Is Florida Real Estate About to Lead The Nation..Again?
Feb 08, 2026
Last week was awesome.
It was full of teaching (my newest MarketPulse 360) and interacting with hundreds of agents, builders, and service providers as we covered the main drivers of today's real estate market.
I love these events.
They give me an opportunity to get inspiration for new ideas that come up from audience discussions.
This time, the concept of Florida being a leading state in the country came up.
Let me explain...
Florida: Leading the country in Real Estate? ☝️
You know how California leads the country in fashion, food, and technology?
It's true. Many of the most popular trends in America start in California and then spread across the country.
Well, Florida is a leader in its own right.
Since 2020, Florida has become a leader in real estate trends that spread around the country.
This came up as I was showing the latest trends on homeowners insurance premiums during my presentations.
From 2020 to 2023, Florida was the epicenter for rising homeowners insurance costs:
There were plenty of articles pointing out Florida as the problem child when it came to rising insurance costs.
Fast forward to today and we've experienced homeowners premiums level off while the rest of the country is going through significant increases:
Over time, we've learned that Florida isn't the only state with insurance challenges.
We were just the first for them to show up in a significant way.
Now, the rest of the country is catching up.
And this got me thinking further.
Back in 2021, the Southeast and Florida lead the nation in home price appreciation.
The Sunshine State was one of the hottest markets in America while the rest of the country lagged behind.
Since then, it's reversed and Florida has been treading water with little-to-no price appreciation.
What if, like insurance, Florida is experiencing a slowdown in real estate before the other markets?
From leading to lagging…to leading again? 👀
Above, you can see how home values have changed year-over-year since 2020 in Florida, New York, and America.
In 2022, Florida grew home values grew 10% more than the national average.
After mortgage rates increased and the pandemic stimulus dried up, markets everywhere cooled off — some more than others.
Florida went from market leader to market laggard when it came to price growth. We finished the year at 0% growth in 2025.
But what if this is a similar to situation as the insurance market? What if Florida is experiencing the slowdown in growth that will show up in the rest of the country soon?
Or perhaps, is it just a temporary slowdown after a historic rise in values (like a sprinter taking a breather)?
We'll have to watch to see.
In the meantime, there are plenty of reasons to believe in Florida's real estate markets and to anticipate a pickup in growth in the coming years.
If it does, that would mean that today presents some of the best opportunities to capture big incentives and face less competition.
The question is: will you take advantage of them?
Dr. Alex Stewart
Founder
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