Florida Land & Housing Market Update (Oct 2026)

What is happening in the Florida land and housing market?

Florida has 1,308,416 vacant land parcels and 5,813,368 single-family homes in DealMachine's records as of 26 Oct 2026. About 116,264 land parcels (8.9%) show a recent sale, and almost a quarter of the state's vacant land (23.3%) is owned by people who live outside Florida. On the housing side, 8,804 single-family homes are flagged as pre-foreclosure and 72,063 as vacant, while statewide sales are cooling slightly as insurance costs and the November property-tax vote dominate the headlines.

Florida Land Market

Source: DealMachine, pulled 26 Oct 2026. The out-of-state number is the one land investors should look at first: 305,133 parcels owned by people who do not live in the state, many of them lots bought years ago in platted subdivisions and never built on. Those owners pay tax every year on land they rarely see, which is why they answer mail and texts at a higher rate than local owners. The recent-sale count is up about 10% on the 19 Oct pull while the parcel total barely moved, which most likely reflects new sale records reaching DealMachine rather than a one-week buying spree, so I will watch whether it holds. Tax-delinquent land is a smaller pool (44,536 parcels) but usually the most motivated.

Florida Housing Market

Source: DealMachine, pulled 26 Oct 2026. The pre-probate count is small because DealMachine only flags it where it has a matching record, so do not read it as the true number of inherited homes in Florida. Pre-foreclosure, vacant and tax-delinquent homes together give you a working list of roughly 156,000 properties before you remove overlaps.

This Week's Florida News

• Sales are flat to slightly down. Florida Realtors reported single-family closed sales up just 0.2% for the third quarter, with September new pending sales down more than 7.5% year over year and 4.4 months of supply; condo inventory sits at 7.7 months with a $293,500 September median. (Florida Realtors, 20 Oct 2026; Florida Trend, 19 Oct 2026)
• Amendment 3 is on the 3 November ballot. It would raise the homestead exemption from non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, and needs 60% of the vote. Counties have warned of service cuts if it passes. It applies to homesteads, not investor-owned or vacant land. (WWSB ABC7, 14 Oct 2026; Newsweek, 6 Oct 2026)
• Insurance is still the bigger worry, but premiums are easing. In a UNF poll, 63% of Florida homeowners named insurance as a bigger concern than property tax. Florida's average premium is still the highest in the country, but Triple-I says averages fell in 51 of 67 counties in the first half of 2026. (Newsweek, 6 Oct 2026)

What It Means for Investors

Slower sales and longer condo supply mean more Florida owners are sitting on property they would rather not hold, and insurance bills keep that pressure on houses even as premiums ease. My practical take for this month:

• Land: start with out-of-state owners of vacant land, then layer tax delinquency on top. That stacked list is small enough to mail and text properly. Pull comps before you price an offer; Florida lot values swing hard by county and flood zone.
• Houses: pre-foreclosure and vacant homes are the most time-sensitive lists. Text first for speed, then follow up by mail to the owners who do not reply.
• Watch 3 November: if Amendment 3 passes, counties will look for revenue elsewhere. Non-homestead owners, which includes most investors and absentee landlords, are worth watching for higher bills in 2027.
• SMS vs mail: for out-of-state land owners, mail usually does the heavy lifting because phone matches are weaker; for houses, SMS gets you into conversations faster. Most of my clients run both.

None of this guarantees deals. Response rates depend on your list, your offer and how fast you follow up.