building in the United States south of Manhattan,
more than 4 million square feet of new commercial space (more or less twice
the size of Aventura Mall) and parking for over 100,000 vehicles. This construction
boon has no precedent in the history of the world.
Miami has already gone
through another similar growth spurt experience in the past. Immediately
after WWII, a construction boom in Miami accompanied an immigration boom
that increased inhabitants in the area five fold, bringing the population
of Miami to over a million. This time, the boom will span over 20 years.
| "We
are creating an Istant City, what usually takes 15 years to build, we
are doing in 3 years" declared Michael Cannon, a real estate analyst
from Miami for the Miami Herald on February 2, 2007. This enthusiasm
has waned some as it has coincided with a general weakening of all U.S.
real estate in the last 2 years, a crisis which is turning into an opportunity,
as stated previously, for those able to purchase properties, many at
prices below building costs and others undergoing foreclosure. |
 |
Obviously, the condo-conversion
projects transforming the face of Miami Beach can't be left out. Capital
initially arrived from South America and New York but now is increasingly
coming from
Europe. This is due in part to the deterioration of the U.S. dollar but also
as a result of the number of properties undergoing foreclosure that make
possible for purchase very new large buildings at prices below the cost of
their construction.
Overall interest in the
wealthy and glamorous Miami grows, especially in moment of crisis, as a result
of its silent hard-working people steadily doing their jobs in a country
with unparalleled economic flexibility that is capable of getting back on
its feet faster than any other country in times of need.
|
