All these disasters may be taking their toll. Florida having no state tax and lower property taxes certainly does offset some of the extraordinary expenses. But you have to add back property insurance, flood insurance, auto insurance, pest control, much higher food costs, being 38th in the U.S. for wages, etc.
We sold the MIL's house in Punta Gorda in mid 2023. The current price on Zillow is down 10% from that sales price, which was 10% down from the 2022 peak price.
From a newsletter that I read: "Milton and Helene are compounding another problem: People aren’t migrating to Florida like they used to. With Tampa’s housing supply up 58% and demand down 10% in August, half of the area’s for-sale listings had gotten price cuts as of a month ago, according to the analytics firm Parcl Labs.
Zoom in: One homeowner told the Wall Street Journal he’s been trying to sell his ~$580,000 suburban Tampa house for eight months, but he hasn’t even received open house visitors.
Zoom out: Prospective buyers are getting priced out. Home and flood insurance rates in Florida have skyrocketed as much as 400% over the past five years, and those premiums will likely only get worse after this year’s hurricane season. Disaster models are projecting an average of $35 billion in damages from Hurricane Milton"
There is an also expense to having to leave your home frequently, toss your food, travel/lodging, and clean up, an $8K hurricane deductible, paying to have shutters installed. I am not dunking on Florida, but I do think that all factors need to be considered in a true cost analysis. And I think it is beginning to hurt certain locales.
CA, TX and FL have the highest insurance claims nationwide. It does seem unsustainable.
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