In just three years, Florida’s Gulf Coast has turned from a Category 5 situation, homes bought seemingly before hitting the market and builders can’t keep up.
Today, the wind has stopped, homes are staying put with concerns of future powerful hurricanes, rising insurance costs and growing repair bills.
Charlotte County homeowners like Glenn Martin, who lives in a Punta Gorda home located just across from Charlotte Harbor, were swamped during Hurricane Helene last September. Water ruined nearly everything inside. “Every piece of furniture is downstairs, ruined,” Martin said. “My refrigerator floated up.”
He is gutting and repairing the house not for himself, but for a future buyer. “It blew out the windows in the front. It blew out these doors,” he said, pointing to the damage. “I’m probably going to spend tens of thousands, but I don’t know what they’re going to give me if I try to sell it like this.”
Martin is not alone. Many of his neighbors have already left or are preparing to. Across the region, the scars of the 2024 hurricane season remain visible with thousands of “fixer-upper” listings lining the market, and a growing inventory is signaling a shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s dream.
Redfin reports that Florida currently has more than 220,000 homes listed for sale—a more than seven-month supply, though that number fluctuates monthly. More than a thousand of those listings, from Tampa to Marco Island, are labeled as needing major repairs.
“The market is definitely weak right now,” said Changzhou Kenzie, Redfin’s head of economics. “You are seeing inventory accumulate. Prices are soft. If you are a potential buyer in Florida, you could probably negotiate a pretty good price for yourself.”
Even move-in-ready properties are lingering. Realtor Cindy Marsh-Tichy, who represents the Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, North Port and DeSoto areas, said many homeowners are still working on post-storm repairs, but some homes are ready to go.
“There’s a lot of turnkeys out there ready to go,” Marsh-Tichy said. “Anytime you get hit back to back, it’s going to be a challenge.”
Challenges do not end with repairs. High mortgage rates, soaring insurance premiums and lingering inflation are giving buyers pause. The median home price in the area has dipped to $389,000, Marsh-Tichy said, down from over $400,000 just two years ago. About a third of sellers are slashing their asking prices, according to Redfin.
“Things are changing,” she added. “And you have to remember that real estate is a cycle.”
For homeowners like Martin, the worry is not just about the money they are putting in, it’s about the storms that could come again. “One thing I’m afraid of right now is working on this house and spending a bunch of money and then getting another one of these things next fall,” he said.
Even as prices come down, Realtors say more must be done to attract families. The high cost of entry, paired with the risk of damage, is leading many would-be buyers to choose rentals instead of taking on the financial burden of rebuilding after a storm.
“If we want more families, we need more affordable, starter homes,” Marsh-Tichy said.
Until then, the Gulf Coast housing market remains stuck between recovery and retreat, with buyers in the driver’s seat and sellers, like Martin, hoping the next storm holds off long enough to make a deal.
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