Florida bragging about newcomers.. Truth is - they move out within 5 years because of hurricanes!
Behind Florida's Real Estate Pitch, a More Sobering Stat
Roughly the same number of people are moving out of the state as moving in
A splashy narrative has emerged in Florida amid the pandemic from politicians and real estate developers, writes Candace Taylor in the Wall Street Journal. It states that Florida is the place to be for tech workers and uber-rich hedge fund execs looking to flee Silicon Valley and New York. And indeed, the state is seeing a surge in luxury sales of waterfront mansions and condos in recent months, including high-profile buyers such as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Such purchases generate headlines and buzz, but Taylor points out a "far less discussed" aspect of Florida's demographics: About the same number of people move out of the state as move in, a trend that has held steady for several years. In fact, the state's population growth rate of 1.38% throughout the pandemic is the lowest since 2014.
“A lot of people go down there and realize that they don’t like hurricanes,” says demographer Hamilton Lombard. Taylor's story includes an interview with one New Jersey native who uprooted his family to Oregon for just that reason. “Staring at those tracker maps for weeks before a hurricane hits starts to create a stress level,” he says. A Miami real-estate consultant says many newcomers end up moving home after five years or so. One company in the position to track such things is Atlas Van Lines. The 50-50 split between those moving in and those moving out "kind of surprised me because when you hear some of the news stories about the number of people moving to Florida, I expected that the number [of incoming moves] was going to be greater," says COO Barry Schellenberg.
https://www.newser.com/story/303584/behind-floridas-real-estate-pitch-a-more-sobering-stat.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top
David Gewirtz never got used to the heat, even after 15 years in Florida.
Still, Mr. Gewirtz, who grew up in New Jersey, and his wife, Denise Amrich, liked their adopted hometown of Palm Bay, Fla., and probably would have stayed if it weren’t for the “brutal” hurricanes.
“Staring at those tracker maps for weeks before a hurricane hits starts to create a stress level,” said Mr. Gewirtz, a technology columnist in his early 50s. “It’s three weeks of wondering whether you’re going to have a house at the end.”
The couple evacuated their home in the path of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, kept driving until they got to Oregon and decided to stay. They listed their Palm Bay house for sale.
Florida, it turns out, isn’t for everyone. But you would never know it from the PR coming out of the state.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-moving-to-florida-during-covid-11615463911?mod=hp_lead_pos13
= new reply since forum marked as read
That said, it's awful nice right here right now. A great blue heron is having trouble getting an especially large and disagreeable eel into position for lunch. This morning we sat on the shady, west side by the lemon tree, which is in heavenly bloom, and chatted with late-arrival snowbird neighbors as they planted yesterday's haul from a nursery binge.
There it goes. The heron won.
Interestingly, over on the coast the Tampa area has been amazingly free of hits. They seem to break around it. Even Irma, which sucked Tampa Bay almost empty, swung abruptly inland just to the south, headed north (west of Orlando) and dumped all that water, which was expected to return as a tsunami up to 9' high, some unfortunate other place. We were sitting up in GA expecting our MH 3' above sea level on an estuary right off Tampa Bay to be gone, as in GONE, and it was completely unharmed.
The toxic political and ideological divisions have certainly exacerbated the problems of developing innovation centers away from the giant, exciting, liberal hubs. The Biden admin intends to be a catalyzing agent, encouraging R&D across the nation, including heavy focus on climate technology, but what that'll mean for Florida...? Maybe it'll reboot Gainesville's efforts. Of note, FL's #3 in population and a swing state. Occurs to me that encouraging liberalization is emphatically in the nation's interest.
but retirees do bring in lots of money and, even if not averaging liberal, are nevertheless a liberalizing influence. Haven't researched it, but suspect they average more educated. In any case, iust imagine Florida politically without them. And economically. Low incomes and poverty are conservatizing. Of course, so is resentment, and retirees do seem to trigger a lot of that, though most are just working/lower middle class themselves, living off the modest wealth accumulation of decades of work and paying off mortgages.
South Florida's supposedly firmly "blue," but voting Democrat in self protection doesn't somehow magically turn the majority of Hispanic conservatives there liberal. Trump came and bared his fangs in smiles at them a few times last election and they happily threw FL to the Republicans.
It's true that retirees do tend to concentrate with others like them, preferring neighborhoods that don't empty out into ghost towns all week and are instead full of people who've finally reached a stage where their days can be socializing and leisure activities. Also, for snowbirds who want to be able to turn their backs on property 8 months of the year. Can't argue that, but most Florida communities and neighborhoods have a normal mix of generations busily working and going to school.
The image of retirees hiding behind gates is unfortunate, true of course for some who can afford and want that. Our little road is retiree simply because only poor locals would live in an area of marsh and wilderness where zoning doesn't allow home building. Our gay snowbird neighbors from TN could also have chosen gates but instead are happily planting their half acre in ways that HOAs wouldn't allow. Came home yesterday and found they've started a hedge of dwarf bougainvillea along the edge of the road, cheery and eventually charming, but mercifully not visible from the marsh sides of the properties. And another neighbor who lives here year-round now has a little flock of mixed chicken breeds that come over to see what we have to offer for snacks and lay eggs in our kayak, including one of these silly things but with a solid black hat. All purchases local.
From my biased perspective, I'd argue the worst influence is the occupation by retirees and others coming from elsewhere of big parts of the coasts, but these days vacation rentals and wealthy second-homers would occupy those no matter what. That's something to complain about all right, but whoever chooses to be there has to be able to afford the risks, emotionally as well as economically.
Zoning that protects the rights of all to the coasts and the rest of the best of FL is needed, but complaining that FL voters haven't done it seems to me...unuseful. Maybe as FL continues to evolve and, like people elsewhere, get tired of putting up with the consequences of their mistakes.
In the middle of the summer.. Uff. I was lucky that I could walk to work and be in AC all day. I had a post hurricane "safe" room. Wall a/c unit with a thru the wall plug to the generator. I could power the a/c, phone, radio and small refridg.. Never had to use it..Whole house natural gas generator is the way to go... Unless a fallen tree takes out the gas line. 
I'm in central Florida now and we shall see what happens. I'm about 100' above sea level so I don't have to worry about flooding so it's just the wind... I had a buddy in Tally and he loves it up there. If Central Florida doesn't cut it I'll head up to Tally. More cold and more RedNecks and I can deal with it.. Also closer to the Geo and NC mountains for riding.. .
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Even though part of the district then went to Panama City through the red Panhandle. When they split up Leon County, my part of the county is in with Jax, while a mile south of us, they are in the district that includes PC. It makes it hard to get volunteers since some of the more long term activists are south of us. They even split the black parts of the county between the districts.
Look at the maps for District 2 and District 5 - they are ridiculous! 
of all the places I've made home. 
Seriously, L.A's a little spread out but definitely world-class opportunities.
Fwiw, though, those who want to will find more culture in any city in FL than those who don't (the many millions who need to create small, narrowly conforming worlds for themselves) will allow themselves to experience in world-class cities. FL draws a fair number of those, of course, but at least they aren't showing up at lectures and nature-study walks, or even most concerts in the park, wondering loudly when the game starts. And oh well if the people discussing big events on stage advise county commissions and governors instead of presidents, ideas are like viruses, they don't care who's carrying them.
Speaking of all those things, not too long now...
I did get to be the volunteer "accessionist" recording plants for a new arboretum at one time. Classy for me. 
Let down? Yes and no. If I could do it over again, I would have had us move to coastal Pacific NW or at least coastal L.A. or NoCal long ago when our children were young enough to drag with and we could afford it (couldn't have gotten my husband to SF or Boston). But we later followed one of our children to GA, our choice, and now couldn't afford our old neighborhood if we wanted to return. We don't. What's important?
Btw, just on the subject for a curiosity, the other one married and they eventually returned to her husband's family business in Arkansas. They travel to culture as frequently as they wish, but an amazing amount comes to Bentonville, AR also, which would be a nowhereville in far NE AR if the Walton family hadn't put their Walmart headquarters there, required their vendors to maintain U.S. headquarters there, and invested in bringing in some very nice amenities to keep themselves and the executives rotated in reasonably happy. It's not NYC, but it's an anomaly for AR. Money! That's what our part of winter-snowbird FL lacks. Air fare to that little corner is unfortunately ridiculously expensive for us to pop over as often as we would otherwise, but they're able to entertain us at a standard we're no longer accustomed to when we do visit.
You make me think, though, you and I, and others, as things move back toward opening up, we need to plan to get out and join people we'd like to know doing something we'd like to do.
leave work so much as it left me, and I was finally no longer excited at the thought of taking on a big new challenge.
So agree that even a modest retirement nevertheless gives us so much to be grateful for. I've read that retired people are happiest since youth and I know why. Even diminished spending power is not such a big hit for people who've accumulated most of what they need to live, are no longer raising children, have a whole world on their computer screens, and are able to adjust by cutting back to their means after decades of working and sometimes struggling to reach that point safely. And above all, our time is our own! To make of what we choose.
sounds familiar. I do remember a sandwich shop with the name Hobbit in it
Just for the winters.
Eventually I will stop going when Michigan’s winters become like Georgia’s. They are halfway there now.
I figure another 100ppm or so of GHG’s ought to get the job done.
Especially the Keys!!!
Buh Bye!
and Ditto!
