Come to Florida for the Low Taxes, Stay for the Climate Disaster
The Sunshine State may be cheap and alluring, but it’s also on the front lines of a warming planet, raising the risks of both routine hazards and epic catastrophes.
Not just a future problem.
Photographer: Giorgia Viera/AFP/Getty Images
Fort Myers, Florida, was America’s seventh-fastest-growing city, more than doubling in size during the three decades before Hurricane Ian crashed into it last September. The Category 4 storm laid waste to the area before slashing through the heart of the state. But the storm clouds had barely parted before house hunters flocked to Fort Myers seeking bargains in the wreckage.
“It’s pretty much business as usual,” a local real estate agent told the Wall Street Journal not long after. Fort Myers home prices jumped 21% that October from an already inflated level, according to data tracker Redfin.