Since life happens, you might discover the need or opportunity to seek a new custom Florida home near the end of the calendar year.
While there are factors to heed — big year-end holidays that can impact everyone’s calendars, for example — don’t avoid the year’s remaining months because it’s not considered prime time for residential real estate.
In fact, it can be advantageous! The state’s home-buying season tends to be year-round thanks to seasonal residents who decide they’re ready to buy rather than rent, and frequent visitors (particularly from colder climates) who decide on part-time Florida residency, at minimum.
Add the acknowledged busy seasons in spring and summer, and Florida’s residential real estate market hums constantly.
All of this means more opportunities to snag a new custom Florida home during perceived “off seasons.” Read on for more on this seasonal spotlight.
Key Takeaways
- Year end home buying in Florida can be a smart move since the market stays active year round due to seasonal residents and frequent visitors.
- Fewer buyers shopping late in the year means less competition, more breathing room, and more time to explore communities, floor plans, and options.
- Builders often have more inventory homes and available homesites at year end, giving buyers more choices with less pressure.
- Closing before December 31 can offer tax advantages such as deducting mortgage interest and property taxes on the current year’s return.
- Interest rate shifts combined with builder incentives can create stacked savings that make year end purchases especially attractive.
Less traffic
Even though Florida’s residential real-estate market doesn’t stop during a year’s final months, some buyers hit pause for many common reasons — holidays, vacations, travel, work deadlines, and so on.
That’s a boon if you’re up for such a purchase. Odds are you won’t navigate hordes of fellow potential customers visiting ICI Homes’ master-planned communities and model homes, which can yield more time to research floor plans, amenities and surrounding areas, plus interact with our sales associates.
Which leads us to…
More choices
The United States is in the midst of a longterm housing shortage and builders like ICI Homes, who’ve built new custom Florida homes all over the state for 45 years, are bringing more new inventory to market every day.
Searching for a new home near the end of the year potentially means less competition for it, plus more inventory homes to choose from, or homesites on which to build from scratch.
Tax breaks
Most of us are familiar with friends or family members expecting little ones with due dates close to the end of the year. Those parents likely root for Baby’s arrival before December 31 so they can include their new bundle of joy as an additional dependent on the current year’s taxes!
Buying a new custom Florida home before midnight on December 31 is a similar situation. It means you can deduct the new purchase’s mortgage interest and property taxes on the current year’s taxes — a definite financial boost.
This isn’t insignificant. Especially in Florida, one of eight U.S. states without state income taxes. That’s already a nice perk if you’re moving here from another state that does levy state income taxes.
Stacked savings
Recent interest-rate drops are a big lure for potential ICI Homes customers keen on a year-end home purchase. Builder incentives — cost savings such as interest-rate buy downs, design center credits or special pricing on inventory homes — allow year-end buyers to stack even more savings on their purchase.
Ready for your new custom Florida home? Talk to ICI Homes here.