Annual property taxes where I live in Tampa are 2.5 % of the alleged value. Some places pay 3%. Anywhere on the water or near any beach is going to be extremely expensive. And property insurance rates are as bad. Unless these investors are fabulously wealthy, they're going to lose their shirts.

These are the same fools who created the housing bubble in the first place: "equity locusts." They overran Florida, buying up properties right and left in order to flip them for huge profits. Many lied about being residents for tax purposes, and many are probably doing the same thing again.

What they may not realize is that in Florida you cannot turn off your air-conditioning or heat to save money unless you want you house or condo to be destroyed by mold and humidity. Taxes in nice places are extremely high, maintenance is extremely expensive, insurance is astronomical, and property "values" are still dropping. Since they were inflated by 3, 4, 5 hundred percent during the housing mania, they still have a long way to fall to get back to planet Earth.

I realize realtors and desperate home-sellers will do anything to make sales, but these, too, will be at everyone else's expense. The State of Florida should stop this right now, or it's looking at another crash, and years and years of economic ruin.