“New Yorkers are the new foreign buyers in Florida,” according to Jonathan Miller, president of the Miller Samuel appraiser firm.
Take a look at how $1M sales have jumped in these South Florida strongholds:
- +26% in Fort Lauderdale, according to data from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Realty
- +17% in Broward County
- +15% in Palm Beach County
- +7.5% in Miami Dade
In some ways, these sales have been government induced via the 2017 tax code revisions that limited state and property tax deductions. And, buyers are making their new Florida digs their primary residences while relegating their New York (or California, or Connecticut or New Jersey, etc.) digs as their second homes due to the new tax code.
Accompanying this bonanza of $1M sales, Florida is also seeing an uptick of +10% in fraud risk compared to last year. According to the quarterly CoreLogic Mortgage Fraud Brief, the state of Florida holds the top 5 slots in this fraud risk index and 8 of the top 10 slots overall.
Miami is considered to be the “riskiest fraud metro in the country” with higher levels of purchase transactions that are layered with risk factors. Those mortgage fraud risk components include:
- transaction fraud
- identity fraud
- property fraud
- occupancy fraud
- income fraud
- undisclosed real estate debt
According to the CoreLogic Mortgage Brief, these are the Highest Fraud Risk Metros in the country:
Metros Uptick from Q3-Q4 2018
Miami/Ft Lauderdale/West Palm Beach +29%***
Cape Coral/Ft Meyers +16%
Lakeland/Winter Haven +3%
Orlando/Sanford/Kissimmee +16%
Tampa/St Petes/Clearwater +4%
New York/Newark/Jersey City +7%
North Point/Bradenton/Sarasota +35%***
Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim +3%
Jacksonville +14%
Palm Bay/Melbourne/Titusville +17%
Deltona/Daytona Beach/Ormond Beach -11%
Urban Honolulu +7%
New Orleans/Metairie +5%
Oxnard/Thousand Oaks/Ventura +11%
New Haven/Milford -33%***
