Retirees say goodbye to Florida’s perilous paradise

For decades, Flori­da has been the go-to des­ti­na­tion for retirees seek­ing a sun­ny, warm, and idyl­lic place to spend their gold­en years. Known for its pic­turesque beach­es, vibrant cul­ture, and lack of state income tax, Flori­da has always attract­ed retirees from across the Unit­ed States. It’s no secret that this par­adise has been prone to sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, from cli­mate change-induced threats to ris­ing sea lev­els and extreme weath­er events. Also, retirees spend 20% more on health­care in Flori­da than the nation­al aver­age. But the recent surge in cost of liv­ing in Flori­da has made it tru­ly chal­leng­ing for retirees to remain in the state.

A Flori­da house that cost $250,000 in 2018 now goes for $400,000. Source

Sur­pris­ing­ly enough, many peo­ple, in gen­er­al, are still mov­ing to Flori­da. In fact, it is one of the top states peo­ple are mov­ing to, with around 444,484 indi­vid­u­als mov­ing to the state in 2022 alone. How­ev­er, peo­ple aged 65 and over are pre­fer­ring to leave. Let’s exam­ine the main expla­na­tions for this phenomenon:

A. Increas­ing Demand

Talk­ing about the increas­ing demand in the state, it can be main­ly attrib­uted to the state’s attrac­tive ameni­ties and thriv­ing job mar­ket. Flori­da’s work­force has expe­ri­enced remark­able growth over the years, con­sis­tent­ly man­ag­ing to out­pace both Cal­i­for­nia and Texas in terms of work­force expan­sion. Notably, despite the slight decline in the growth rate of Flori­da’s labor force in the recent years, it expand­ed by 2.3% between Feb­ru­ary 2022 and Feb­ru­ary 2023, sur­pass­ing the nation­al growth rate of 1.5% with a fair mar­gin. In fact, for more than 30% of the new­com­ers, job trans­fers or fresh employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties were the dri­ving fac­tors behind their deci­sion to call Flori­da home. And let’s not for­get the state’s appeal­ing ameni­ties. Flori­da has got these amaz­ing beach­es, awe­some nat­ur­al stuff, and tons of fun things to do. To many, it’s like a dream place to live if you want an excit­ing and attrac­tive life. 

Now, the increas­ing demand in Flori­da, as more peo­ple move to the state, caus­es retirees to flee due to sev­er­al rea­sons. But ulti­mate­ly, as more young pro­fes­sion­als and fam­i­lies flock to Flori­da, it’s the sub­se­quent rise in cost of liv­ing, that makes it chal­leng­ing for retirees on fixed incomes to afford their expenses.

Accord­ing to Amber Dixon, CEO of Elder­ly Assist Inc., ris­ing infla­tion rates have made the scenic Flori­da coast­line less appeal­ing for retirees on fixed incomes. “This, cou­pled with hous­ing price increas­es, can lead to finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty for the elder­ly look­ing to retire in Flori­da,” adds Dixon.

i. Housing and Renting

One exam­ple of this trend can be seen in Flori­da’s real estate mar­ket. With more peo­ple mov­ing to the state, demand for hous­ing has surged, lead­ing to high­er prop­er­ty prices and rents. The medi­an home price sits at $400,000, expe­ri­enc­ing a 3.2% year-on-year increase, 60% in the last five years. This steep rise in hous­ing costs can be par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing for retirees on fixed incomes. Strug­gling to keep up with the esca­lat­ing expens­es, many of them are ulti­mate­ly com­pelled to leave in search of a more afford­able alter­na­tive. Experts do fore­cast a 4% decline in medi­an sale price growth for 2023, which would be the first annu­al drop in prices since 2012.

ii. Goods and services

The increas­ing demand in Flori­da, dri­ven by a grow­ing pop­u­la­tion, pos­es sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for retirees, par­tic­u­lar­ly in access­ing goods and ser­vices. The influx of new res­i­dents leads to over­crowd­ed estab­lish­ments, longer wait times, and reduced avail­abil­i­ty of goods and ser­vices, leav­ing retirees frus­trat­ed and dis­sat­is­fied. For instance, a recent study found that 75% of retirees in Flori­da report­ed dif­fi­cul­ty in access­ing med­ical ser­vices due to the ris­ing pop­u­la­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, local busi­ness­es strug­gle to meet the soar­ing demands, result­ing in lim­it­ed sup­plies and high­er prices, affect­ing retirees on fixed incomes. Accord­ing to a sur­vey, 60% of retirees wit­nessed a notice­able increase in the cost of essen­tial goods like gro­ceries and med­ica­tions. Con­se­quent­ly, this unfa­vor­able sit­u­a­tion prompts some retirees to con­sid­er relo­cat­ing to less pop­u­lat­ed states with bet­ter access to goods and ser­vices, fur­ther exac­er­bat­ing the issue.

iii. Gentrification

The influx of peo­ple mov­ing to Flori­da has trig­gered gen­tri­fi­ca­tion, lead­ing to sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for retirees. Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion involves the trans­for­ma­tion of neigh­bor­hoods, often result­ing in the dis­place­ment of long-time res­i­dents, includ­ing retirees. For instance, in areas like Wyn­wood in Mia­mi, the inflow of young pro­fes­sion­als and trendy busi­ness­es has caused a shift in the neigh­bor­hood’s char­ac­ter, mak­ing it less attrac­tive to retirees who once enjoyed its charm. Con­se­quent­ly, many retirees are forced to flee Flori­da, seek­ing more afford­able and sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ties out­side the areas under­go­ing gentrification.

B. Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ty Vulnerability

The rea­son retirees are flee­ing from Flori­da could be due to the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties of some retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in the state. While Flori­da has a lot of retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties to offer, includ­ing renowned ones like “The Vil­lages,” there are sig­nif­i­cant issues that could deter retirees from choos­ing this state as their retire­ment des­ti­na­tion. One crit­i­cal con­cern is the poor state of pub­lic trans­porta­tion, lim­it­ing retirees’ mobil­i­ty and access to essen­tial ser­vices out­side the com­mu­ni­ty. The edu­ca­tion sys­tem and med­ical ser­vices in these areas, accord­ing to reports, have fell way short of retirees’ expec­ta­tions, impact­ing their qual­i­ty of life. Fur­ther­more, many Florida’s retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties are sit­u­at­ed close to the coast­line or in low-lying areas, putting retirees direct­ly in harm’s way dur­ing hur­ri­canes and flood­ing events. The lack of prop­er urban plan­ning and out­dat­ed infra­struc­ture exac­er­bates the risks faced by the elder­ly population.

C. Insur­ance and Prop­er­ty Costs

Ris­ing insur­ance costs can be dif­fi­cult for fixed-income retirees in Flori­da, lead­ing to their flight from the state. Hur­ri­canes and floods are com­mon in Flori­da, increas­ing insur­ance claims. A study found that insur­ance pre­mi­ums for home­own­ers increased by 32% in the past three years. In 2022, Flori­da had the high­est num­ber of hur­ri­cane-relat­ed claims — $60 bil­lion of insured dam­ages and $100 bil­lion in total loss­es. In addi­tion, insur­ers often per­ceive retirees as high­er risks and face high­er pre­mi­ums. Insur­ance rates increase grad­u­al­ly until age 50 and then expe­ri­ence a more rapid rise for indi­vid­u­als aged 51 and old­er. Besides, lim­it­ed cov­er­age options affect retirees, with many insur­ers unwill­ing to cov­er cer­tain risks. These all insur­ance-relat­ed chal­lenges over­whelm­ing­ly force retirees with lim­it­ed income to seek insur­ance-friend­ly states, out of from Florida.

D. Cli­mate Change and Envi­ron­men­tal Threats

The vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of old­er adults to the health effects of the cli­mate change is anoth­er key rea­son why peo­ple above 65 are leav­ing Flori­da. The state’s aging com­mu­ni­ties are still more com­pelled to face ongo­ing chal­lenges caused by a com­bi­na­tion of ris­ing tem­per­a­tures, sea lev­el rise, and per­sis­tent flood­ing. The threat of fre­quent flood­ing, occur­ring over 26 times a year, not only endan­gers homes but also jeop­ar­dizes essen­tial fund­ing for crit­i­cal ser­vices. And, as peo­ple age, their bod­ies auto­mat­i­cal­ly become less resilient to envi­ron­men­tal haz­ards like air pol­lu­tion, increas­ing their sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to its adverse impacts. Mean­while, old­er adults may also have wit­nessed changes in their local envi­ron­ments over time, which increas­es their aware­ness of cli­mate-relat­ed risks, lead­ing them to be more cau­tious in seek­ing alter­na­tive liv­ing conditions.

E. Extreme Weath­er Events

Extreme weath­er events, includ­ing hur­ri­canes, trop­i­cal storms, tor­na­does, severe thun­der­storms, and heat­waves, are an inher­ent aspect of Flori­da’s cli­mate. Cur­rent­ly, Flori­da is fac­ing a sur­pris­ing marine heat wave off its coast, with water tem­per­a­tures reach­ing unprece­dent­ed highs. This alarm­ing sit­u­a­tion has sci­en­tists on edge, as it now pos­es a severe risk to the state’s coral reefs, rais­ing con­cerns about an immi­nent and severe coral bleach­ing event. Satel­lite records con­firm that sea sur­face tem­per­a­tures around Flori­da have reached 100.4°F, their high­est lev­els in record­ed history. 

While not the sole dri­vers of retirees leav­ing Flori­da, the impact of extreme weath­er events and cli­mate change on their deci­sion-mak­ing process can­not be under­es­ti­mat­ed. The grad­ual rise in num­bers reflects this trend, with 60,903 indi­vid­u­als aged 65 and over depart­ing Flori­da in 2021, com­pared to 52,630 in 2017, 48,174 in 2016, and 43,356 in 2012.