Florida Real Estate: Not Beaten by the Hurricanes—so Far

Flood waters inundate the main street after Hurricane Helene passed offshore in Tarpon Springs, Fla., on Sept. 27, 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

News Analysis

When Spanish explorer Ponce de León first landed on the eastern coast of a large peninsula in the New World in 1513, he named the entire region Florida, meaning full of flowers. Had he landed in late summer 2024, however, he might have been inclined to call the region Tierra de Huracanes, Tierra Inundada (flooding lands), or Tierra de Evacuaciones, as all three have recently been in abundance across the state.

But despite annual hurricane battering, soaring property costs, mounting insurance premiums, and the constant threat of flooding and evacuation, Florida’s allure remains not only as strong as at the time of Ponce de León, its home real estate market continues to thrive with increasing strength.

“In my 28 years in the mortgage and real estate industry, I have never felt that the risk of hurricanes was an impediment for people to proceed to buy property in Florida,” George Fraguio, vice president of lending with Vaster, a real estate financing firm in Miami, told The Epoch Times.

“While the immediate aftermath of a hurricane can bring uncertainty and damage, Florida’s long-term resilience and strategic investments often pave the way for recovery.”

For those looking to purchase property in Florida, industry professionals such as Fraguio recommend considering the following three critical factors to understand what relocating to the state entails.

Home and Land Values

While land and home prices are constantly shifting, a recent report by Florida Realtors shows that the average price of a single-family home in August was $411,638, roughly half as expensive as California, which leads the United States, but nearly 1.7 times that of low-point Iowa.

For those looking for properties along Florida’s east coast, such as the relatively inexpensive Atlantic beach area north of Jacksonville, prices can range from $500,000 to $1.7 million—that’s for just more than one-tenth of an acre, including the house, anywhere from several blocks to several miles off the oceanfront. Actual beachfront often starts at $5 million.

But for properties in the $150,000 to $250,000 range, Mortgage Research Center in Columbia, Missouri, recommends Quincy in the panhandle, Live Oak and Lake City in the north, and Avon Park in central Florida.

Hurricane Depreciation and Recovery

Fraguio pointed out that every time Florida experiences a hurricane, home price values can drop dramatically—by as much as 12.5 percent—but they tend to recover quickly.

For example, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that Florida suffered more than $20 billion in damage from each of Hurricanes Andrew (1992), Charley (2004), Wilma (2005), Irma (2017), and Michael (2018).

Hurricane Ian alone, from 2022, is expected to exceed $50 billion in insured and uninsured losses.

And CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, estimated that total losses from this year’s Hurricane Milton are expected to reach between $21 billion and $34 billion.

“But the long-term trends often tell a different story,” Fraguio said.

Long-term often means 18 to 24 months on average to rebound, based on the time that “claims get processed on top of the rebuilding process,” he said.

Homes in Florida are required to have hurricane protection measures in place.

“Any new construction is required to have hurricane/impact windows and doors or shutters,” Ben Friedman, owner of CitiQuiet Windows and Doors in Boca Raton, told The Epoch Times.

“This is true for any existing structure as well, if changing their windows and doors is required to bring it up to the current building code.”

In many areas, building codes require that materials be able to withstand winds of 165 to 185 miles per hour.

“In southwest Florida, for instance, neighborhoods that invested in hurricane-resistant upgrades witnessed a swifter recovery in property values compared to those that did not,” Friedman said.

“These upgrades, ranging from impact-resistant windows to reinforced roofing, mitigate risks and enhance the desirability of properties in the eyes of buyers seeking safety and long-term savings on insurance premiums.”

Home Insurance Premiums

Home insurance is a major concern.

Florida Realtors estimate that nearly 40,000 insurance claims totaling around $435 million were filed across the state for residential property damage, with many more claims expected in the wake of Milton and Helene.

This results in even higher home insurance rates in a state that already leads the nation in this regard.

Insurify, an American insurance comparison shopping website based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, listed Florida homeowners in 2023 as paying an average annual rate of $10,996, far ahead of second-place Louisiana.

Both Fraguio and South Florida realtor Desirée Avila expect rates to soar to unprecedented levels soon.

“The fear now is that insurance might not even be available,” Fraguio said.

Avila, a member of Charles Rutenberg Realty Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, said depending on the final number of claims from Helene, insurance rates could increase by as much as 25 percent to 35 percent over 2023.

“Everybody is concerned about it,” said Avila, one of only 20 board-certified realtors in the state. “In some cases, it can even price people out of their homes, or preclude some people from buying a home.”

However, she said that if the insurance quandary is somehow solved, the lure of Florida would easily outpace people’s worry over hurricanes.

“I don’t think hurricanes have affected the Florida real estate market at all,” Avila said. “The benefits of living in Florida outweigh the risks by far.”

This leaves one critical question: Will Helene and Milton prove to be the two straws that finally break the Florida camel’s back, or just two more bumps in the state’s real estate market?

“It’s one of the conundrums in Florida real estate, and I think it’s what makes our market resiliency stronger,” Avila said.

“There’s an emotional component that buyers put more weight on—such as sunsets and toes in the sand—over concerns about hurricanes.”