Retirement home in the south

After hearing you guys, New Jersey doesn't seem too bad... $60 a year fo registration for two boats... I like the idea of keeping a boat in Costa Rica, or Mexico...

If the Feds have their way starting October 1st, our flood insurance is going through the roof. Mine started at $700 in 1998 and is now $2350 per year. They say it will go up 20%-25% per year until I max out (the magic number nobody knows) but I'm told it could be as high as $10,000 per year (just for flood insuracne). Maybe I'll move to the Carolinas.

They don't allow Yankees up there......

BritLady said:

WOW! That sucks, we just pay annual tag fee which was less than $140. Perhaps another reason we see quite a few folk moving here from CA...especially retirees who like boats

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AND, they raised the value of my 410DA by over $70K this year! I offered to sell it to the auditor but he declined. I am fighting it but the burden of proof is on me. I do have the following information a local broker sent to me though.

My friends did just return from looking in Fla, and too heard about outrageous flood ins premium hikes soon .this will take some time for us to visit the states and decide. The property taxes were paying on Long Island is outrageous and I'm two miles from the Long Island Sound. Thanks for all the comments so far.

Not to upset anyone paying higher PPT....mine was $90 for the year for my 88 300.

Joe, What ever you do I wish you and yours the best of Luck with everything!

Pyrojodge said:

Joe, What ever you do I wish you and yours the best of Luck with everything!

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Agree...good luck

dwna1a said:

Not to upset anyone paying higher PPT....mine was $90 for the year for my 88 300.

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Mine has been $0 since I bought my 250 Sundancer. Neither Fairfax nor Prince William County charges PPT on boats. Stafford County just joined them because they were losing people from all of their marinas to us farther north.

The city of Hampton is that way. jCC lowered taxes on the larger boats to try to get those boaters back.

Havana Shamrock said:

My friends did just return from looking in Fla, and too heard about outrageous flood ins premium hikes soon .this will take some time for us to visit the states and decide. The property taxes were paying on Long Island is outrageous and I'm two miles from the Long Island Sound. Thanks for all the comments so far.

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As I understand it, the flood insurance premium hikes are because hitherto the premiums have been heavily subsidized and now that FEMA/Citizens are running short of money they want to put the premiums up dramatically to the unsubsidized rate which in some cases is 3-4 times what folk currently pay. I understand from our Insurance guy, the rate hikes mainly apply to property before the building code required property to be elevated with non-conforming space below (I think it changed about 1974). Therefore, if your home is elevated the flood premium hikes should not apply as the home should not be subject to flood damage as it will only damage anything on the ground floor which is not insured. Some folk are being quoted astronomical insurance rates when they are thinking of buying these single level homes and are backing out of buying them as $18,000 +/-a year for ins. is pretty steep! It will impact the housing market here dramatically if it is implemented on Oct 1st which I think is when it is supposed to do, so be very careful, and if you want to live in a single family home by the water any where choose elevated because if the hikes don't come now they may well do eventually

1970 built ranch style home on the water. It's going to hurt. I thought about selling (before the prices decline), buy a newer home without flood for cash (due to equity in my home) and then buy a bigger boat. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out but doesn't look pretty.

Is this ins hike only effecting FLA? Or has anyone seem similar raises in other southern states?


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Bucit said:

1970 built ranch style home on the water. It's going to hurt. I thought about selling (before the prices decline), buy a newer home without flood for cash (due to equity in my home) and then buy a bigger boat. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out but doesn't look pretty.

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You're right it doesn't look pretty! We would like to downsize to a smaller waterfront home on Siesta Key but won't buy one that's not elevated because of the ins. issues. Unfortunately, I expect many others will feel the same which will make the ranch styles harder to sell. It's going to be a big mess if it goes through. Some folk have spent hundreds of thousands on these older homes built in the 1950's or before and are asking millions for them on Siesta Key which I doubt they will be able to get if all these hikes come to pass.

Havana Shamrock said:

Is this ins hike only effecting FLA? Or has anyone seem similar raises in other southern states?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

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This is a federal deal (flood insuracne) and will afffect everyone in the US. Florida has the most homes in low lying areas (not necassarily on the water). We have homes nea rus worth $125k and becasue they are in a low lying area their flood insuracne will increase to $4,000+ . Just crazy. I've been told that 40% of the Feds money for fllod has been spent on Sandy and Colorado (areas that were not in a flood zone and did not pay flood insuracne). Thus they are crying poor and and lloking to increase the rates.

Brit - I saw yesterday how bad Siesta Key floods with just the rain we've been getting. I bet the insuracne there will be pretty high.

Bucit said:

This is a federal deal (flood insuracne) and will afffect everyone in the US. Florida has the most homes in low lying areas (not necassarily on the water). We have homes nea rus worth $125k and becasue they are in a low lying area their flood insuracne will increase to $4,000+ . Just crazy. I've been told that 40% of the Feds money for fllod has been spent on Sandy and Colorado (areas that were not in a flood zone and did not pay flood insuracne). Thus they are crying poor and and lloking to increase the rates.

Brit - I saw yesterday how bad Siesta Key floods with just the rain we've been getting. I bet the insuracne there will be pretty high.

