Lakeland May Be The Best Place In Florida To Buy A House
Home ownership has definitely become trickier. Especially in Florida. Home values are up. Interest rates are up. And insurance, yeah insurance is way up. Here in Southwest Florida, rapidly escalating prices in Fort Myers and Cape Coral are pricing some out. But there seems to be one place in Florida where buying a home is easier. And that place, is Lakeland.
The research team at This Old House Reviews surveyed 3,000 non-homeowners to explore what they believe the 2024 housing market has in store for them. That allowed them to rank 148 U.S. cities across nine metrics to determine the best cities for aspiring homeowners. Metrics such as affordability, home prices, down payments, and mortgage rates.
Here are the top 6 cities:
| 1. Provo, UT | ||
| 2. Clarksville, TN | ||
| 3. Jackson, MS | ||
| 4. Rochester, MN | ||
| 5. Fort Wayne, IN | ||
| 6. Grand Rapids, Michigan | ||
At number 7, and tops in Florida, is Lakeland.
According to the research “Lakeland is ideal for those looking to pursue homeownership with a median down payment of $23,959 and $1,810 in property taxes. Despite home prices increasing 15% over the past six months, homes are sitting on the market far longer than they used to with an entire 1639% increase in median days on market over the same period of time. This is great for buyers as there is likely to be less competition for homes in Lakeland.”
Other Florida cities mentioned were Tampa (#24), Gainesville (#31), and Jacksonville (#39). So let’s take a look at what’s going on with the Lakeland housing market. I did some comps on Realtor.com and it looks like similar homes in Lakeland were priced about 20-30% less than similar ones in Cape Coral. I have an uncle that retired and moved down from Ohio to Lakeland and he loves it. He’s about halfway between Orlando and Tampa so the bigger cities are there if he wants it. Plus there’s some solid fishing in the area.
So, according to the folks at “This Old House” if you’re looking to move to Florida, or maybe relocate away from the coast, Lakeland should be on your list of places to check out.
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