Retirees flee Florida as climate change threatens their financial future – “We will miss the warm winters”
By Rebecca Mordechai
19 March 2019
(Money) – Florida, with its plentiful beaches, warm weather, and lack of a state-income tax, is the most popular destination for older adults in the U.S. But some who have lived in the Sunshine State for years are moving in the opposite direction.
As damaging storms and other effects of climate change have hit Florida particularly hard in the past few years, some older adults living there have become concerned about their safety and their ability to enjoy retirement. So they’re fleeing this otherwise balmy state.
About 52,630 people ages 65 and over left Florida in 2017, versus 48,174 in 2016 and 43,356 in 2012, according to Jon Rork, professor of Economics at Reed College in Portland, Oregan, who studies retirement migration. “Many of these people have left Florida for states like Georgia and North Carolina,” Rork says. “There’s a hypothesis that those who have left Florida for Georgia and North Carolina have done so to avoid hurricanes and big insurance premium jumps.”
Dire warnings become harder to ignore
It has grown harder for Americans to ignore global warming in the wake of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which released a report last fall warning of catastrophic consequences like increased droughts and food shortages if the atmosphere rises by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels by 2040 — a possibility that scientists consider likely. […]
“We will miss the warm winters,” says Karen Colton, a 54-year-old resident who lives near Upper Tampa Bay. There may be fewer sun-filled days at her new destination, yes, but Colton is still eager to retire to Asheville, N.C., with her wife, Rebecca Turner, this summer. Colton says she’s done fearing the “killer hurricane and floods” that wreak havoc on her current hometown, and craves peace of mind during her retirement years. […]
The couple has been fortunate to have escaped severe hurricane damage so far. But, Colton wonders, “What if I won’t be as lucky next time”? “I like that Asheville seems to be immune to most natural disasters,” she says. […]
Jessa Madosky, 35, hopes the robust real estate market continues until she’s ready to sell her home in Lithia, Fl., near Tampa, and move out of state. As an assistant professor at the University of Tampa’s biology department, Madosky is especially attuned to how global warming is affecting and will continue to affect Florida. “With an increase in global temperatures and an increase in ocean temperatures, hurricanes are becoming more severe,” Madosky says. “Warmer air can also hold more water, so hurricanes will be dumping a lot more water when they come through.”
She projects that these changes will not only affect the real estate market, but will also increase the prices of homeowners’ insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plans to adopt risk-based pricing in 2020, switching from the current, outdated system used by the National Flood Insurance Policy. A FEMA spokesperson says that the proposed redesign will offer a “more accurate assessment of risk to determine flood insurance policies.” The upshot? Coastal communities have a greater chance of experiencing sudden, soaring rates, experts say.
If that’s not enough, a report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation projects that homeowners’ premiums from 15 of the state’s largest insurance companies will rise significantly in the next five years. They already have, in Madosky’s experience. “We were pretty shocked by the cost of insurance in Florida versus previously owning a house in North Carolina,” Madosky says. “The insurance cost is way higher here and it keeps going up by $100 to $200 a year.” [more]
