I lived in NY and expereinced a hurricane. In coastal Florida, it's very likely.

They refuse to believe there is any risk in moving to coastal Florida.

Another example: The Hamptons on Long Island have been hit several times by hurricanes. One closed Dune road when the Atlantic Ocean met Mecox Bay. Another uprooted large trees 100+ years old. Another one had the eye of the hurricane over it. And yet people keep coming.

Literally 500' feet from the Atlantic Ocean. It took a few years to get a consensus on selling, but I am glad we did,

We were a long way from the "eye", but the wind/rain was memorable. Lower Manhattan had 100+ winds (hang onto your briefcases, folks).

not had as many big storms, compared to the east coast.

My family moved to Sarasota last year.
They live 3 mi. from the water & are at an elevation of 13 ft.

Before they moved there, I asked if they had any concerns about storms & mentioned the sunny day flooding in Miami. My bil responded that he wasn’t that worried because they were “building like crazy in Miami”.

I guess he doesn’t know how corrupt the developers are down there.

They are safe in a hotel right now.

when I was very young in Philly. Our screened door to the back yard ended up two blocks away, but solid concrete row homes are pretty safe. No flooding either. I vacationed in Florida ONCE - and that was enough. Would never ever want to live there. No state tax is not THAT important to me.

We lived in Utica, NY, so it was amazing to have one come so far inland.

It was an odd occurrence but something I will never forget. Which is why I don’t understand people purposefully moving to coastal Florida knowing the risks.

Living in Indiana Tornados seem very scary BUT, in all my years I've never seen one and they were always somewhere else, maybe 2 miles, 5 miles, 35 miles away. People from the north may think oh yeah there are hurricanes in Florida, but they don't realize these massive hurricanes have SUSTAINED WINDS for hours and cover a wide geographical area and bring rains so torrential there is flooding.

Low information storm watchers, I guess. And then they pick up and move to Florida.

People who grow up there or live there long enough experience many hurricanes, and realize that they can survive them. Hurricane-resistant construction codes combined with the world's greatest drainage engineering far surpassing Venice -- along with millions of people who have lots of practice surviving hurricanes -- means that most people don't evacuate unless its mandatory. Everyone prepares. Windows are boarded up. Canned foods are stockpiled. Water is stashed. The community comes together, neighborhood-by-neighborhood.

Winter kills more people than hurricanes and tornadoes combined, but we who live in cold places learn to survive and even thrive.

Nobody's trying to diminish how bad these last two hurricanes were, especially in succession like that. It was bad.

But if one has never survived a hurricane -- never mind dozens of them like long-time Floridians have -- all the fear-mongering comes off as a little hysterical. It's a great big complicated world and people move places for lots of reasons. The big three being family, work, and family.

Before it was about once every 5 years and hurricanes haven’t been as bad as Helene and Milton.More people here are now talking about moving. I don’t see hiw anyone can be living in any of the islands and border islands anymore. Fort Myers beach has been devastated by 3 hurricanes.The one on there a year or so ago killed a bunch of people.

events are going to cause a shift of people moving from one state to another.

Demographic changes will significantly take place if these weather events keep on happening more frequently.

As humans, we are continually contributing to these drastic changes in our climate.

People freezing to death.

matter of what kind of weather you were brought up in. If you're from the Northeast, you can deal with the snow, and the cold. But now, we are seeing more extreme water patterns even in the Northeast. Each section of the US is seeing dramatic changes.

But, people are adapting to it, but there will be more drastic changes due to fossil fuels and oceans getting warmer which will increase more intense weather.

Scientists have been warning us for years, but apparently there are those among us who don't believe in climate change calling it a hoax and certain Congress members who don't believe it and prefer the next generation to deal with it unfortunately. Then there are those who would like to change the trajectory of climate change it would be all hands-on deck thing. No matter how you look at it or deal with it we are here. We need to keep the climate change policy and not dismantle it like in Project 2025.

Because that's how long the summers are in Florida. And people are about to start finding out in intimate detail what wet bulb temperatures are and how the lack of air conditioning can make them deadly.

Those 3 months were NOT consecutive.

trying to 'disuade' him from doing so now.

Too bad, they live in NJ.

And still probably cheaper than going to Florida.

We are MASSIVELY overdue for a big one.
At least you get almost a week’s warning a hurricane is coming.
An earthquake? Maybe your pets act strange for about 15 seconds, then WHAMMO.
I grew up right on the beach in Florida, so maybe I just like living dangerously.😎

I suppose somewhere in California, although if your in Alaska you're at even greater risk.

The biggest in Los Angeles history. Just a few miles from the epicenter. That was a 6.7 iirc.
My place survived because it was built on steel beams that extended 15 feet into the ground, surrounded by concrete. But I had 4 friends who had lost their homes and cars and lived with me for a few weeks.

