FYI Miami: July 14, 2022

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

LOOKING NORTH: South Americans continue to covet Miami residences: the four top nations for residential searches on the website for the Miami Association of Realtors in May were Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil, in that order. Following them in the top ten were searches from Spain, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Mexico, Canada and India. But one of every eight international searches came from Colombia, the nation from which the second-most residential buys from abroad came in 2021. Argentinians were the international buyers who bought the most Miami residential properties in 2021, 13%.

ENVIRONMENTAL PENALTIES: County commissioners approved last week an ordinance that increases civil penalties for water pollution fines, “including pollution discharges to ground or surface waters, unauthorized work in wetlands and other surface waters of the State, and prohibited discharges to sanitary sewers and stormwater sewers, that have the potential to result in adverse impacts to the ground or surface waters of Miami-Dade County, including Biscayne Bay.” The ordinance by Rebeca Sosa, adopted after a public hearing, raises the penalty for the failure to have plans approved from $200 to $2,500; those causing a sanitary nuisance from $500 to$1,000; and open burning from $250 to $750. The new legislation lists all 33 changes to the civil penalties.

CITIZENS KEEPS GROWING: State-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. continues to move closer to having 1 million policies amid widespread problems in the private insurance market. Chief Operating Officer Kelly Booten said Tuesday that Citizens had 937,835 policies as of Friday, up from 883,333 at the end of May. He also said during a committee meeting of the Citizens Board of Governors that, based on past trends, Citizens could receive at least 30,000 policies because of the insolvency of Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. 

GAS KEEPS FALLING: Average gasoline prices in Miami fell 11.6 cents per gallon last week to $4.53, according to GasBuddy. Prices in Miami are 38.4 cents lower than a month ago but stand $1.52 higher than a year ago. The national average has fallen 12.8 cents per gallon in the past week to $4.66. The national average is down 34.4 cents from a month ago but $1.54 more than a year ago. “The national average has declined for 27 days straight, or four weeks, the longest decline in average gas prices since the pandemic started in 2020. Average gas prices are down nearly 40 cents, with Americans shelling out $140 million less on gasoline every day than they did a month ago,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.