Costly Florida Mortgages, Insurance, Taxes Cause Broward Residents to Bolt
A rising tide of Florida mortgage costs, property taxes and insurance rates is causing many Broward County residents to bail out.
“It’s been a big disappointment,” said Bella Zaritsky, an office manager who moved to Plantation four years ago from the Northeast.
“The [South Florida housing market] is becoming ridiculous. Property taxes are out of control. Insurance is out of control. It’s not a fair system.”
Zaritsky and her husband are selling their townhouse and moving to Georgia, where a dollar goes further and the job market is friendlier.
A new battery of Census figures shows Zaritsky is not alone. For the first time in decades, there are more people leaving Broward County for other parts of Florida or the nation than people moving into Broward from the rest of the country. A similar trend emerged in Palm Beach County.
From 2005-2006, Broward lost 18,459 people to other Florida counties and states, the data showed. But because 15,227 people came to Broward County from outside the U.S., and because of new births, the county still grew by 5,620.
Experts say various factors contributed to the change. Stunning increases in home insurance and property taxes are near the top of the list.
They also cite high Florida mortgage costs, a crush of new buildings and roads, and the annual stress and havoc of hurricane season.
Movers and real estate agents say those moving tend to relocate to Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia.
When Diane Prete bought her Lake Worth years ago, it was surrounded by only vacant lots. Now it sits amid a tangle of development. A tipping point was homeowner’s insurance. Her payments tripled over the past five years.
Sociology professor Arthur Evans at Florida Atlantic University said that the new data reflects a gradual exodus of elderly residents - people 75 or older who might be returning to an earlier stomping ground after a spouse dies, or moving in with their children.
Linda Mortensen, a real estate agent in Miramar and Pembroke Pines, said six out of eight recent homes she sold were to investors who plan to sell the homes to buyers in Venezuela and other countries.
People planning to move here from within the United States are thinking twice after they review the exorbitant costs of Florida mortgage loans - not to mention the taxes that come with them.
“It’s quite apparent that South Florida has become a place where the average person cannot afford to live anymore,” she said.
“People who live here have to have a lot of money.”
Continue reading in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel …
