Things are looking challenging
We’ve been hearing lately that house insurance is difficult to get, and very expensive if you can get it, in Florida. Fortune looks at it from the profit or no profit point of view:
Given that Farmers is not the first home insurer to stop offering coverage in Florida over the past year or so, things are looking challenging for its housing market, and particularly, its homeowners that are already paying the highest insurance premiums in the nation, with an average premium of $6,000 per year versus the U.S. average of $1,700 per year, according to Mark Friedlander, Florida-based director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute. That’s 42% higher than the year prior, Frielander added.
And why is that?
Florida’s insurance consumer advocate, Tasha Carter, who was appointed by Florida’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, listed four factors behind the homeowner insurance market that she said is in “dire condition.” The first has to do with claims from recent hurricanes, given hurricane Irma, Michael, and Ian (combined) generated nearly 3 million claims filed and resulted in approximately $46 billion in estimated insured losses.
Would you want to gamble on insuring houses in Florida? I sure as hell wouldn’t. Might as well drop bundles of cash down a volcano.
The sea level around Florida is up to 8 inches higher than it was in 1950.1 | 2 This increase is mostly due to ice melting into the ocean and, complicated by the porous limestone that the state sits on, it’s causing major issues. Many traditional methods to solve for sea level rise and flooding in Florida won’t work, because water can flow through the porous ground, up from below, and under sea walls. In Miami-Dade County, the groundwater levels in some places are not high enough relative to the rising sea levels, which has allowed saltwater to intrude into the drinking water and compromised sewage plants. There are already 120,000 properties at risk from frequent tidal flooding in Florida.3 The state is planning over $4 billion in sea level rise solutions, which include protecting sewage systems, raising roads, stormwater improvements, and seawalls.
Pouring a glass of water onto a lava flow.
Trump’s place at Mar a Lagoon or whatever it is called could go under. He might have to wear scuba gear on a permanent basis. Melania, Stormy Daniels and all the rest of the crew likewise.
Still, Hollywood might seek to rent it it as a set for a blockbuster movie about the lost city of Atlantis.
Genius Ben Shapiro says they can all just sell their homes and move.
By the time improvements are made though to cope with the now 8-9 inch rise in sea level, global warming will accelerate to the point that sea level will rise fast enough to negate them. The only real solution is to withdraw from vulnerable areas. Oh, and stop burning so much fucking fossil fuels.
The state is big in tourism now – maybe remove homes and buildings in the danger zones and put in basic RV parks? Bring in a lot of tourists who stay for a while, drop some cash and leave. Have owners and customers of the RV parks agree that the place may not be there long term. Or have the state take over the land, remove buildings and make it all parkland that nature will take eventually.
Second homes along the North Shore in Minnesota are being bought up by Floridians and Texans seeking to escape the summers in the south, but it won’t be long until those are their only homes.
Internal climate refugees; Dustbowl redux. Who will be their Steinbeck? They could grab some headlines if they formed themselves into a caravan. Maybe Florida could fly some of them to Martha’s Vinyard, too.