this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 132 points 1 month ago (7 children)

there is absolutely nothing in florida that makes it worth living there

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Florida is like an old used car: cheap upfront costs but expensive maintenance costs.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago

Florida is like an old used car: cheap up front costs for a dangerous vehicle that you know will eventually fall apart but you act surprised when you lose a ball joint in your front suspension on the highway while doing 120 kph because you ignored your mechanic for the fourth time this year. The look on your face as your car crosses the median and you're about to impact a cement truck.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They do have a first-class spaceport... Watching a rocket takeoff from there would be the only reason I ever go to Florida.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

i went to see a launch in early 00's. it is interesting, maybe worth a trip, but not worth moving there

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Alligators tell me otherwise. In fact, they tell me they look forward to having it back to themselves soon.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 month ago (18 children)

This is why insurance should be nationalized as part of your taxes.

Anyone thats not a brainwashed rightwing lunatic would see that paying 100-300 dollars a year on taxes would be a hell of a lot better than 100+ dollars a month just to buy a CEO a golden parachute and another yacht

But as long as right wing lunatics are out there literally hunting aid workers and evaluators, its never gonna happen.. because they want misery, pain, and destruction. its why Project 2025 wants to get rid of all of it.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 month ago (12 children)

I agree with nationalized healthcare insurance, but I don't know if I agree with using taxes to fund an underwriting account for houses in Florida that are guaranteed to get destroyed year after year.

Hurricanes are not getting smaller. Continuing to rebuild in Florida seems like building in the shadow of a smoking volcano.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Insert Bugs Bunny sawing off Florida from the mainland

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Even making it a state plan would work better in Florida than what we currently have. They let private insurers cherry pick the less risky houses, and cover whoever is left with the state plan. Then those private for profit insurers take the premiums, pay big bonuses to themselves, dissolve the company and leave, rinse and repeat. It's a scam.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

The cherry picking is usually a compromise to keep the companies operating in the state at all. If the state says a company must offer coverage for all perils for the entire state or leave entirely, it doesn't take an underwriter to know Florida is a bad bet. There are similar carve outs for windstorm coverage in other gulf coast states, and I think for wildfire coverage on the west coast.

Edit: I couldn't find anything about a single peril state plan for California, but this article describes some of the recent insurance issues in the state: https://apnews.com/article/california-home-insurance-wildfire-risk-premiums-047bdfa514ce93dac83c82735a15554a

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Florida needs to stop rebuilding in the barrier islands. It's unfortunate for the people that live there, but this is going to keep happening over and over again.

Just plant mangroves and let them do their job of protecting the mainland.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

Stop building on the coasts in general. leave them as natural barriers and wonders, rather than having a 800 foot tall hotel 3 feet from the seawater.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 month ago

Welcome to climate change. This is just the tip of the iceberg: things are just going to continue getting worse and worse each and every year.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Anyone that rebuilds in place after their whole house is destroyed is nuts.. if you get insurance payout.. this is your chance to move.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Insurance companies save money by denying claims on a normal day. Paying to rebuild an entire state would jeopardize the big number going up and thus executive bonuses.

They won't be paying claims. They're not going to pay to rebuild a house that their models say will be knocked down again in 2-3 years by the next "storm of the century." Insurance companies exist to extract wealth, not to help people. And they will always have more lawyers than you.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago

They also have all kinds of weasel options in their coverage. "Sorry, you were covered for wind, not flood" They'll avoid paying any way they can.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

But do they have more lawyers than the banks? Most of those houses are actually the bank's houses.

[–] kata1yst 49 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Insurance companies in the US have become a Ponzai scam instead of a service.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (6 children)

is that a meme or did you accidentally butcher the term "ponzi scheme" which is something entirely different? not saying insurances aren't often a scam. just a different kind.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (7 children)

If your insurance only covers 50% of the property value it is essentially useless.

This is absolutely insane.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

Wait until you hear about the deductible... where I am (not earthquake country by any means) the deductible was $80k. I sad pass on that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

My in-laws learned this the hard way after a total loss fire. Their insurance covered the current value of the house, not the cost to move/replace it in a total loss scenario, so now they have a big mortgage for their new house when the old one was nearly entirely paid off

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (11 children)

I’m perfectly fine letting Florida handle Florida’s problems.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Someone should point out to most of the right wingers that FEMA is socialism

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

Dont worry they voted unanimously to not expand fema right before both hurricanes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago

It’s only socialism when the libs get it. Otherwise it’s their god given right.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

They are already hunting FEMA folks.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

Yup. Let the states decide, then pay for it

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 weeks ago

Insurance companies: "Wait you actually expect us to provide the service you're paying us for? That's not how this works!"

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I feel bad for the Tampa homeowner who discovered homes in their neighborhood used to be worth seven figures and are now worth low six figures.

I think we all predicted that kind of thing would happen somewhere someday, and Florida is one of those top places on the list, but even so, we should be sympathetic. You never really think this kind of thing is going to happen to you, after all. Best of luck to everyone whose homes were destroyed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

I don’t. They dropped everything and moved across the country to a place with a known problematic housing market then gave the shocked picachu face when they couldn’t get back out. Remember that they dropped $550k cash. They are going to recover.

[–] phdepressed 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Someone who can afford a seven figure house is part of the 1% I'm not going to feel sorry about them losing a portion of their wealth that still keeps them above 95% of people.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Uhhhh.

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+homes+are+over+%241+million

Apparently per Redfin 8.5% of homes in the US are 7 figures or more. We're not talking the 1% here.

In California the median home price is almost $800,000.

I'm in a HCOL area in Washington State and regularly see 3bdrm and sometimes 2bdrm condos for over 1 million.

Not to mention sure your home is equity or net worth but most people only buy one and sell it anytime they move. Many of these people also planned on selling it / downsizing in retirement and converting it towards their retirement fund.

Remember that "afford" doesn't mean they have a million dollars. "afford" means they saved up a down-payment and then paid interest and mortgage payments (sometimes barely scraping by) for at least 30 years. Usually many more years if they moved from smaller house or a condo to a larger house when they decided to have a family (thereby starting a new mortgage for another 30 years). Or worst case, they haven't paid it off and now are underwater on their mortgage.

The banks are the ones making crazy money on all this.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Who could have seen this coming?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If only climate scientists had warned us 50 years ago we probably could have done something.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

The insurance companies saw this coming. That's why they have the clauses that exclude flood damage.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

every client of the companies affected with see that cost

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