Florida Real Estate / East vs West Coast

[Alex Kovalenko]

What am I missing? It seems like Sarasota / Tampa real estate is half of Boca Raton / Fort Lauterdale? I understand its like colder there in January / February - but aside from that why are the prices so much cheaper?

[Dave Foster]

To all of you touting the east coast - You're absolutely right!!!  I totally agree it's way better on the east coast.  Everyone should go there.  I'll take one for the team and suffer here  in St Pete for the next 20 years or so.  If it doesn't improve then I'm outta here :)

Seriously though there is actually a geographic demographic consideration that has been a major influencer of the character of each coast over the last 70 years.

There are two main migratory paths that come into Florida - I-95 on the east and I-75 on the west.  With the advent of air travel over the last 30=40 years we don't think of roads as the arteries of a region.  But these two freeways feed directly down the coast and have brought millions of residents into the state.  Just by nature I-75 with it's upper midwest origin has brought so many folks from that region down the west coast.  Those areas are not as affluent in general so would create areas that reflect them.  I-95 feeds right from some very pricey real estate in CT, NY, NJ and the eastern sea board.  it is very natural that the areas fed by these migrants would reflect demographically similar levels of affluence including home prices.

Sarasota is an outlier due to it's unique origins and Naples is a really interesting study if anyone's interested.  Alligator alley basically opened up a whole world of affordable housing for the east coasties in Naples.  And it looks feels and is priced very similar to a west coast Boca.

Fascinating stuff that population demographers and geographers drool over.  For the rest of us it's "where can I find affordable good returning investments and park close to the beach"!!!