Based on the prices in San Francisco, the chance of a major natural disaster has little impact on people's home buying decisions except in their immediate aftermath.

Why not? I could see a bit of concern if the house was right on the waterfront in Coconut Grove, but most of the houses in Florida are still standing and are not flooded. My wife and I owned a house on the UCF side of Orlando which handled multiple hurricanes before we purchased it and is still in good condition after Irma. We no longer own it (the laws in Florida favor renters over owners so we sold it a few years ago), but we would definitely buy another house if we decide to move back to FL.

There are plenty of reasons to not buy in Montana, California (wildfires), Texas, Oklahoma (tornadoes), South Carolina and Tennessee (Ice storms), Connecticut (have you seen the taxes there!), if one wants to be picky. Just buy where you want and deal with what Mother Nature and the Government throws at you. If you don't like the environment, then pick another place.

if you head south after Thanksgiving (US) then there is low risk of any hurricane. Have good insurance, and strong built in storm shutters to prevent damage and theft when you are not there.

I'd be more concerned with the quality of home if he is worried about hurricanes. In Bermuda, hurricanes have minimal damage on homes because of the qualify of the buildings. I'd also be more concerned with flooding so build/buy accordingly.

If the price was right (including proper insurance) I would. I'd rather move to FL than go back to CA.

Seems like winter's not too bad. It is just too humid for my wife. If I did buy one, it would have to be a bit off of the waterfront.....

Yes I would. Mother Nature does not scare me.

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DISH is how we do it.

So long as you're in Central Florida there's no need to worry about storm surge. Otherwise just buy a well-built home and invest in storm shutters. The winters here are lovely :)

Honestly, the news sensationalizes hurricanes. Sometimes that's called for. Very slight changes to Irma's path could have turned it into a once-in-a-century monster so getting people to evacuate from the coasts was smart. However if you search for damage to "Jacksonville Beach" you'll see photos of homes in the water when, in reality, the homes that were damaged were built on pilings that were practically IN the ocean. 95%+ of the other structures were unscathed.

No.

Could you briefly explain renters advantage over ownership in FL. Is it the CDD for new development? I was looking at ponte vedra on one side and Sarasota on the other. Any insights and how is clermont on west side of Orlando? Thanks

Never, I hate flat, humid, hot, and blue haired dominated communities. I would surf there and maybe have dinner, thats about it. I must have raced there 20+ times in my career, didn't ever see a spot I would like to ever live..

Pretty much my take as well. Lived in Gainesville for a little over three years, saw a fair bit of the state, hope never to live there again. There were a few good parts about living in FL but nowhere near enough to outweigh the bad parts for me.

Wow. I'm surprised at the optimism of most of the responses. I don't believe that these recent hurricanes are "hundred year events" but are in fact will be getting more frequent and stronger in the future. And I don't care what Trump or the Koch brothers are saying. I read a recent worst case scenario (but backed by climate scientists) that predicts a lot of Florida coast line could be under water before 2100 or so, even displacing a significant part of Miami and other major coastal areas. For sure, the Keys could likely be gone. I'll be dead long before then, but I wouldn't by Florida real estate as something to pass on to the grandchildren.

Just curious - did Trump's place get hit? Has anybody heard?

I am a SW FL Florida (Ft Myers) resident. I have two houses, a large two story rental built in 2005 and my primary two story built in 2002. Both went through the eye of Irma ( the 2002 does not have hurricane shutters) The 2005 house did not have any damage other than a down tree in the yard. The 2002 house lost some facia and soffit on one side. It also suffered a little roof leakage. All and all I was expecting the worse for the 2002 house but it survived and even got power 27 hours after the eye was over the house.

Neither house is in a primary flood zone although we bugged out when I heard the mandatory evacuations for flood zone A 48 hours before impact. Flood zone B got notified to evacuate with only 30 hours before the storm hit. We are in flood zone C which was not evacuated but without storm shutters we left any way. There is a lot of flooding of streets in inland areas of SW FL right now.

It was pretty surreal to have my neighbor text me pic of my small amount of house damage while he was standing in the calm of the eye of the storm. I was elated to see only minimal damage.

Sure it's like Cuba but with personal freedom and a lack of human rights violations. Drinks do cost more though.

Pick a place and I can tell why to not live there. If your buddy wants to move he should. If there's a hurricane a'coming just evacuate and go get his poutine fix.

Was wondering when you were going to show up with this. Waaaaaay tooooo predictable.

Unless it turns out to be just a Chinese economic plot, global warming is fucking up my retirement plans. We are/were planning to spend winter retirement years on the island. The north part of the island really got hit hard. Despite the politics you will never meet nicer people. We love the place and the Cuban people even if the government sucks.

