Hot business environment keeps Miami-Dade among top 10 Florida investment locales

Last summer, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told Fox Business that Miami’s booming economy was “on fire.”

Apparently, the flame didn’t die out.

Increased real estate sales, an influx of new jobs, and the welcoming of tech businesses, such as Citadel’s hedge-fund firm from Chicago, have kept the South Florida business market buzzing. But, it was the power of domestic product growth that was most impressive.

SmartAsset recently released its annual study on the places receiving the most incoming investment during 2022, and it’s no surprise that Miami-Dade County is ranked among the top 10 areas, albeit ninth, in Florida with the most incoming investment.

“Miami-Dade’s economy is ranked (as) one of the most-recovered in the nation and continues to grow with new investments, business relocations, and workers in search of opportunities – particularly in tech,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in March, when she announced that Francesca de Quesada Covey was joining her economic development team as Chief Economic Development and Innovation Officer.

In that role, de Quesada Covey will lead efforts to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship and investment in Miami-Dade to drive continued growth and build a “future ready” economy where all residents can succeed and thrive.

The SmartAsset study measures investment in counties across three metrics: business establishment growth, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and new building permits.

Miami-Dade showed just a 6.7% growth in new business launches, which was not ranked among the state’s top 10 counties. The average across Florida was 4.7%.

But Miami-Dade did lead the way in gross domestic product growth at a whopping $70.402 million, nearly $65 million more than St. Johns County, which topped SmartAsset’s overall analysis. The average across Florida was $6.847 million.

Gross domestic product is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services within the county’s borders and functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a specific area’s economic health.

Miami-Dade slid in the new building permits category with 8.9 per thousand homes, below Florida’s average of 17.5 per thousand homes, and far off the pace set by St. Johns, with 61.9 new permits per thousand homes.

When the final, overall tally was completed, St. Johns scored 69.84 on its Incoming Investment Index, while Miami-Dade scored 52.35.

Walton County was second, followed by Osceola, Flagler and Sumter.

South Florida has seen an influx of new residents from both domestic and international origins, as well as businesses moving their headquarters seeking more favorable tax structures.

“Miami-Dade’s economy is one of the strongest in the nation, made up of world-class corporations, small businesses employing nearly 60% of our residents, and a burgeoning tech ecosystem,” de Quesada Covey said.

“To cement our future growth and to ensure Miami-Dade’s status as an innovation hub, we need to provide more resources for entrepreneurs, increase opportunities for local talent, and modernize and streamline the County’s economic development functions to better serve the people building and scaling businesses.”

In turn, more people moving in has kept the real estate market bubbling, especially when it comes to higher-priced properties.

“If you keep people safe, you focus on quality of life, it’s an incredible difference from what people are seeing in other major cities across America,” Mayor Suarez said during his Fox Business interview. “And we now live in a decentralized world where you don’t have to physically be somewhere to be able to be successful.”

SmartAsset made its calculations by looking at the change in the number of businesses established in each location over a three-year period.

The second factor was GDP growth, inflation-adjusted real growth in the local economy.

And, third, was looking at investment and development of the local real estate market, calculated by the number of new building permits per 1,000 homes.

Additional details on the study, including the methodology and interactive map, can be found at: https://smartasset.com/investing/investment-calculator#Florida

For a comparison of the top ranking counties in Florida, check out the table below: