Well now it's hot and expensive. Just so happens to hit the headlines
today:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-115snowbirds,0,4943143.story
The only thing cheap is the snowturds, but I've been saying that for
years.
Snowbirds opting for shorter winter stays in Florida
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 15 2007, 11:55 AM EST
MELBOURNE -- Florida's mild climate and world-class beaches continue
to draw Northern retirees seeking temporary refuge from harsh winter
weather, but tourism experts say many of these snowbirds are
shortening their stays.
Rental rates have risen to keep up with spiraling property insurance
rates from recent hurricanes, pricing some retirees out of the market.
``Prices in rentals have gone up because of insurance. We're 98
percent booked for February and March, but booked about 75 percent for
January, which is very unusual,'' said Lisa Durgin, a Cocoa
Beach-based Realtor who rents to snowbirds.
Durgin said this January is among the slowest she has seen.
Blanka Kovarik, a retiree from Toronto, said many of her friends are
planning shorter stays in Florida this winter. Along with the
increased rental costs, gas prices and rising medical expenses are
also a factor, she said.
In Brevard County, for example, a study by Schulman, Ronca, Bucuvalas,
Inc., found that the number of snowbirds fell nearly 9 percent to
27,600 in 2005 from 30,300 in 2003.
Abraham Pizam, dean of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management at
the University of Central Florida, said that snowbirds have been
stricken with ``Florida fatigue.''
``Snowbirds are not returning to Florida as they used to,'' Pizam
said. ``We're not getting as many repeat visitors. Other destinations
are competing with us as well. Also, remember that snowbirds have a
lot of expenses, with insurance and medical costs, and they have less
money for trips. So, rather than cutting out the vacation completely,
they're staying for a shorter time.''
Business are feeling the crunch, said Rob Varley, executive director
of the Space Coast Office of Tourism.
``The season is shorter, and the part-time residents are not coming as
soon, either,'' Varley said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zmoving11jan11,0,4784374.story
Even the deadbeats that have moved down here are leaving.
Florida exodus? Statistics show residents starting to leave for less
costly locales
By Paul Owers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 11 2007
For the first time in 30 years, United Van Lines Inc. says it moved
more people out of Florida than in, and analysts see that as a sign
that consumers are looking elsewhere for a cheaper slice of life.
The nation's largest moving company reported 16,212 inbound shipments
to Florida last year and 17,019 outbound shipments. United moved more
people to Florida in each year from 1999 to 2004, but the number of
inbound moves fell in 2005, spokeswoman Jennifer Bonham said.
The study isn't scientific, but it does underscore a recent trend in
which fed-up Floridians are moving to other parts of the country, in
part to escape rising property taxes and insurance rates.
United's report shows that North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina
were the top destination states in 2006. Michigan, hit hard by
automobile industry layoffs, North Dakota and New Jersey were the
states that saw the most people leave.
The housing boom brought more people to the Sunshine State at the
start of the decade, but the run-up in home values during the past
five years sent property-tax rates soaring. Many residents now say
they can't afford to move elsewhere in Florida because of the huge hit
they'd take on taxes.
What's more, busy hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 led to massive
rate hikes from the state's largest home insurance companies.
"It all just pushed us past the breaking point," David Levin, a Delray
Beach-based housing consultant, said Wednesday.
A couple of years ago, Paul Mount saw an early-morning infomercial
about cheap land in Tennessee. He and his wife ultimately moved there
from Wellington in July 2005.
They live in a log-cabin home on two acres near Chattanooga. In
Wellington, their property taxes were $9,300 a year; their tax bill in
Tennessee is $1,100.
The threat of hurricanes, rising utility rates and the cost of
homeowner insurance also convinced the couple that they should leave
Florida.
"We just got tired of it," said Mount, 52, a former Broward County
sheriff's deputy. "Everything is financial. The state of Florida is
just going crazy."
Recent U.S. census figures show that Florida gains 1,000 people a day
while losing 400, said Grant Thrall, a professor of business geography
at the University of Florida. But some residents clearly are
reconsidering because of the cost of living and other factors, Thrall
said.
"People move to where their well-being is going to be the greatest,"
he said. "Many people find the urban-built environment of Florida
totally disgusting."
As Floridians struggle with housing affordability and wages that have
not kept pace with the cost of living, other states are aggressively
trying to capture the Northeast migration that Florida once relied on
for its growth, said Levin, the Delray Beach housing consultant.
"They're eating our lunch," he said.
Although Florida remains attractive compared with cold-weather states,
"it is losing some of its luster," said Charles Longino, a Wake Forest
University professor who studies the exodus of Florida senior citizens
to North Carolina.
United Van Lines, based in suburban St. Louis, has tracked shipment
patterns on a state-by-state basis since 1977. Its 2006 study is based
on 227,254 interstate household moves among the 48 contiguous states
and Washington, D.C.
