Despite hurricanes, Florida is still a very good bet. It is arguably the best-managed state in the country. It has a succession of very good governors, including the current one, Ron DeSantis, who by almost any measure has done an outstanding job.
The State has no income tax, but manages to run a surplus, while providing a high level of government services, including school choice. For the most part, the State is very business friendly and welcoming, with less red tape. It has a history of relatively low levels of government corruption, and is serious about providing a high level of law and order. Florida provides a non-discriminatory environment when it comes to gender, race, color, or religion, without resorting to wokeness.
Florida has a great climate (with exceptions of July, August and September – that are hot and muggy – prompting knowledgeable Floridians to take their vacations elsewhere during those months). Florida is more than 400 miles north to south – so those who like cool but not cold winters will be happy in North Florida while those who like warm but not hot winters will find living in South Florida more to their taste.
My great grandfather moved from Western New York State to Bradenton, Florida about a century ago, and my grandparents also retired to Bradenton. My parents lived in St. Petersburg, where I graduated from high school. Subsequently, I lived in both Tallahassee in far north Florida and now in Miami for part of the year.
The big disadvantage of living in Florida is hurricanes, and it also lacks mountains – but has some of the world’s best beaches. During the last couple of weeks, TV visuals have been filled with destroyed houses and other structures, prompting some to say, “I would never live there.” Everyplace has some good and some bad – but the bad in Florida (hurricanes) can be largely mitigated by good modern engineering. Most of the houses that were destroyed or heavily damaged were one story built near the water or in a low-laying area.
Lesson # 1 – either build or buy a one story on ground high enough where flooding is most unlikely, or build a multi-story structure where the bottom floor is only used for parking and utilities. The current south Florida building code mandates (for the past thirty years) that in structures near the water or in low areas the living spaces be high enough to avoid almost all sea surges or other likely flooding. Avoid building or buying wooden structures – only re-enforced concrete will give the necessary protection against wind and water (and also fire and bugs). Concrete construction is usually about 15 percent more expensive than wooden stick built, but the savings in insurance, with higher deductibles and greater peace of mind will easily make up the difference.
Again, look at the news photos or videos and notice that almost all multistory concrete structures – even on the barrier islands off St. Petersburg, Bradenton, Sarasota, etc. – survived without catastrophic damage.
Lesson # 2 – buy a generator powerful enough to keep your communications equipment and refrigerator operative for a week or so. Everyone knows that being without power is a real pain, and the improvements in generators (whether gas, propane, battery and solar) have made them increasing cost-effective – and often life-saving.
Lesson # 3 – understand the odds of a catastrophic event (wildfires, earthquakes, landslides, ice and snowstorms, wars, etc.) occurring wherever. The probability of a hurricane hitting Florida in any given year is high, but the probability of a hurricane hitting a specific point in Florida in a given year (with very high winds and catastrophic flooding) is low. For instance, for decades my parents owned a home built on an artificial island (with sand pumped up from the bay bottom between St. Petersburg and the barrier islands). The land was created and the house built in the 1950s. The house was one story, with a dock and swimming pool, probably about six feet above mean high tide, and suffered no serious damage until now (a period of about 70 years – about double the time for tax depreciation).
We all knew that the house would eventually be destroyed by a storm – and my father bet it would not happen in his life-time (he passed away a few years ago) so he won the bet. The current owners put substantial money into updating and improving the house, after only owning it for a couple of years – they lost the bet.
Tampa Bay had not experienced a storm surge higher than the one three weeks ago since 1923. The record was back in 1842 (to the extent that such records can be relied upon). These early surges were all before the current “global warming.”
Many people like to live on the water. Florida has a finite number of miles of buildable waterfront land, so waterfront land appreciates at a faster rate than non-waterfront. New waterfront buildable lots were increasing in Florida until about 1970 or so when the government stopped allowing the creation of new islands and “fingers” into the bays surrounding the State – restricting the supply of waterfront land and causing its price to soar – thus justifying the increased cost of hurricane-proof construction. The safe bet is, despite hurricanes, the relative price of waterfront will continue to grow.