I don’t know if you doubt me saying we are way overdue for a big one, check the July 2024 Atlantic, an article called “California is 150 Years Overdue for a Massive Earthquake“.

Last edited Thu Oct 10, 2024, 02:02 PM - Edit history (1)

exactly where you live matters a lot, as you well know.

Another thing to keep in mind about earthquakes on the west coast, is that the worst effects tend to be in relatively small areas. Unlike, say, one in the center of this country or on the east coast. The Charleston earthquake of 1886 was felt as far away as Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, and New Orleans. The series of New Madrid quakes 1811-12 were likewise felt and did damage very far away. I happen to be fascinated by earthquakes, although I slept through the only one I've ever been in an aftershock of the Northridge event.

Meanwhile, the very worst of the ones you get aren't felt very far away. I'm not downplaying the damage they do. Clearly it's fortunate that they tend to be limited in their area of damage.

Added on edit: depending on your level of interest, I will recommend the book "On Shaky Ground" by John J. Nance. I've read any number of books on earthquakes and the like, and this is, for me, the best. The first five chapters are about the Good Friday quake in 1964, which I'm old enough to well remember, although I lived many thousands of miles away then. Essentially it was the Good Friday quake that confirmed the theory of plate tectonics.

Florida is wonderful Nov-Apl, May-is so-so. June-Oct forget it. Hurricane season + heat.

I am in coastal Alabama, not far from the Florida state line. There used to be a rule of thumb that the months with the best weather here were October and April, where you would have pleasant days, lower humidity and the possibility of cool to brisk nights.

That is rare these days. The weather we used to get in April is now arriving in March. Plants are blooming sometimes before the end of February. And October's weather seems pushed back to November now.

WDW does allow you to go 🏠 home after you've spent all your money.
Or do you mean moving there permanently?

I think many dream of a bargain on a oceanfront or adjacent property after others are scared off for both natural disaster and other reasons, but damn if they would be able to insure it. Takes a lot of denial, like "WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE?"

some areas should just be ruled uninhabitable, everyone keeps bitching, nothing ever changes

You have a boat and you can see the Gulf or the Atlantic Ocean. People are in awe because you are living the dream and don’t let nature or politics enter because you don’t give a shit.

You have a boat and you can see the Gulf or the Atlantic Ocean. People are in awe because you are living the dream and don’t let nature or politics enter because you don’t give a shit.

Why else would people move to a place where you have to worry about alligators every time they are near the water?

See my post below this one.
MHI of $72k, average homeowners insurance of nearly 11 grand. That doesn't seem cheap.

That is ALMOST as big a fallicy as "Southern hospitality"

Didn't 2 big insurers quit writing policies there?
So people are moving there for no state income tax & then pay 6 to 10 times more for homeowners insurance?
I found this online:

I moved from NJ where my property taxes were $18,000 to NC where they are $1,600 for the same sized home. I don't know how property taxes are in Fla but I am guessing they are a lot lower than where many of these people came from.

I thought property taxes in NJ were 10% higher than here in Illinois. It's 2% here. (Really 3% of 2/3rds assessed value).
If property taxes in Illinois $18k in taxes would be on a $900,000 home.
The tax rate on FL is only 0.8%, so it is quite a bit lower.
But, using our home as an example (we have the senior & homestead discounts), we save $3k on taxes, but spend $9,300 more on insurance.
For us, it would be a net $675/month additional cost.

coming in to rebuild everything....

I used to say that Florida is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Now it's neither. All in all I prefer to live here in Wisconsin.
And when the climate changes, it will be nicer here year around. But here I don't need to worry about my house and everything I own potentially being destroyed every year.

and free rain

And worry if it'll be there when I go back.

Not why you don't live where you don't.

climate change making monster hurricanes and the need to evacuate every year from a coastal Florida home is not it.

And your question is certainly not what the OP is about.

And note, I didn't ask why you live where you do as I don't want to know.

Wasn't looking for personal info, either; and it's pretty easy to talk about why you live where you live without naming it.

as climate change makes monster hurricanes more and more frequent. Helene and Milton are back-to-back in a couple of weeks.

Got it now?

decision-making process with the experience of many people who live in Florida and have a similar decision-making process in common with you. But I get it; everyone likes to feel like their decisions will protect them, that the choices they've made are the ones that will ensure their safety, that they can control this terrifying world we live in. Twas ever thus.

where you don't risk hurricane damage or total destruction at worse.

and the weather is on the cool side in western NY, and I love the snow and I don't worry about my house being swept up in water or hurricane force winds.

One of the strongest weighted non-negotiable boxes for me was "not in an area with significant flood risk including conservative modelling for climate change for the next 100 years". That information is publicly available for most sizeably populated areas and has been for decades.

