Parts of Florida have many pluses for retirees - not this week though (crying, infants)
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I don't think anyone is trying to penalize someone for having a second home, but it's also not the tax payers job to pay for it when you fail to insure it properly.
This. If I am stupid and put all my retirement money into only a couple of stocks instead of a broadly diversified fund and all of those companies go bankrupt, the government isn't going to reimburse my losses. I'm just going to have to make do with my Social Security check. Why should a second home be treated any differently?
Springfieldva has noted that investors buying up properties to use as Aribnb or VRBO rentals have driven up Florida real estate prices, and she is right. But snowbirds have also played a huge role in that as well! Mostly, though, I want people to think more like she does: the coast may be a nice place to visit, but it's risky to live (or own valuable property) there. When the government backstops bad decisions, it is inadvertently incentivizing those decisions. That's how we got into this mess in the first place. Would anyone care about the property devastation in Fort Meyers Beach if the only thing there had been cheap, easily replaceable vacation cottages?
No place is 100% risk-free, but some are much riskier than others. We don't want to encourage people to build in high-hazard zones by subsidizing their choice.
In the old days, say 1900 and before, people built shacks/inexpensive buildings in areas prone to severe weather/floods. These summer places were just roof and walls to protect seasonal visitors from rain. As years went on new owners/next generation put additions on and if nothing happened to destroy the building they thought nothing would.
Now that there are so many homes built near water it has become a national issue rather than an individual homeowner problem. Flood insurance rates have been rising with every catastrophic weather event. It will rise even more after Ian.
I have bought and sold many residences in Florida and learned a lot. Not once has any real estate agent brought up what flood rating a property under consideration has. Recently I noticed that some MLS listings included the flood rating but you need to know where to look. I only bought Zone X property.
You seem to be changing the topic. Why? The topic is people who voluntarily decide not to purchase flood insurance yet live in Florida (and other such places).
Why ignore the fact that insurance has been driven sky high in those areas if it's available at all. It's more complicated than people simply opting not to purchase flood insurance.
Some of the homes have been in those areas for decades. Not everyone who owns a couple of coastal homes is rich.
I definitely want to see the Grand Canyon some day. I hear that it's truly breathtaking. I guess it's the idea of living in a dry, arid, dusty climate far away from the water that doesn't appeal to me. I know that Arizona is a popular retirement destination. I've never actually been there so it's hard for me to relate to what people love about it. The mountains and the cool forests do sound nice.
I consider climate change with destinations now, and I wouldn't move to a drought-prone state.
Most of the people they show they interviewed cited staying with their pets. I think it needs to be emphasized it's safer for your pets for you to leave early with them (getting them out of harms way). If you can't get people to care about themselves maybe at least you could get them to want to save their pets. All shelters need to make allowances for pets also.
The people that got hit the hardest got little notice. The track wasn't supposed to hit them until a day or 2 before, by that time hotels etc were sold out from all the Tampa area folks who evacuated, and I don't know that any or which shelters allowed pets.
There are plenty of hotels that take dogs and other pets. Yeah, it's a pain and an expense to evacuate but you have to get your pets and yourself out of harm's way.
You can book a pet friendly room in advance of an approaching storm and if the storm shifts and the room isn't needed you can cancel it.
I wouldn't want to go to a storm shelter with my own dogs - a bunch of stressed out people with their stressed out animals seems like a recipe for trouble. I'd honestly rather drive inland and park at a campground or even at a rest stop for a while and tough it out. Hurricanes are generally over pretty quickly so it's not like you have to stay there for long.
Hopefully, you will still have a home to go back to when the storm is over but even if you don't it'll be a blessing that you and your fur babies are safe.
Those hotels were booked solid by the time the storm turned right, putting Fort Meyers and those areas under threat. I tried to get a hotel room as far as 60 miles away before Sandy and there was none to be had. Many of the hotels also raise prices during times like this, not everyone can afford $400 or $500 a night accommodations.
I don't lump 2nd personal vacation homes in with the homes bought solely for investment purposes. Those 2nd homes can have a lot of personal items inside and could have been in the family for years. Maybe their flood insurance got jacked up so high that they could no longer afford to pay for it. Maybe their flood insurance got cancelled through no fault of their own.
When I was reading about Florida flood insurance costs, I was surprised to see they were 1/3 what I pay in NJ. I think it said the average was about $600 a year.
I consider climate change with destinations now, and I wouldn't move to a drought-prone state.
For me, places with long winters and lots of snow and ice are off the table. I could live in an area that got some snow but the average temperatures need to be moderate to warm most of the year.
I would rather deal with heat/humidity than frigid temperatures and winter storms.
I love the idea of living in the mountains but I have reached an age where I don't want to live in isolation and I don't want to deal with twisting, steep mountain roads especially during an ice storm.
A waterfront property in a warmer area would be nice, but I don't want to deal with flooding. In the end, I keep going back to the idea of buying in an over 55 community with lots of retiree friendly amenities and convenient access to stores, restaurants, entertainment. We can always vacation on the water or in the mountains.
Some of the homes have been in those areas for decades.
Which means nothing. Rising sea levels and increasingly strong hurricanes are going to render parts of Florida uninhabitable over the next century, whether we like it or not. From the sea it rose, and to the sea it will return. And so will any structures built in those places.
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