Florida Is Now Schrödinger’s Housing Market
The Sunshine State is witnessing a messy, unfair and prolonged retreat from the areas most vulnerable to climate change. It doesn't need to be that way.
A home damaged by Hurricane Milton in Manasota Key, Florida.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North AmericaIf you enjoy having migraine headaches, you might want to spend some time thinking about the future of Florida’s housing market in an era of increasingly destructive climate disasters.
Are home prices in some areas being driven down by people fleeing the parts of the Sunshine State most prone to flooding and high insurance costs? Or are developers snatching up storm-ravaged land to build new — and more expensive — homes in those same places? Or are people moving just in from the shore, displacing those on higher ground and making housing there less affordable?