New Research Shows Miami is on the Way to Being the Next Silicon Valley
According to recent research from Moody's Analytics, a division of New York-based Moody's Corporation, the expansion of Miami-Dade County's finance and technology sectors significantly boosted the region's office market throughout the pandemic leaving the potential for Miami to replace Silicon Valley.
Miami has the potential to develop into a prosperous tech center, according to Lu Chen, a senior economist at Moody's and co-author of "The Growing Power of Tech on Miami's Commercial Real Estate Market."
Fintech companies have found The Magic City to be the most alluring. According to the survey, businesses from New York are increasingly choosing to relocate to Miami due to high taxes, building/office costs, as well as housing.
For instance, the report stated that the fintech business FundKite moved its headquarters from New York to Miami "because it has become a solid hub for the financial industry and has a lot of good expertise and manpower accessible."
This continued pattern has allowed the office landlords in Miami-Dade County to raise rent demands faster than the national average, including in San Francisco, California.
According to the survey, incomes for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers in South Florida have not increased as much as asking rents in Miami-Dade.
The average salary for STEM workers nationwide increased by 6.8% in 2021 compared to the previous year. San Francisco saw a 1.9% increase in STEM earnings. Their increase in South Florida was only 0.9%.
As of August 13, the typical STEM job nationwide paid $53,428 per year. STEM jobs in Florida typically pay $40,081 a year. In California, STEM salaries pay an average of $48,899 annually.
In contrast to the San Francisco Bay area and other well-established technology centers, South Florida has a very small proportion of the total number of tech jobs.
According to Chen, only 3% of jobs in South Florida are in the high-tech sector, compared to 23.5% in the San Francisco area.
Other challenges for Miami's expanding technology sector, according to Moody's, include the impact of climate change, South Florida's transportation infrastructure, the underrepresentation of minorities in higher-level positions, and concerns about educational standards.
The San Francisco Bay area has significantly more prestigious universities that develop technology talent, according to the study on education. The report states that "Miami must attract more students interested in tech."
However, the survey noted that there is cause for hope because there are regional initiatives like Computer Equity Miami that seek to increase accessibility to tech education for all of its citizens. Miami's advantages also include a high concentration of banks and businesspeople.
South Florida ranks sixth in the nation for the proportion of all U.S. entrepreneurs. Moody's attributed this ranking to the region's 150 banks and 500,000 accredited investors, which offer a variety of choices for raising financing.
Miami is attracting a lot of interest from bitcoin businesses as a result of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and other local leaders placing significant bets on the technology.
Suarez's efforts to establish Miami as a crypto hub, according to David Caputo, a commercial real estate data quality analyst for Moody's, have aided in luring crypto businesses to that city, including Blockchain.com, which has reportedly facilitated more than $1 trillion in crypto transactions since its establishment in 2011.
According to Moody's research, the future of cryptocurrencies may very well determine Miami's status as a global tech hub. Although the value of cryptocurrencies has fallen recently, the report's co-author Caputo claimed there isn't much of a negative for Miami.
