Considered a purchase down there but this real estate appraiser has pulled the plug and will look at long term rentals until things settle down. Unfortunatly I don't know that they will, the insurance situation will likely continue to have significant impacts. The economic dempgraphics of Fla will put a damper on many that COULD afford to live there. As noted the investors are there in mass post storms and the regs will force the traditional buyer out b/c of the expenses. I certainly cannot afford to self-insure from a risk standpoint unless I buy inland and even those I believe will be more impacted in the future. The Insurance companies like them or not in many cases have taken major hits b/c of issues un-related to Fla and the reserves they are required to carry have been hit and traditional ins tables have to deal with the projections of run-away infaltion with respect to replacement costs. Billions lost in Tex from the Ice storm/power outages a few years ago, NC/SC/Ten flooding recently, significant commerical losses to cities burnt and vandilized from the riots, not to mention the fires and Cali which was and is an accounting of major loses. Cali is currently on fire again and some of the burning neighborhoods don't even have water in the hydrants, a state run by moroons as part of the problem among other states and "we the people" are forced to pay for encompetent state govenerning bodies that refuse to change. Please don't shoot the messanger to the starter of this post, I hope you find something that will work for ya.

I have a house in the yacht club area of Cape Coral, I am Canadian. Before Ian I was paying $6k per year for homeowners only with a liability top up, since 2013. Ian comes along and put 4" of water in the house, I go at it and repair everything for 30k. I don't make a claim as I'm afraid of getting dropped. Fast forward 2 years and I get a call from my insurance company politely asking "how are you since Ian, did you have any damage?" I say nope, we were good, thanks for the call! 2 weeks later I get a letter cancelling me.... Now I have nothing which drives me crazy, I'm good with no flood but i'd really like to be covered for fire and if some drunk slips in my driveway but I can't even get a broker to return my call.

Your issue is exactly my concern. It's one thing to be able to self-insure a home for flood damage if prices continue down and you buy it at a reasonable price. It's quite another if you cannot even get liability insurance on that home for any occurrence. That's my big worry about buying anything on a barrier island like Anna Maria. My wife and I love that island but it's still crazy expensive and I fear that one day they just announce that ground-level homes on barrier islands are no longer in code and thus no longer insurable until the homes are brought up to code. To be honest I would not think that unreasonable or even unlikely given the losses these insurance co's have endured in the past few years. If these hurricanes continue at the current pace over the next few seasons I would almost predict that. Hopefully they don't continue.

From the look of it at least canal homes in Cape Coral are still somewhat affordable compared to Anna Maria. We were just off of Chiquita down by Cape Harbor. Insurance really wasn't an issue when we bought in 2010, but by the time we sold in 2017 it had tripled - without any hurricanes hitting Florida at all in our 7 years. I cannot imagine how much flood insurance has increased since 2017 - especially since the value of the homes have doubled since then - and because it likely flooded during Ian.

Good luck on getting insurance. Keep us updated please.

State Farm has me for fire and liability on a few of the Florida houses. About 25% of what they were with wind and flood. I also have 20K deductibles to mitigate the premium.--friends were sued by a lawn guy who ran himself over on their property and was awarded 1.2M (claimed their yard was too rough for his mower). Liberal judges and thirsty attorneys are a really bad combination in this country.

Joe

Purchase Prices in our condo community have plummeted 10-15% in the last year mean while hoa fees have almost tripled since 2020.

This stupid mandate that Desantis put in effect for condos over 3 stories is killing us in reserves and inspections and values.

So stupid that one old poorly maintained 20 story condo on the beach dictates the condition of every other condo over 2 stories. Our 30 yo building 3 miles inland is 3 stories and doesn’t have a skyscraping condo under construction pounding in pilings for a year.

Just BS and another kick in the teeth .

Wow!

That sucks!

My view is, basically the insurance industry will only suffer a major loss once!

Then rates, terms all change.

A buddy on the water in Miami got a notice of his policy being cancelled unless he replaced his roof.

Adjusters are now using drones for inspections.

They were on his street inspecting a neighbors house for storm damage.
They now inspect other insureds, in the same neighborhoods, while they’re there.

So he spent $25k for a new roof and they still doubled his rates!

That doesnt event count the new flood policies.

Then the rezoning like we ran into.

Gorgeous property that they will not allow us to clear or build on!

About the only solution I see is, for those that already own, is to pay cash and tell the insurance CO’s to piss off and roll the dice!

Also, make sure to read the clause for the deductible for the hurricane coverage.

It is a percentage of loss not a dollar amount.

My quote shows 6%.

So if you have a total loss on a $500k property you need to be able to write a check for $30k!

While your paying to live in a hotel, buying 3 meals a day, replacing clothes, cares etc.

Not good.

.--friends were sued by a lawn guy who ran himself over on their property and was awarded 1.2M (claimed their yard was too rough for his mower). Liberal judges and thirsty attorneys are a really bad combination in this country.

Joe[/QUOTE]

WTF!!

My fantasy would be an older waterfront home, no insurance except liability and live there as long as I could. If the big one hit/ house ruined then I'd knock it down and build a new house.

I guy I did some work for had the perfect house, ranch 4/2 w/ 2 car garage on a killer lot. House was built in the 60's and could be done in a beach house theme. He paid 2.7mm for the place and wanted to build his "forever home" and decided to move elsewhere after looking at the costs.. Next guy knocked it down and flipped the lot. The neighborhood exploded and the big mansion sold for 30 million recently
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...il/M5810725813

To reduce your exposure:

1. no barrier islands
2. no older condos (they get expensive to repair/upgrade). Newer lower buildings (less than 3 stories I think) are ideal.
3. stay out of the flood zones

There was an article in the paper around Christmas that said the state insurance commissioner was thinking that shingle roofs should be discontinued as they simply don't last.

I moved in 2023, bought a brand new house and the insurance is about 70% of the cost of what I paid on my 20+ yr old house (despite the new house being bigger/more expensive). When the policy renewed, they sent a guy out with a drone for a flyover and he only wanted to inspect the 5 bathroom sinks/ the kitchen sink/ washing machine/laundry sink. He was looking at the type of connections used. It was whatever the builder installed, I didn't make any changes.

I’m sure we’re going to get an influx of west coasters after this fire out there in California as many were under insured or uninsured or will simply will not be able to rebuild because of regulations.

Many will probably sell for lot value and see they can buy a house in Florida and move, we are already have been seeing a lot of California’s here the last couple years.
Even though the wealthy on Malibu beach won’t be affected money wise ,sad to see it burn as it will
never be able to be rebuilt.