There may be some people who had no option other than to move to coastal Florida in the last 30 years (need to assist aging relatives, etc.) but I'm willing to bet most of the people who did had other options.

The problem is people are betting they will be bailed out and not have to face the consequences of their bad investment decisions. And I think a lot of those people once the magnitude of the costs becomes clear are in for a pretty rude awakening which, of course, will be the government's fault, not theirs.

I was thinking of moving up to the NC mountains to get away from all these hurricanes. After last week I'm not so sure. Pretty much anywhere you move, you're going to have to deal with some sort of potential natural disaster. At least with modern hurricane forecasting you have time to prepare. I don't know how to prepare for tornadoes or wildfires or earthquakes or tsunamis. Disaster can strike anywhere in the United States. We need more resilient infrastructure all over this country. We need a much better insurance system too. Homeowner's insurance companies have been fleeing Florida for over 20 years now. When my wife and I were homeowners we could only get Citizen's which is the insurance of last resort. The US government is going to have to claw back all those sweet tax breaks they handed out. We don't need greedy billionaires, we need housing. This is only going to get worse and I don't think it really matters where you live. If I'm going to get hit by a hurricane, I would rather be in South Florida than Asheville NC, where they're not used to hurricanes. Some folks will have to move, but I think our major cities should be fortified if possible. We can't move everyone. It's a complex problem that will require many different solutions. This all being said, if my rent goes up much higher, I will have to relocate or my employer is going to have to pay me more to stay here. I really don't want to leave South Florida. It has been my home since I was a child. I have had the pleasure of working in 18 different countries on 3 different continents, and as wonderful as the rest of the world is, this place is my home.

My parents had a condo on Ocean Blvd there and it was awesome. My mom cried when they sold it but they had to because there were assessments that really got huge to fix stuff like all of the balconies. Salt air takes it's toll. Anyway, I don't think people realize that while hurricanes are always hitting Florida, they don't hit in the same places and you can go a long time before being in the path of one. The big cement condo buildings do okay, even in those storms.

No thanks.

It's a big state and storms hit in different places each time. People can go decades without having to evac and wonder if their home will still be there. It's a risk/benefit calculation and it's such a beautiful environment that more move there than leave (unfortunately). I wouldn't live there because alligators but that's another issue.

Visited as a kid 5 yrs old in 1958. Flew in a prop plane.

I remember looking at a alligator pit at some site. Yes, my folks bought me a stuffed baby alligator. I liked reptiles.


Remember a bit - the ocean. Picking up shells.
Palm 🩷 trees! Had photo of me climbing up a very slanted palm tree trunk. 🥰
Other than guessing the east coast of Fla don't know where.

But it's too hot too much, I'm guessing a lot of humidity?!
Get enough in NYC Summers at times! Ugh!

Alligators are dicey, but I guess some people develope a "sixth sense" about them; sort keeping a eye out for further movement on the ground!
Amazedby the falling, stuporfied iguanas when the temps hit ?40°F.

when one keeps hearing about lowering taxes.

I guess Santa's elves will repair the infrastructure.

Over the last 10 years Florida Power and Light has been upgrading all of the power poles in our area. The old wooden ones have been replaced with large concrete pillars designed to withstand hurricane winds. Many of the roads in south Florida are being built up. Even Miami Beach has raised the levels of some of its streets. The building codes in Miami Dade County were revised after Hurricane Andrew hit in the early 90s. If we could just vote all the useless and corrupt republicans out of our government things might move even faster. Infrastructure week has been happening under the Biden Administration. TFG couldn't even build the wall he promised.

Unless you want to live some shitty area, like any place else. Along the coast, cities or beach towns, is expensive as hell.

It's different for folks who have been born there or lived most of their lives there, but to DELIBERATELY MOVE to coastal Florida NOW????
Makes no sense at all.

I don’t feel as alive anywhere else as i did on gulf coat beaches that i was raised with. Walking along an empty stretch of sand on an overcast day, sunbeams streaming down through openings in the clouds..nothing compares. Canoeing at Myakka and seeing the roseate spoonbills, nothing compares. Tubing down a crystal clear springs river with overhanging trees, stunning. The blue-green waters of longboat key, a jewel. Windsurfing alongside dolphins, awesome.

It was a place of beauty whether you were rich or poor, when i was growing up.

To a coastal part of the state I mean?

A cinder block house, and vacationing elsewhere for hurricane season.

Does anything else matter?


And the AARP agrees.
https://states.aarp.org/florida/state-taxes-guide

Florida State Tax Guide: What You’ll Pay in 2024

By Sharon Waters, Grace Dickinson, February 09, 2024 10:10 AM

Florida is one of the most tax-friendly states for older workers and retirees. It’s one of just seven states that don’t collect personal income tax, allowing residents to benefit from tax-free pensions and retirement pay, along with no state taxes on Social Security or investment income. Florida also doesn’t have an inheritance or estate tax.

shame. Home shaming. We allmoved where we move for many many reasons. We each are individuals. So I'm with Tim Walz, "mind your own damn business". Ft

The people who decided against moving there or who lived there and already moved out or are actively working on moving have accepted climate change as real.

"We allmoved where we move for many many reasons"

Climate change should be at the top of the many reasons why a person moves to a certain location.

For you, because it's your top concern. Other people, obviously, it's not. You can only make decisions for you. We all have to calculate our own risks and benefits.

And people are free to either accept that climate change is real or that it is not.

while living in or moving to Florida. It may not be a priority or something that negates what someone considers the pros. There are over 22 million in that state so lots of different beliefs and ideas.

on properties that are seeing such an uptick in risk. That is another connected question!

These properties are going to be increasingly harder to insure....

Insurance on homes in coastal Florida are increasingly harder to get total coverage on, some are not insured.

That's a risk if hit by a hurricane.

have an income tax here either, but I probably saw that on a streaming service.

My thinking about that is how do states with no income tax do with disaster preparedness compared to states that do? If there is a big difference and unprepared states suck up more of our federal funding something should be done about that.

Blue states. Since there’s no state income tax in Florida many people wanted to move to Florida for lowers taxes. They didn’t really figure the 10 k to 20k in homeowner’s insurance.

As a Democrat I tend to favor progressive taxation, but SALT was something Americans depended on for decades. They didn’t mind paying higher taxes to get better schools and better services so long as they had the write-off.

Although removal of SALT was designed to hurt blue states it also hurt me in Florida because my taxes and insurance are more than 10k even without state income taxes.

Beyond the no-state income taxes, Florida appeals to right wingers. If you don’t believe in climate change or paying taxes, what’s not to like?

Ever listen to Jimmy Buffett? That ocean and those beaches have a soul appeal that it’s hard to deny. Most people just visit and love it but sometimes it’s just your heart. I grew up on the MS coast and am now in love with the WA coast. Very different but somehow the same. Also it’s warm in winter and cheap. Snowbirds and retirees are a real thing. And they can’t easily pull up and leave.

But these storms came every few years and bad ones like these every 20 or so. It’s heartbreaking. It’s such a loss.

Not down here in the summer. Some people only spend a few weeks because they have several homes and they have “their people” fix it all up - or rebuild - no muss, no fuss. Those are mainly hedge fund managers who have all the money in the world to spend. In the totally upscale neighborhoods right on the beach in Naples the homes are all worth 2O million and over. One mansion after another. It’s sickening really. Then there’s the “regular people” who either live paycheck to paycheck, will never be able to retire. Also people who are somewhat wealthy but do not have the money to keep rebuilding over and over again. Gawd- that reminds me how much I hate much of Naples! The only reason we stay is our jobs and owning a humble condo - which we’re very lucky to have been able to get.

where is safe?

Seriously! I live in Central Texas, we do not get affected much by hurricanes, but we live in the south that is sometimes affected by tornadoes and hail during the spring seasons.

Our insurance rates have gone up to incredibly high to almost unaffordable rates.

Where do you suggest I just pick up and move?

Where is this mythical place that has no weather issues and affordable insurance rates?

Last edited Thu Oct 10, 2024, 02:17 AM - Edit history (1)

I wouldn't do coastal Florida though.

without flood insurance! If I had any urge to spend part of the year there, I'd buy a travel trailer and drag it in and drag it out. If a hurricane showed up, I'd drag it out. At this point, I don't even want to go to Florida on vacation, so I'll just stay up here in New England and enjoy foliage season.

My mother always wanted to live near the ocean. Last year she moved from PA to SC. She's 2 blocks from the beach. She doesn't worry too much about hurricanes. There's no escape from natural disasters anywhere, most people seem to think, and life is too short to not live as you want to. YMMV.

They can get coastal land here for a fraction of what it'd be anyplace else, so the dumbshits go for it. 30 years ago we went to the Keys for vacation and seriously considered moving there - it was so cool and laid back at the time. We were talking to real estate folks, seriously considering this, when we went to a restaurant that had a wall of pictures. It showed Key West and Marathon after a huge hurricane in the 1930's tore apart everything, it looked like matchstick villages that someone shook up. The bridges were all out and the train couldn't get there because those tracks were destroyed too. I was looking at them, just staring really, when a local came up and said their parents had lived through that and how hard it was when they had no electricity for months. We decided then and there that we would skip moving there, Jax where I grew up and my family lived was much safer and I could help my mom with dad.

Why do so many have access to this same info yet decide to live on the coast in areas that routinely get hit with big storms - I don't understand it, not at all.

At least, judging by the number of properties for sale where my mother-in-law lives. It looks like a lot of people are selling and getting out of SW Florida.