Grant Cardone: 7 Best Florida Cities To Buy Real Estate (and 1 To Avoid)
Written by
Gabrielle Olya
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Chris Cluff
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Grant Cardone, private equity fund manager and real estate investor, views Florida as one of the best places to buy real estate as investment properties. However, not all cities are as good of investments as others.
GOBankingRates spoke with Cardone to get his picks for where the best (and worst) Florida cities to buy real estate are.
Best Florida Cities for Real Estate Investments
According to Cardone, there are seven cities that are currently great places to buy for real estate investors.
He said Tampa has a lower cost of living and an increasing number of jobs as tech companies move in, and Miami also is having a tech explosion.
“If you’re rich and you’re going to retire, you’re going to probably go to Naples or Palm Beach,” he said. “Jacksonville is probably the most affordable, with over 970,000 [people] living [there] and [plenty of] jobs — [it’s a hub for] insurance companies.
He said Orlando is ideal “for family life and golf,” especially if you can’t afford the coast. “The Panhandle is probably the most overlooked — [it has] the best beaches in the country.”
Each of these cities is attracting people from different parts of the U.S., so demand is growing in all of these areas.
“You’ve got to look at where people are coming from, not just where they’re going,” Cardone said. “For instance, let’s say you’re leaving San Diego — you could move to Tampa, Orlando or the Panhandle because they’re calmer places. If you leave San Francisco, you’re probably going to go to St. Pete. All these things are driving little micro explosions in populations in different markets.”
Cardone said Panhandle cities such as Destin, in particular, are great places to invest right now.
“I believe the Panhandle is going to be one of the outliers over the next decade that really, really does well in the market,” he said.
The One Florida City To Avoid
Cardone does not recommend buying investment property in Tallahassee, which is home to Florida State University.
“I would avoid college towns,” he said. “I think colleges are already under threat. First of all, we have too many colleges in this country. Two, we have too much college debt. Three, I think AI is going to replace colleges at scale. Even though the big institutions are investing in college towns right now, I personally would not be there.”
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