Florida has seen a population boom in recent years, but many longtime residents and recent transplants say rising costs and divisive politics have them fleeing the Sunshine State.
One of the first signs Barb Carter’s move to Florida wasn’t the postcard life she’d envisioned was the armadillo infestation in her home that caused $9,000 in damages. Then came a hurricane, ever present feuding over politics, and an inability to find a doctor to remove a tumor from her liver.
After a year in the Sunshine State, Carter packed her car with whatever belongings she could fit and headed back to her home state of Kansas — selling her Florida home at a $40,000 loss and leaving behind the children and grandchildren she’d moved to be closer to.
“So many people ask, ‘Why would you move back to Kansas?’ I tell them all the same thing — you’ve got to take your vacation goggles off,” Carter said. “For me, it was very falsely promoted. Once living there, I thought, you know, this isn’t all you guys have cracked this up to be, at all.”
“One of the first things they say is, ‘I don’t want to be in one of them X or Y political party neighborhoods,’” Desautels said. “I spend hours listening to people vent to me about fleeing the communist government of XYZ and they want to come to freedom or whatever. So the politics have been the biggest issue when we get the call.”
What’s so weird about the article is 3 of the 4 people leaving describe themselves as conservative, but the state is just too batshit for them. And they all seem confused by it
Imagine moving to Florida and being surprised by hurricanes.
While moving back to Kansas where tornadoes occur often.
Tornadoes suck, but they’re not even close to on the same level as hurricanes. I say that as someone from tornado alley and saw what happened to Joplin in 2011.
True, but climate change is going to make them a hell of a lot worse. What happened in Joplin is going to be the new normal in tornado alley.
As will hurricanes
Shits gonna suck
Tornados often follow the leading and trailing edges of hurricanes anyway. You get both worlds.
I grew up there. I always, always hated living in FL. I fled that shithole 15 years ago. The only thing I ever appreciated was the natural beauty, and every time I go back to visit, they paved over more of it.
The lady from Ct made me laugh “I didn’t expect it to be 100 at night”…lady you moved there for the weather.
I tell this to people who want to move to Phoenix. Damn asphalt practically glows in the dark it’s so damn hot.
Asphalt is probably the reason it gets so hot. Dirt dissipates the heat it absorbs at night concrete and asphalt not so much.
That’s exactly what I was implying. I used to live there - the asphalt would be hot to the touch at night and outright dangerous to touch with bare skin during the day. The heat island effect made for an unbearable outside temperature for most of the year.
I’ll never understand people who want to live in the desert; plants can’t even survive there. Phoenix is a monument to man’s arrogance.
I might move there for work in a bit over a year, and I’m trying not to already be a big baby about it. Summer will be rough for me.
I moved from there to Chicago as a young adult - best decision I ever made. Started my career in a beautiful city with 4 whole seasons and minimal magma pavement.
I grew up in Chicago! It’s the best city. I’ll probably go back some day. I’m so glad you enjoy it!
Definitely move back. Do whatever you can to avoid getting stationed in Phoenix. Whatever good it might do for your career just isn’t worth the inevitable misery you’ll experience getting into your car after it’s been baking in the desolate expanse all day.
I worked in Houston for a couple of years. I suggest just hunkering down and staying home in the summer.
Deserts can be fine to live in, but a city that uses that much asphalt and concrete shouldnt be built in a desert.
That’s all America knows how to build anymore: sprawling suburbs with a minimum quota for parking spaces per-capita. Stucco and pavement as far as the eye can see.
Maybe so, but I feel like on some level people are getting fucken sick of it. In my city for example they are discussing outlawing non native grass. Which would be fucken hilarious seeing the housing tracks throw a hissy fit.
Too often cities push for real estate flipping be ause it means more tax revenue. Any land near the beach is under threat of imminent domain seizure because it’s now legal for a city to sell that land to private developers for a tower of condos and tax revenue instead of the 2 bedroom home that used to be there. Police just seize anything they want from motorists. Insurance prices are insane, I could not afford windstorm Insurance for the 1st time in my life. Auto insurance per year costs more than my car is worth. Beaches have started charging 30.00 to park to keep people away allowing the rich residents a more private beach.
The worst part is the lack of affordable housing…all the while half the condos on the beach are empty because rich snowbirds only use them a month out of the year.
This whole state has become a POS
That’s the problem with decades of “fuck the poor” policies. Eventually, people will suddenly realize that they aren’t in fact, “temporary embarrassed millionaires.” They will find out that the policies they’ve been conned into supporting are specifically targeted at hurting them, and will drive them to utter destitution if not to the grave. The only good news is that these far right policies will do so much damage and cause so much pain that it will inevitably create the circumstances for its collapse.
She was already considering a move out of the state when she was told by her homeowners insurance company that she would need to replace her home’s roof because it was older than four years or her insurance premium would be going up…
Is this normal in Florida? You have to replace your roof every four years?
No. This seems kinda crazy. I’ve heard of having wind mitigation done on your roof to get your insurance rates down. I have no idea what it is but I do it.
I imagine this is it - was there a change in code? I have a friend who lives there, and it’s a huge deal for their insurance that they hurricane-proof everything, and those standard do get revised over time
Any new construction has to meet the code that the legislation comes up with, at least that’s how I’m to understand it. Most of the new construction on the coast is built up on slits due to coastal flooding. But everything built now must meet hurricane standards.
