Will people leave Florida after Hurricane Helene?

I would imagine that property values will be much lower after the clean-up , and [as already said] insurance rates will be sky-high. Those two facts alone will likely slow the desire to move there.

I know it did for me. My father lived there for 23 years, went through a few hurricanes , and I saw the aftermath in his surrounding area [he was actually lucky]. But I also heard of his insurance rates , and this was 30+ years ago.

It kept me from moving there.
 
There is probably a spectrum of people ranging from those seeing it as idiocy to those seeing it as a paradise. Of course this has nothing to do with whether it's worth it or not.
 
I read a disaster novel once (and I cannot, no matter how hard I try, remember the name of the novel or find it again) about the near-future when hurricanes are constant.....one right after another, year-round.

Because the lower part of the southeast and the gulf coast are now uninhabitable and unable to be maintained, the United States Government has declared that nobody can live below the Mason-Dixon Line. Living there is a criminal offence. Of course, there are still many people there for various reasons. Anyone staying behind cannot get any help, rescue, etc. from government agencies. They're on their own.

One group of baddies are convinced they can dig out the casinos during the short few days between hurricanes to get all the money that was left behind. Other people are there to escape justice or to have their own little fiefdoms.

The protagonist won't leave the area because his wife and children died there and he suffers from "survivor guilt". He, of course, runs afoul of the baddies and thus the story......

If I can ever find it again, I'd definitely read it again. It might make a thrilling movie.
 
Difficult to answer. There are so many factors to take into consideration. I watched quite a lot of videos and read so many reports on this subject.
Quite a few people left Florida after Ian. Others decided to stay and rebuild. (It reminds me of New Orleans after Katrina)
Then you have the insurance problem. Either they are not able to insure their property or the rates are too high. The insurance companies in Florida made sure to give the politicians great financial support during their campaign. They also were able to substantially increase our rates in the past few years. Also, please see the segment on YouTube that 60 minutes just published on insurance companies scamming Floridians.
Then we have the homeless population that is growing rapidly due to the rise of housing costs. A last report on that was done by the University of Central Florida that follows the growing homeless population in Orlando. One of the reports estimates that the homeless population grew enormously this past year in Orlando.
On October 1, 2024 sleeping or camping on public property in Florida will no longer be allowed by local governments or municipalities and homeless camping areas must be set up to accommodate homeless people.
Another problem will be the aging condos along the coasts. These people can no longer afford their HOA fees(increased maintenance costs, insurance, etc...)
Then, there is the FEMA budget that cannot support all these disasters.
I think some of those factors will influence people to leave the state however, there are weather problems a little bit all over the USA. So, is moving really the answer?
 
I also wanted to add that they keep on building!
If you look at Realtor.com they give you a map to locate a property, on the index you can see if the property is in a flood zone. 1/10 is good, the rest is not. D R Horton for ex. is building in Panama City, FL a brand new subdivision where ALL the homes are at least a 5 or 6/10 flood. How is that even allowed?
 
seadoug said:
This is certainly not the first major hurricane to pass through SW Florida. Hurricane Ian basically devastated the region a few years ago. Now, Helene has caused further devastation. This is an interesting perspective.

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Nope. I doubt it. I'm guessing this spud wasn't in Florida back in 2004. I was and we got hit with 4 hurricanes back to back over a 6 week period. ( Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne). They caused more than $45 billion in damages and dumped 30 inches of rainfall.
Didn't cause mass leaving and property values haven't gone down yet. The only hiccup in values was the financial disaster in 2008.
 
Eventually, as the climate continues to warm, most of Florida will be under water. So will nearly every Gulf/Atlantic coastal city from Houston to Boston. None of us alive today will see that, but in another 1 to 2 hundred years, the US will lose much of its coastal landmass, and Millions will have to migrate inland, and leave trillions of dollars of property behind,
 
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Sure, some of those that are wealthy enough to move elsewhere, living within inadequately strong coastal residential construction that are now afraid the odds of being hit by new climate change era, strong hurricanes will eventually destroy their homes.

People will be able to live in hurricane prone coastal areas as long as elevations are above estimated climate change current lifetime era sea rise ranges and they use hurricane proof construction like reinforced steel, insulated concrete. Issue is for cost reasons, home construction for economic and political reasons, has usually built using least expensive wood and wall board materials. During all these destructive hurricanes, one will note plenty of buildings that withstood those storms right beside those that did not.
 
Don M. said:
Eventually, as the climate continues to warm, most of Florida will be under water. So will nearly every Gulf/Atlantic coastal city from Houston to Boston. None of alive today will see that, but in another 1 to 2 hundred years, the US will lose much of its coastal landmass, and Millions will have to migrate inland, and leave trillions of dollars of property behind,
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Do you suppose this will affect the pacific coast as well? Property that's under water and uninhabitable isn't likely to be worth trillions of dollars, the value will diminish gradually as the water level rises until it's essentially worthless.
 
Most of our North American Pacific Coast shores unlike the Atlantic or Gulf shores are well above sea level on high marine terraces. What are at sea level are immediate seaport areas of large coastal cities. So not much residential.
 
squatting dog said:
Nope. I doubt it. I'm guessing this spud wasn't in Florida back in 2004. I was and we got hit with 4 hurricanes back to back over a 6 week period. ( Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne). They caused more than $45 billion in damages and dumped 30 inches of rainfall.
Didn't cause mass leaving and property values haven't gone down yet. The only hiccup in values was the financial disaster in 2008.
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I was as well. I lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. We left our condo in North Miami Beach and drove up to Tampa. Turns out it headed way South but areas like South Miami were devastated. We also lived in South Florida during two major hurricanes in 2005. Wilma swept 21 roof tiles off our house and downed a two-story tree. I just got tired of having no electricity, having stoplights out when trying to navigate to work and having no grocery stores open. We got hit in November, sold our house in December and moved to Dallas.

The circumstances were right for us. Real estate was at the top of the bubble, houses in South Florida were going for ridiculous prices and housing was still affordable in Dallas. Although we have relatives in Jacksonville and Miami, I would never move back to Florida.
 
My son was living in Miami when hurricane Andrew came through. When he returned from evacuation he found the swimming pool was so full of green debris that it looked like a giant salad.
 
Don M. said:
Eventually, as the climate continues to warm, most of Florida will be under water. So will nearly every Gulf/Atlantic coastal city from Houston to Boston. None of us alive today will see that, but in another 1 to 2 hundred years, the US will lose much of its coastal landmass, and Millions will have to migrate inland, and leave trillions of dollars of property behind,
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In the meantime and for those of us with only a few years left, if you're near or at the coast - - - enjoy it.
 
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