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Would you buy a house in Florida?
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My best friend is just retiring and for many years he always talked about purchasing a 2nd home in Florida for the winter when he retired. He now tells me he's just scratched the idea off his list. Can't say I blame him but what impact would hurricanes or other disasters have on your house purchase location?
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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If the price was right (including proper insurance) I would. I'd rather move to FL than go back to CA.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.....
Last edited by: oldandslow: Sep 12, 17 14:50
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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Yes I would. Mother Nature does not scare me.


_____________________________________
DISH is how we do it.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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No.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [vecchia capra] [ In reply to ]
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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
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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..
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [monty] [ In reply to ]
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monty wrote:
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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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?
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
Last edited by: Mightygator: Sep 12, 17 17:35
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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windywave wrote:
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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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only if it were right up against the everglades

sometimes
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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I read a recent worst case scenario....

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".

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but I wouldn't by Florida real estate as something to pass on to the grandchildren.
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?)
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [oldandslow] [ In reply to ]
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oldandslow wrote:
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I read a recent worst case scenario....


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".

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but I wouldn't by Florida real estate as something to pass on to the grandchildren.

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?)

There could be some great future opportunities for scuba diving businesses. :-)
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.

Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [Tri2HaveFun] [ In reply to ]
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Tri2HaveFun wrote:
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.

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.
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [patf] [ In reply to ]
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patf wrote:
Tri2HaveFun wrote:
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.

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.

Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!
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Re: Would you buy a house in Florida? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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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.

"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... "
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