All the talk about Florida, some of the Caribbean islands really got hit hard and they have to import everything by boat or flight. At least Florida can get everything by truck on the interstate.

only if it were right up against the everglades

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sometimes

The tricky part is that among scientists who all agree about climate change, the variation in projected sea level rise is presently huge, depending mostly on climate in Antarctica. The best case scenarios predict less than a foot of sea level rise by 2100, and that is just as plausible as 5 foot rise (given what we presently know). Notice that I am completely ignoring all "deniers".

Well, that wasn't the question! There may be some long-term downside in South Florida, which could leave legacy property values underwater. (Get it?)

No, but it has nothing to do with hurricanes. Get those here in Houston. We enjoy a world classes arts scene, and there aren't many cities in the US that can make that list. Disasters? That's what insurance is for.

There could be some great future opportunities for scuba diving businesses. :-)

Nope. Too hot, too humid and too many bugs. Even without the hurricane threat it would not be a place I'd like to live.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

All of you are missing this is a second home. So I take that as snowbirds coming for the winter. Florida is great in the winter months. Sure no mountains, but you have waves and sunsets.

The mountains and winter sports is one of the biggest reasons Florida has zero appeal for me.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

No, the only part of Florida I'd consider moving to is Naples and I'm not a Fortune 500 CEO so it's probably not happening. If I could do it I would as long as it was a second home giving me somewhere to go in the summer and of course when another 100 year storm hits.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

In FL, renters cannot be held responsible for the damage the cause as much as other states. They also cannot be evicted as efficiently as in other states. An owner has less rights all the way around in FL than in other states excepting California and a few other left leaning states. The wording in the laws is subtle, but the effects on owner's rights is not.

If you needed pink to see the first part was tongue in cheek I don't know to say big boy.

Yes they are great people hence I'd like them to have basic rights

You admit the government sucks, that's a step forward

As a long term investment - maybe not- but as an investment in health and happiness- why not?

My parents had a trailer on Sanibel Island- it went through Charlie and lost one screen. They have so many great memories as do we of that trailer. It was a second home. If it was lost it would have been a pain - but manageable. My in-laws on the other hand will talk for decades about wanting a second home but will never get past the risk even though they could afford it easier. Guess which couple is more likely to smile, crack a joke and offer you a drink? Now that my parents have health issues I am so happy they got to enjoy 15 years walking on the beach and watching sunsets. They love that island.

So, if I could afford it and wanted to I see no reason to avoid an entire state.

I am in coconut grove, about 0.5 miles from the water but more importantly, 15 feet above sea level. Luckily my house is fine other than lots of debris. i can say firsthand that if we'd had a cat 4 or 5 that lasted that long, miami would be a true disaster zone. the morning after irma, i went on my usual run and took my iphone. eventually i just quit taking pictures when i realized that every block had massive trees down. it is simply unreal.

having said all that, i have no plans to move. i love the Grove.

No and it has nothing to do with hurricanes. You'd have to pay me to live there.

Seriously. Too much crazy shit happens in Florida.

I feel the same way. To me Florida is a big swamp that they have partially drained.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I live in Sarasota and while the wife and I sat on the couch awaiting Irma I showed her a video I pulled up of the some 100 mile winds i think where in the keys or maybe near Miami. She dead panned me and said that the snow squalls in Ottawa were worse.

We got lucky because Mightygators houses slowed Irma down a bit and she went further east of us. If she came straight up the coast as per the models suggested(on their 100th iteration which was wrong also)we would of been hurtin.

I am not sure why anyone would want to live in the middle of Florida. There are no beaches and the sea breeze in the afternoon does keep the costs a bit cooler in the afternoon.

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Yes

Supposed to do tri at LBK in October, everything ok? I like to bike run ar benderson did it stay above water? Thanks....and when I asked realtors there some months ago when was last big hurricane to hit Sarasota they said it was long ago....what say you as potential retirement location?

We like visiting Florida but would not want to live there, even seasonally.

Mother Nature is about the only thing that scares me.

I have lived here my entire life and see no reason to leave. This is where people come to vacation. It is getting crowded but if you don't like crowds go to Detroit. Btw I sell commercial real estate so I need more ppl to come here.

It has been a long time since we got a direct hit. We have been in the cross-hairs of Charley in 2005 and now Irma but they veer off at the last minute. People claim that it because of old Indian burial grounds or the white quartz on the beaches. I'm sure it just comes down to our geographical location. A storm needs to go into the gulf and take a hard right to get a direct hit on us.

I haven't been out there yet but have heard of no trouble on Longboat and there is a lot of money out there so any issue will be fixed quickly. Benderson got some flooding but dried out pretty fast. Only real issues I saw was the toppling of 50 or more 20' Palms that they planted for the World Rowing Championships in 10 days. Most of the trees were stood back up by this morning.

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Yes

Same here, have been to different parts of the state for vacation, work, races and visiting family. Some very nice spots but none that would appeal to me enough to move.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler