Retirees are searching for the best place to retire, and they are scouring the Internet doing all kinds of research to find and filter through all the articles and videos that claim to know the best place to retire. Searching for the best place to retire takes a lot of time and diligence, and for some, it is a process that lasts several years prior to retiring. For many this search has practically become a hobby for soon-to-be retirees around the U.S., from California to Hawaii to Alaska to Colorado to New York to West Virginia to Florida to Texas (and even from Europe). I know this because I have sold homes to clients from all of these states and to clients from about 35 states.
Sometimes I end up interfacing with a seller who is selling their home here on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and planning to move closer to their children or grandchildren. A few of those clients told me they were going to check out Florida and look at homes in various beautiful places in Florida not far from the beaches.
After four decades in real estate, there are certain instincts you develop regarding trends and markets. My instinct told me prior to the real estate market skyrocketing about half a dozen years ago that Florida was a real estate market that had high risk for getting over priced and then collapsing in a market recession, which inevitably comes after the “irrational exuberance,” as Thorstein Veblen called it. But there are many other factors that create risk for a retiree in markets like Florida’s real estate market.
Florida is a location at grave risk for natural disasters. It is the number one state in the number of annual hurricanes, and ranks very high in other destructive storms, like hail storms that destroy roofs. With hurricanes come floods and water damage and the repair list can be quite long. The cost of home repair and rebuilding after hurricanes alone has sent home insurance rates through the roof.
In the past 6 years or so the cost of homes in Florida, the cost of property taxes, the cost of homeowner’s insurance, the cost of roof repair or any home repairs, has doubled and tripled in many real life cases, and you’ve probably heard the stories about retirees escaping from Florida because they could no long afford annual property taxes that were $1,000 to $2,000 per month plus homeowner’s insurance that had increased from less than $2,000 a year to over $19,000 a year in some cases.
In other words, for retirees, Florida is simply not an option anymore unless you can be self-insured and unless your a very wealthy person. Not sure about all this? Here’s a video that does an excellent job explaining what’s going on in Florida, and I want to share this video so you can be aware of the risks of moving to Florida now. Having said this, I will remind you, if you don’t already know, that Sequim, Washington has no hurricanes, no big floods, no massive destructive storms, no hail storms, rarely has snow, has no temperature extremes either way, and has an extremely low crime rate. Our property taxes are reasonable, and our homeowner’s insurance is reasonable. If you compare anywhere in Florida to Sequim, Washington, there is no comparison and Sequim beats Florida state by an order of magnitude for retirees who want to be able to manage their cost of living during their retirement years.
I hope you enjoy this video. The speaker does an excellent job.
Last Updated on June 29, 2024 by Chuck Marunde
