Severe weather has some snowbirds leaving Florida, others battening down the hatches

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When Julie Riddle and her husband, Jerry, bought their vacation property in Fort Myers, Florida, in 2009, it never occurred to them that they might be buying in an area prone to hurricanes.

“But for at least eight years, we’ve seen more activity and more frequency (of storms),” the Toronto resident said.

Riedel’s Florida estate, located inland, has served as a winter retreat and family vacation spot for years.

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While she would love to head south, Riddle said the cost of insurance premiums has risen dramatically over the years, nearly quadrupling since they first bought the property as severe storms threaten communities in coastal areas.

Cleanup efforts continue on Florida’s west coast after two hurricanes made landfall in recent weeks.

However, Canadian snow enthusiasts appear to be divided on whether to stay or rethink their decision to own property in the state, as bad weather and rising real estate costs become a bigger reality of life.

For Riedel, these issues haven’t convinced her to sell yet.

She said her neighbors in Florida are like her “second family.”

“I see more people when I’m in Florida in the winter than I do here (in Toronto),” Riddle said.

“In Toronto, it’s like I see my neighbor when he throws out the trash and then that’s it,” she added.

However, the Riddle family has had to make investments to secure their property against severe weather, such as maintaining hurricane shutters.

“I’m going to have to spend a lot more money to make sure…we have the defenses we need for another catastrophic event,” Jolie said.

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“I’m going to dig like a lot of Floridians do,” she added.

“We’re not leaving.”

Hurricane seasons are getting more intense as ocean temperatures rise. When Helen hit Florida nearly two weeks ago, it was the seventh Category 4 or stronger storm to make landfall in the continental United States in eight years. That’s more than three times the average annual rate of such massive collapses in the United States since 1950, according to an analysis of data by The Associated Press.

Two years ago, Hurricane Ian caused $60 billion in damage in Florida, with many local communities and businesses still recovering from the devastation.

Martin Kenal, a resident of Mississauga, Ontario, sold his vacation home in Venice, Florida, earlier this year. Although his property is located inland and less prone to flooding, he had close contact with Hurricane Ian.

“Ian was the last, and while our home and township sustained minor wind damage…the water reached our front doorstep,” Kenal said in an email.

“One more step and you’ll be inside our house.”

One of his neighbors in Florida decided to move to Arizona the following year because they realized that “sooner or later, someone was going to hit our area,” Kenal said.

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“We decided to sell in May of this year because of the costs associated with maintaining a vacation home in Florida,” he said. “Since the pandemic, it seems like the cost of everything has doubled.”

With the increasing frequency of storms hitting the Florida coast, some insurance companies have dramatically raised premiums, limited their policy offerings or pulled out of the area altogether.

Nine insurance companies have filed for bankruptcy or merged with other companies in Florida since 2021. Average annual property insurance premiums jumped 42 percent last year to $6,000 in Florida, compared to the U.S. national average of $1,700 , according to an Associated Press analysis.

Chris Rossignoli, a cross-border financial planner in Cardinal Point, said owning a second home in Florida requires thinking about more than just whether you can afford and pay the mortgage.

“Now, can I afford the house plus all the extra insurance that comes with the house, especially flood insurance,” he said.

Vacation home maintenance has also become more expensive due to rising prices for building materials and property managers, as well as more frequent maintenance, Rossignoli said.

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“A lot of Canadians were not able to come down…to prepare their homes (in Florida) for this storm,” he said. “You either have really good neighbors or you hire third-party services to do it.”

While this expands the financial equation of owning a second home, Rossignoli said it still seems viable when compared to the cost of long-term rentals in Florida.

Ontario resident Ray Ferris, who owns property on Treasure Island, Florida, says he’s worried about what he’ll find when he heads south this winter. But he adds that he is keen to get down there and help rebuild the city.

Ferris and his wife spend two to three months a year in their vacation apartment, which they bought in 2021, to escape the bleak northern winters.

For the rest of the year, they rent it out, but recent storms could affect that.

Ferris said renting the apartment helps with apartment fees, ongoing maintenance and insurance, but now he’s worried he won’t be able to find tenants.

“We are now concerned that no one will go on vacation to Treasure Island, if it is in fact a ghost town,” he said.

Ferris said he “reconsidered” his decision to buy a beach condo in the Gulf of Mexico when he was tracking storms, but he’s not convinced it’s time to sell.

“It’s a fact of life that you have to accept if you’re going to live on the water,” he said.

Meanwhile, for Riedel, selling her vacation property had to meet high standards.

“If I see a cow flying and my house is in the sky, that’s the time to move,” she said.

—With files from The Associated Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2024.

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