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I heard it's the Feds overspend on Sandy and in CO which has caused this nationwide hike too. Folks here who have paid for years and never had a claim are just hoping mad! Siesta Key flooding is why we would never buy there unless elevated, as you say it's bad enough with just the rain In fact, would not consider anywhere at all now unless elevated, far too risky. Our ins. guy told me if we were to build a new elevated our ins. would be cheaper than where we are now which is on a lake on the highest ground around but all built on one level in '97!

It's a long, long way off, but does anyone have any input about the Savannah Georgia area?

northshore said:

It's a long, long way off, but does anyone have any input about the Savannah Georgia area?

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One of my favorite places. The river walk is beautiful and the people are always so nice. I really miss the southern hospitality. As far as living there I'm no help but when you do go down there make sure I know so I can crash a night or two on your couch! :thumbsup:

You got it Jason!

Joe,
Frank Webster has provided a compelling pitch for the Florida Panhandle so I hopefully can provide as good a pitch for Arizona where I moved 1 year ago from the Chicago suburbs. Like you, I am within a few years of retirement and was looking for a cheaper and warmer way of life which I have found here in the Grand Canyon State. I have a Scottsdale mailing address, but live in unincorporated Maricopa County. We also looked at property in NC, SC, NM and FL, over the past 12 years but eliminated FL due to hurricanes and humidity (the Admiral has arthritis), the Carolinas due remoteness and potential for bad weather, and NM because it was too remote or too expensive.

Taxes: My property taxes dropped from $15,200 to $2,300 for actually a more upscale house here than I had back in Darien, IL on a similar size acre+ lot. The State income tax rate is graduated with a top bracket of 4.54% of $300,000 for a married couple filing jointly. My average rate is around 3.5% compared to 5% back in IL. There is a personal property tax on vehicles but not boats that is based on the manufacturer’s base price and goes down 15% annually based upon the age of the vehicle. I have a 2012 F150 and a 2014 BMW X3 which carry a combined $1,700 tax. This tax is deductible against both Federal and AZ income tax which helps and Social Security benefits are not taxed. Another AZ deduction is provided for medical expenses which further reduces the tax bite. States that have no income tax usually have higher property taxes as an offset which to me is a tax on wealth rather than income.

Boating: I wet slip my 26.5’ bow rider on Bartlett Lake which is a 40 minute drive from my house. I have a covered slip with an extended deck for entertaining. I put my boat in the water here a year ago and have only missed 4 weekends of boating, 2 because it was below 45 degrees, 1 due to rain and 1 when I was sick. Everyone criticizes AZ for 120 degree days in the summer; however, I take that compared to the 106 degrees and 80% humidity that I experienced by last summer in Chicago. But out on the lake, the temperature never got higher than 104 which was still comfortable on the boat with a bimini like what you see in my signature picture. Basically, I never have to worry much about the weather interfering with my boating here compare to Lake Michigan back in Chicago. Bartlett Lake is a 2,800 acre (4.375 sq. miles) reservoir lake that follows the Verde River. My typical cruise is close to 10 miles in either direction. I traded my 320DA in on the Chap because a boat that big is overkill for here unless you want to anchor overnight on the lake or overnight at the dock. Another reason for not have a 320 or larger here is there are no marina mechanics. You pay either a traveling charge to Marine Max (for Sea Ray owners) or to the Chap dealer (me) of $300. One reason, I ordered my Chap with a Volvo power train, is it is simpler to service so even a non-DIY’er like me can change the oil or impeller without becoming a contortionist. Lake Pleasant is 3 times larger than Bartlett and has two marinas but is more crowded on Weekends and not nearly as pretty. If you are looking for big water boating, then AZ is not the place but some keep their boats in San Diego which is a 5 hour drive+ from here. I don’t have a trailer, but many do here because there are a number of lakes with public launches and they don’t want to spend the extra money to keep the boat in a slip.

Population and Infrastructure: The Phoenix area has 1/3 the population of Chicago so traffic is the square root of what I had to deal with in the City and suburbs plus the speed limits are 45-50 mph which reduces travel times. North Scottsdale where I live didn’t exist 12 years ago so all the roads, utilities, and buildings won’t need to be replaced or significantly repaired for the next 20-30 years which will help to keep down future taxes. Even though we are in the desert, water is not nearly as big an issue as in most other western states because AZ sits on a large underground reservoir and I believe has not overdrawn it’s rights to CO river like Las Vegas. I have a shared well with another neighbor that costs me $20 per month in electricity. We both have drip irrigation systems for our landscaping which does not include one blade of grass that has to be mowed weekly!

I’ve made my case for AZ versus FL or elsewhere so I suggest that you come visit here along with the coastal areas recommended in previous posts to evaluate what retirement life style suits you and the Admiral best. If you can bring yourself to ride in a non-Sea Ray, you have a standing invitation to come out on the lake with me and see AZ first hand. The scenery here is drop dead gorgeous, as the pictures below show. The first is from my back yard looking South and the second is a view from the parking lot of the marina…Oh and BTW, they don’t have any problem counting votes here like in the Sunshine State:smt043!!