Polar Vortex Has Home-Searchers Dreaming of Escape to Florida

(Bloomberg) -- All this shivering from the polar vortex has folks dreaming of life in the sunshine.

In Chicago, where it was minus-23 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 Celsius) on Wednesday, searches for real estate in Florida were 62 percent higher than a typical Wednesday in the past month, according to Realtor.com.

Zillow noted a similar pattern in Chicago -- as well as in New York City, Minneapolis and Madison, Wisconsin. While those cities froze on Wednesday, searches for Florida homes from those areas jumped 40 percent from the same day last year, the company’s data show.

But all those online searches may not actually translate to a sudden wave of migration to the Sunshine State, said Jenilyn Martinez, a residential sales specialist at Real Estate Sales Force in Miami, where residents enjoyed a high of 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It’s business as usual,” she said. “I haven’t gotten any more calls than usual.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sydney Maki in New York at smaki8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus

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