Tracking Florida real estate development

Florida moves faster than almost any US development market. Population inflows, a business-friendly policy climate and a decade of capital migration have made Miami and South Florida a national test case for how fast a skyline can change — and almost all of it is public record. Here is how to track Florida development the way our newsroom does, from the permit line to the statehouse.

The record streams that matter in Florida

Florida issues permits and approvals at the city and county level, so the data is decentralized but open. The most useful streams:

• County and city permit portals. Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami publish building-permit data with valuation, scope, square footage and contractor; Broward and Palm Beach run their own county and municipal systems. Large new-construction permits mark funded, imminent projects — we rank the biggest on the permit archive.
• Zoning and planning agendas. Planning boards, zoning boards of appeals and city commissions publish agendas through clerk portals ahead of every meeting. A rezoning or site-plan item is the earliest public signal of a project.
• Property appraiser records. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach appraisers publish sales and parcel data — the record of who bought which development site, and for how much.

The policy layer is a Florida-specific beat

In Florida, the entitlement fight is often about state law as much as local zoning. The Live Local Act preempts local density and zoning limits for qualifying affordable and workforce housing, letting developers build to higher intensities by right in commercial and mixed-use zones — and it has become one of the most consequential, and most litigated, forces in the market. Impact fees, comprehensive-plan amendments and municipal moratoria round out the policy layer. Following Florida development means following Tallahassee, not just city hall.

South Florida is not one market

“South Florida” spans distinct jurisdictions with their own rules and rhythms: the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, the Wynwood and Brickell submarkets, Fort Lauderdale and Broward, and West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County. Each has its own permit system and review boards, which is exactly why coverage has to be assembled jurisdiction by jurisdiction rather than pulled from one feed — and why the gaps have to be stated honestly.

How The American Developer covers Florida

Florida — and Miami specifically — is our flagship beat. We run live permit and approvals feeds through The Wire, rank Miami-Dade permit activity and builders on Data & leaderboards, and track the deals, projects and developers shaping the market on the Miami hub. For the underlying method — reading permits, filings and hearings across any market — see our guides to tracking deal flow with public records and how local land-use hearings work.