We've just sold up in Florida at a bad time, due to exchange rate!! to follow our dream in France. But I disagree that it is a bad time to buy - there are great deals to be made. Our agent over there told us that if you get a buyer hold on to them with your arms, teeth and legs so as not to loose them - because they have soooooo much choice. Plus as a UK buyer the exchange rate is excellent. A few cautionary notes if you go ahead with the Florida idea - there are many insurances to pay i.e.Flood, hurricane and wind and general property insurance (contents may not be covered unless it is occupied more than 6 months of the year). And as we found, an insurance company can drop you on renewal for no reason at all even if you have never made a claim and then you have to hunt high and low for someone else to cover you (this happened to us twice in 13 years). You will probably need to budget for maintenance e.g. general house maintence, lawn cutting, sprinklers maintenance,pool maintence (if there is one) etc. When selling your property in Florida you will find that being a foreigner the government will withhold 15% of any profit made (there appears to be no sliding scale on the length of time you have owned the property relating to Capital Gains tax, as in UK) whilst they sort out how much you owe. For this you will need to employ a Florida taxman to deal with (not cheap). Notary fees for signatures on official forms in UK are not cheap - which is probably the way you will have to do it if selling your Florida dream all the way back in England. All paperwork has to notarised (very cheaply done IN Florida) so you will need to budget for this (£150 a throw).All of this on top of 6 - 7 % estate agent fees. We had a wonderful time in Florida spending a weeks out there every year - would we go out there on holiday again - yes, would we OWN a property out there again - no. Sorry, I don't want to paint a bleak picture but they never tell you about the things tat turn a great deal into an expensive white elephant in the long run.