Bring Your Friends With You

The press is filled with stories of people protesting Trump’s policies. If you believe the reports in the MSM, you would have to think that Florida is taking a huge financial hit because Canadians are angry with the US President. The problem is that this take is complete fabricated nonsense. This article in money wise is a great example. In it, the writer claims that Canadians are leaving en masse because of skyrocketing costs brought about by Trump’s tariffs. The cost increases haven’t even happened yet, but even once they do it won’t be that large of a hit. If you read on down the article, you hit the money quote:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports, 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, and 10% tariffs on other countries could raise consumer prices on everyday retail purchases such as food and beverage items and general merchandise, covering about a quarter of the total consumption basket, by 0.81% to 1.63%, assuming the costs are fully passed to the consumer.

So the tariffs will increase costs by up to 1.63%? That is a fraction of the increase in costs brought about by the Biden inflation. Any costs that are causing people to flee have been going on for years. The media is lying. Again.

The same exact website in January was making the claim that Florida’s insurance rates were skyrocketing because of climate change, and this was the cause for Canadians leaving. Proving that the press hates Trump even more than climate change, less than three weeks later the boogieman had changed and it was no longer climate change, but President Trump that was causing insurance to increase.

The real culprit happened in 2021 when the 12 story Surfside condo collapsed, killing 98 people. The condo wasn’t being maintained, and seawater intrusion had corroded the steel supports. In response, the state of Florida instituted regulations and inspections to require condo buildings be repaired and properly maintained- especially of the buildings are over 3 stories or located near the beach. Nearly 90% of the 1.6 million condos in Florida are more than 30 years old, and most haven’t been inspected or repaired in that time, because the condo associations don’t want to spend the money to do so.

The new law requires associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs and to conduct a survey of reserves every decade. Because of the law, older condos are facing hefty increases to association payments to fund the reserves and repair costs. Condo owners went to Tallahassee and demanded that the state set aside tax dollars to pay for those repairs. Those increased repair and insurance costs are hitting condos hard.

In 2024, Canadians buying vacation homes accounted for 25% of all home sales in Florida. This means that wealthy northerners and Canadians, who are overwhelmingly the owners of beachside condos and were members of condo associations that were voting against paying the costs of properly maintaining the buildings are selling as the cost of owning second homes in Florida is too high, especially when you take the falling value of the Canadian dollar into account.

Real estate agent Gatien Salaun, who owns a waterfront condo in Miami Beach, said what appears to be a recent reduction in average sale prices is largely just buyers negotiating with sellers to eat some of the costs.

“They are simply asking for price reductions that are commensurate with that exact amount that they will have to pay over the next 20 years, 30 years in assessments,” Salaun said. “And the sellers are somewhat stuck in terms of negotiating with the buyer or just paying for the cost themselves.”

Still, the real estate prices in Florida are as high as they are because the weak US dollar (see the price of gold) caused people from other nations, especially Canadians, to buy up a lot of prime US real estate to use as vacation homes. Now that the costs are being realized, they want to sell and leave. Good. Take a friend with you.

To the mainstream media- we are done with your lies.