When I was a kid we never had to really worry about flooding but we’ve had family members and friends shelter at our house because of the flooding.
New construction has to meet current code, but existing buildings are grandfathered into code that existed when they were built, barring major renovations, as far as building inspections are concerned. However insurance can and does require updates
Sounds like they’re trying to slowly bleed customers to pull out of Florida and banking on anyone forced to stay with them.
No. This can’t be true.
Depends on the damage. It was a 25% damage rule. You get to storms in the same year that total that and it has to be replaced. (E.g. 12.5 and 12.5%). Don’t think it matters/mattered how old it was.
My parents were just telling me about a friend of theirs who moved back to Ohio… fucking Ohio… after discovering that retirement in Florida was terrible.
Yeah it must be pretty bad if Ohio and Kansas are looking better.
My grandparents retired to Florida in the 1970s. They never went to the beach. They rarely even went outside. They went for the climate after living in New York their whole lives and just stayed in their apartment with the air conditioning on.
I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now.
And that was before Florida turned into a MAGA hellhole.
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Deerfield Beach, but one of the Century Villages.
My grandfather, who was a bit of a joker, used to say, “no deer, no field and no beach.”
I remember they had a restaurant where you had to be 50 and older to get in after a certain time.
IDK why anyone is considering moving to FL with global warming picking up speed. Seems pretty foolish to me. This issue alone is enough to take it off my retirement list if places to live.
They either
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Don’t believe it exists
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Don’t believe it will effect them.
Or can’t afford to leave. We’re not all ignorant down here.
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They don’t believe in it… They’re reactionary idiots.
Florida is on a Gilead speed run, I don’t predict good things will be happening there until they get their Christofascism problem under control.
she said the final straw was when she couldn’t find a surgeon to remove a 6-inch tumor from her liver that doctors warned could burst at any moment and lead to life-threatening sepsis. After being passed among doctors, she finally found one willing to remove the tumor. But when she called to schedule the surgery, her calls went unanswered and her messages weren’t returned. After months of trying and fearing for her life, she returned to Kansas to have the procedure done.
What’s with Orlando doctors? Is this sort of experience common there?
I had a family member go through 3 doctors and many months of unbearable pain in their leg, all saying it was a simple sports injury that’ll go away on its own, before someone realized they had a pool noodle sized tumor in their leg. I blame this incompetence for their death.
Do the lawyers agree?
Oof, condolences
It’s pretty common to wait several months just to get into a new primary care doctor in Florida.
and it was expensive, very expensive.”
People hear “no state income tax” and don’t read any further. Property taxes are high if you want to live anywhere civilized. For instance Ft Myers is 4.7%. Insurance is crazy, as noted in the article, and the state is not kind to aged retirees.
It’s a great state if you’re an independently wealthy Republican.
People hear “no state income tax” and don’t read any further.
Yeps. Know a bunch of people who came here for the good schools and now are threatening to leave since their kids graduated.
Like okay thanks for being a selfish asshole. Go enjoy your swampscape
Wife and I ended up in Tampa early 2006. No state tax, but man, they made up for it there in fees and licensing for everything imaginable. Seemed like a lot of service industry jobs and trades all required you to get a local license. Heck, even the gals working in strip clubs were required to get a license to perform. I know some skilled trade jobs typically required licenses, but Florida just seemed to go out of their way to try to squeeze lower and middle class workers who were just trying to get by.
Ft Myers does not have a 4.7% property tax rate. That would be ridiculously, catastrophically high. It decreased by 4.7% a years ago, but Florida is in the middle of the list for effective proper tax rate among all states in the country.
But I agree with you. I’ve heard many people I know from my state say they are leaving for FL because of income tax. I feel like many don’t consider everything that actually goes into living there. Other than the politics, insurance companies starting to refuse home insurance is the scariest thing that would prevent me from ever living there.
Maybe I misread it… thanks for the correction.
They came to gentrify and were shocked, SHOCKED, to find there were already people living there.
Imagine living in a tourist state and thinking it won’t have the pitfalls associated with everything being catered to tourism.
Yeah, but the article doesn’t really discuss issues related to tourism.
It is more issues related to a lack of services and a more expensive cost of living than expected.
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Years ago I had a co-worker from Miami. He had a bumper sticker that said “Miami - Flee it like a Native” on his car.
Absolutely no one is “fleeing” we are on pace for 30 million population in the next few years. Just like any place with that many people there will be expensive areas for rich people.
I mean, the article interviews, and quotes, four people who said they were fleeing.
More are moving in than leaving, but there are definitely people leaving because . . well, you know.
The first one was a chef who moved to palm beach and surprised it was expensive around there. Yeah that’s a very expensive part of the state. Average household income is almost 200k with 39 billionaires living there. Surprised Pikachu face! The second one was someone who moved into a trailer and the roof blew away in a hurricane. That’s par for the course in living in trailers in Florida. Google would have saved both of these people making smarter decisions
There are flows in both directions. The net result may be growth of the state’s population, but having that many people leave is a sign that not everyone is happy there.
You mean birth rates + immigration > people leaving the state? I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you.
Seriously though, there does need to be an asterisk after “fleeing” that says “if they can afford it” which, let’s be honest, excludes most people who want to leave the state.
Speak for yourself. I fled that shithole 15 years ago, and I’ve used that verbage to describe the experience the whole time. FL fucking sucks, and you can’t even imagine how badly until you’ve lived almost anywhere else.
