I still want to retire to Florida as a snowbird, but it will make me pay more attention the type of house I buy.

Anonymous wrote:Are you asking this because of the hurricane?
You do realize they have had hurricanes before and people who move there know the risks.
Just like people who move to California know the risks of earthquakes and those that move to Oklahoma know the risks of tornadoes.

Of course it is on the list... for some people.
It is a very retirement-friendly state.

I am from Florida. Hurricanes are a part of life, just like you would expect summers to be awful in DC, you expect hurricanes during hurricane season. They come every single year. We have close calls every single year. This year is no exception.

That said - I do think that people are rethinking the whole FEMA flood insurance subsidy. People who live in coastal areas pay artificially low insurance premiums, as they are subsidized by taxpayers.

It's really not fair that people choose to live in floodzones and expect others to bail them out when they are flooded. And get massive insurance subsidies in the meantime.

Anonymous wrote:Sink holes and hurricanes. No thanks!

A**holes and jerks that don't know how to post on public fora only one time. No thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was never on ours.

+1

+2 for various reasons, but I suspect the frequency of these big storms is only going get worse, both in FL and elsewhere in the world. It's going to be harder and harder to find a place with a relatively stable climate.

Anonymous wrote:Was never on ours.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have lived all over the world and will definitely retire in Florida! We love living here and can't wait to live here all the time. Right now we are still back and forth between Florida and D.C. We are coastal in Ponte Vedra. The hurricane damage is pretty awful all over Ponte Vedra, St Augustine, and Jax. But we have power again! Very minimal damage to our home. The screen on the lanai is torn. The pool looks gross - not sure what's going on there. Our yard is a mess. But no flooding inside and no damage to the house. Newer homes in Florida are built to withstand hurricane force winds. We are up high enough that flooding isn't an issue even though we back up to water. This storm has had zero affect on our decision to stay.

Ponte Vedra is hellish. You couldn't pay me to live in a gated community.

Also, just an FYI "zero effect" not "zero affect". Although after a few years of golfcourse living and botox you probably have zero affect as well.

You don't sound like a very nice person. I hope whatever is going on in your life gets better. And I mean that sincerely. Bitter and angry is not a great way to go through life.

Sink holes and hurricanes. No thanks!

Hubby wants to reconsider after last week but I'm not convinced....think about it, had we moved 20 years ago (right after Andrew), we would have 20+ years of beautiful weather to enjoy year-round. I know it only takes one to decimate a city but unless these Cat 3+ hurricanes start happening back to back over the next 10 years, that's where we are headed.

PP here with a condo in Naples.
I'll spend several, maybe even 6 months and a day, here when I retire.
The weather, hurricanes aside, is generally very nice. We live on the beach and it's beautiful. Sunsets are amazing.
We have a very nice complex (Venetian Village, for those that go to Naples) right behind us that we walk to for dinner some evenings. The restaurants are beyond numerous and cover every budget you can imagine.
But the one thing no one has mentioned yet is that Florida has no state income tax. This is no small advantage. I live in NY and all of us here pay dearly in taxes. I actually don't have a huge issue with paying my fair share. I do take issue with the way that NY pisses away my money.
So, do I want to retire to Florida? Yes. Hell yes.
Rant over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the place is a swamp. Barely habitable even without the hurricanes.

Further evidence:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/health/florida-nursing-home-deaths/index.html

"At least 5 dead in Florida nursing home left with no A/C after Irma"

We are talking about a place where you die if the electricity is cut off. That is somewhere with a bad climate, not somewhere with a good climate!

I live in a place in the Pacific Northwest where it was over 100 degrees for- I don't know- two weeks total this summer? So many days of being over 90, and a lot of places here don't have AC at all.

I don't think it's a sign of particularly bad weather that people die when there's no AC- it's fairly common for the most vulnerable and elderly. Just that most places have AC now so we don't actually see that

Why would anyone ever want to live in FL anyway? Hurricanes aside.

Many of the retirement homes have back up generators and even emergency water supplies.

If this is a concern for you - check.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the place is a swamp. Barely habitable even without the hurricanes.

Further evidence:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/health/florida-nursing-home-deaths/index.html

"At least 5 dead in Florida nursing home left with no A/C after Irma"

We are talking about a place where you die if the electricity is cut off. That is somewhere with a bad climate, not somewhere with a good climate!

So, that means that you are also ruling out any colder areas. If you live in New York, Boston, Minneapolis-St Paul, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and many other cities, if you lose power in the winter, you'll freeze to death. Actually, those places are more dangerous. Winter freezing happens every year for weeks at a time. Hurricanes only hit Florida a few days out of each year and most of them do not stop power. I would guess that Florida loses power less often than most of the northern cities. Certainly it seems like our friends here in Pepco land lose power a LOT more than our family and friends in Florida do. Additionally most houses in Florida are well designed for ventilation. Nursing homes have a lot of interior rooms and limited air flow without power. Houses will do better. There were no heat related deaths in homes.

Anonymous wrote:We have lived all over the world and will definitely retire in Florida! We love living here and can't wait to live here all the time. Right now we are still back and forth between Florida and D.C. We are coastal in Ponte Vedra. The hurricane damage is pretty awful all over Ponte Vedra, St Augustine, and Jax. But we have power again! Very minimal damage to our home. The screen on the lanai is torn. The pool looks gross - not sure what's going on there. Our yard is a mess. But no flooding inside and no damage to the house. Newer homes in Florida are built to withstand hurricane force winds. We are up high enough that flooding isn't an issue even though we back up to water. This storm has had zero affect on our decision to stay.

Ponte Vedra is hellish. You couldn't pay me to live in a gated community.

Also, just an FYI "zero effect" not "zero affect". Although after a few years of golfcourse living and botox you probably have zero affect as well.

We've been spending the winters in Naples the past six years. Generally from late October to mid-May the weather has been wonderful. Pre-Irma the last big storm there was in 2005. When Irma was bearing down it did make me think about what we would do if we lost our house completely because it would take 2-3 years to rebuild. But I'm not a desert person, I don't like California, I hate the cold and that narrows my options. Fortunately, we had no real damage so back to Naples we will go.