Fort Myers, Florida, was America’s seventh-fastest-growing city, more than doubling in size during the three decades before Hurricane Ian crashed into it last September. The Category 4 storm laid waste to the area before slashing through the heart of the state. But the storm clouds had barely parted before house hunters flocked to Fort Myers seeking bargains in the wreckage.
“It’s pretty much business as usual,” a local real estate agent told the Wall Street Journal not long after. Fort Myers home prices jumped 21% that October from an already inflated level, according to data tracker Redfin.
Americans just can’t stop flocking to places that are increasingly prone to destructive storms, droughts, wildfires, heat waves and floods as the planet warms. Five of the 10 hottest U.S. housing markets for out-of-state buyers in February were in Florida, according to a new Redfin report. One was Cape Coral, the metropolitan area that includes Fort Myers. Florida was the fastest-growing state in the U.S. last year in percentage terms, according to the Census Bureau.
