Florida

‘The Sunshine State’ has much more going for it than a few UV rays and an excellent year-round climate (hurricanes aside, of course). For a start, there’s Disneyworld, the foremost theme park on earth and the Holy Grail for western children the world over; then you have Orlando – a veritable holiday haven where the phrase ‘something for everybody’ has never been more fitting. Throw in the cool street-style of Miami, the endless wonder of Cape Canaveral and the almost European-esque resort of Naples and you have a State that is rightly the most visited in America.

It is also the country’s most popular overseas property hotspot. Recent months may not have been kind to the US property market on the whole; the sub-prime mortgage crisis being the final straw for many investors’ already shaky confidence, but Florida exists – and always has done – on its own plane. Property prices have fell over the past 12 months nationwide, but the first market to show signs of a recovery is Florida, which is excellent news for UK buyers armed with that ever-trusty currency: sterling.

State Capital: Tallahassee
Population: 18.25 million
Time: GMT -5
Dialing: 01
Currency: US Dollar ($)

Climate: Aside from the extreme tropical south of Florida, the State is primarily classed as having a humid subtropical climate, with warm year round temperatures and an abundance of rainfall in spring and summer. Winds can be a problem, most obviously demonstrated in the powerfall hurricanes that hit the State in late summer and early autumn. Temperatures are rarely cold, although cold fronts do occur – primarily on the Atlantic coast – on occasion in winter.

Getting There: Flights to Florida (namely Orlanda, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale) are readily available almost daily from most major UK airports. The height of summer brings cheaper flight costs due to Florida’s often unbearable humidity during this season; it is actually a less popular time to go. School holidays in general see flight prices increase.

Special Features: Florida is the southernmost mainland US State (Hawaii is farther south); Miami is the only city with cash machines developed especially for rollerbladers; Key West has the highest average temperature of any city in America.

Buying Property in Florida: Property prices in Florida vary from region to region but, on the whole, they represent exceptional value for money throughout. The main hotspots for overseas buyers continue to be Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, but Naples in the west is starting to attract the attentions of the more upmarket buyer.

Florida’s property market is quite easy to predict; it reached pretty much rock-bottom towards the end of 2007, with too many houses and too few national buyers wiling or able to raise the capital to purchase a home. Hence, with the dollar in its weakened state and the British pound so strong, the market has been touted towards a UK audience, and it is certainly an appealing one. Florida’s multitude of attractions guarantees its resilience – statistics show that 26% of foreign property buyers in the US head to Florida. The only way now is up – Florida is a buyer’s market and an attractive year-round destination…so what are you waiting for?