Florida has seen a population boom in recent years, but many longtime residents and recent transplants say rising costs and divisive politics have them fleeing the Sunshine State.
One of the first signs Barb Carter’s move to Florida wasn’t the postcard life she’d envisioned was the armadillo infestation in her home that caused $9,000 in damages. Then came a hurricane, ever present feuding over politics, and an inability to find a doctor to remove a tumor from her liver.
After a year in the Sunshine State, Carter packed her car with whatever belongings she could fit and headed back to her home state of Kansas — selling her Florida home at a $40,000 loss and leaving behind the children and grandchildren she’d moved to be closer to.
“So many people ask, ‘Why would you move back to Kansas?’ I tell them all the same thing — you’ve got to take your vacation goggles off,” Carter said. “For me, it was very falsely promoted. Once living there, I thought, you know, this isn’t all you guys have cracked this up to be, at all.”
That’s the problem with decades of “fuck the poor” policies. Eventually, people will suddenly realize that they aren’t in fact, “temporary embarrassed millionaires.” They will find out that the policies they’ve been conned into supporting are specifically targeted at hurting them, and will drive them to utter destitution if not to the grave. The only good news is that these far right policies will do so much damage and cause so much pain that it will inevitably create the circumstances for its collapse.
She was already considering a move out of the state when she was told by her homeowners insurance company that she would need to replace her home’s roof because it was older than four years or her insurance premium would be going up…
Is this normal in Florida? You have to replace your roof every four years?
Imagine moving to Florida and being surprised by hurricanes.
“One of the first things they say is, ‘I don’t want to be in one of them X or Y political party neighborhoods,’” Desautels said. “I spend hours listening to people vent to me about fleeing the communist government of XYZ and they want to come to freedom or whatever. So the politics have been the biggest issue when we get the call.”
What’s so weird about the article is 3 of the 4 people leaving describe themselves as conservative, but the state is just too batshit for them. And they all seem confused by it
Too often cities push for real estate flipping be ause it means more tax revenue. Any land near the beach is under threat of imminent domain seizure because it’s now legal for a city to sell that land to private developers for a tower of condos and tax revenue instead of the 2 bedroom home that used to be there. Police just seize anything they want from motorists. Insurance prices are insane, I could not afford windstorm Insurance for the 1st time in my life. Auto insurance per year costs more than my car is worth. Beaches have started charging 30.00 to park to keep people away allowing the rich residents a more private beach.
The worst part is the lack of affordable housing…all the while half the condos on the beach are empty because rich snowbirds only use them a month out of the year.
This whole state has become a POS
My parents were just telling me about a friend of theirs who moved back to Ohio… fucking Ohio… after discovering that retirement in Florida was terrible.
Yeah it must be pretty bad if Ohio and Kansas are looking better.
My grandparents retired to Florida in the 1970s. They never went to the beach. They rarely even went outside. They went for the climate after living in New York their whole lives and just stayed in their apartment with the air conditioning on.
I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now.
And that was before Florida turned into a MAGA hellhole.
Absolutely no one is “fleeing” we are on pace for 30 million population in the next few years. Just like any place with that many people there will be expensive areas for rich people.
I mean, the article interviews, and quotes, four people who said they were fleeing.
More are moving in than leaving, but there are definitely people leaving because . . well, you know.
The first one was a chef who moved to palm beach and surprised it was expensive around there. Yeah that’s a very expensive part of the state. Average household income is almost 200k with 39 billionaires living there. Surprised Pikachu face! The second one was someone who moved into a trailer and the roof blew away in a hurricane. That’s par for the course in living in trailers in Florida. Google would have saved both of these people making smarter decisions
Florida is on a Gilead speed run, I don’t predict good things will be happening there until they get their Christofascism problem under control.
she said the final straw was when she couldn’t find a surgeon to remove a 6-inch tumor from her liver that doctors warned could burst at any moment and lead to life-threatening sepsis. After being passed among doctors, she finally found one willing to remove the tumor. But when she called to schedule the surgery, her calls went unanswered and her messages weren’t returned. After months of trying and fearing for her life, she returned to Kansas to have the procedure done.
What’s with Orlando doctors? Is this sort of experience common there?
I had a family member go through 3 doctors and many months of unbearable pain in their leg, all saying it was a simple sports injury that’ll go away on its own, before someone realized they had a pool noodle sized tumor in their leg. I blame this incompetence for their death.
Oof, condolences
