Moving to Miami: what you need to know to do it successfully

(CNN Spanish) – From 2020 to 2021, nearly 27.1 million Americans, or 8.4% of them, lived in a different residence than the previous year, according to the latest geographic mobility data from the Census Bureau.

The main reason? A “new, better and bigger” home, according to estimates by the Current Population Survey (CPS); followed by wanting to establish one’s own home, “other family reasons” and the search for cheaper housing.

And one of the most popular migration destinations is Miami. Agree the real estate site Redfin.com, user interest in moving to the Florida metropolitan city has tripled since last year.

For its part, the property data and analysis company CoreLogic, noted that throughout 2020 home buyers left expensive states like New York and California, and moved to more affordable metropolitan areas in Texas, Florida and the Carolinas.

And while Miami is a city More affordable than New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Boston, this one isn’t exactly cheap. In fact, according to Investopedia, Miami ranks last on the list of the 10 most expensive cities in America.

If despite its high cost you are convinced that Miami is your next home, we share information and a couple of tips that can help you make your move successfully.

How much does it cost to live in Miami?

One of the most important points when moving is the cost. According to an analysis of Realtor.com indicates that after seeing a drop in the price of rents during the pandemic, these are rising again throughout the country. And in the specific case of Miami, the city had an average rent increase of 41.5%, compared to October of last year.

In January 2021, Relator.com estimated that the median rent in the Miami metropolitan area was US $ 1,854 and by October it increased to US $ 2,760. This is the breakdown of prices, according to the type of home:

• Study department: US $ 2,145
• 1 bedroom apartment: US $ 2,417
• 2 bedroom apartment: US $ 3,250

Use technology to your advantage

Not for nothing do they say that “there is an app for everything” and when it comes to looking for a new home, real estate applications, such as Zillow and Trulia, to name a few, are essential. The operation of both is very similar, and if you have previously used apps to book your vacations, such as Airbnb or Booking, you will see that the dynamics are very similar.

The real estate applications show you the options available in the area of ​​your interest, according to the characteristics you are looking for and according to your budget. We recommend setting up the alert system so that you know when a new property with the characteristics you are looking for is available.

But how do you know which areas to look for? If you are new to a city, we recommend consulting various crime maps to get a sense of which areas may have higher crime rates and which may be safer. The Miami government recommends an interactive map about criminal incidents that have been reported to authorities.

Finally, planning your move can be as complicated or easy as you want and can afford. Before committing to a moving service, check with different companies and compare the options you have.

Not all that glitters is gold

The price of housing in Miami is linked to climate risk and that must be taken into account when looking for the best place to live.

Jesse Keenan, associate professor at Tulane University – who coined the term climate gentrification – found that the value of single-family homes in Miami-Dade County that were located one meter or less above sea level had risen at a slower rate than homes in higher areas, such as CNN reported.

Preliminary research he’s working on now suggests that, in addition to home values, rents are also rising faster in higher-elevation areas, Keenan said.

And it is that in a city where the “floods on sunny days”, also known as “King Tides” —a term with which you should familiarize yourself— increased by 400% since 2000So rising sea levels are changing the old real estate mantra of “location, location, location,” says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

“In 2020, the US Southeast Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions saw an increase of more than 400 to 1,100 percent, respectively, in high-tidal flood days compared to 2000,” according to NOAA.

South Florida is currently experiencing a sea level rise of 2 to 4 mm per year, according to NOAA. And while this may not seem like much, it does add up over time, and the higher the sea level, the higher the tides and the more coastal flooding, according to the CNN meteorologist Haley Brink.

Ironically, areas that have historically been viewed as less desirable (inland areas, formerly designated as poor areas) They will eventually be safer due to their high elevation, while some of the more luxurious oceanfront neighborhoods, like Miami Beach, could flood in a few decades, according to some projections.

Claire Colbert and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.