FEMA, Floods, and Florida Real Estate After Hurric…


After Hurricane Ian, Florida real estate took a huge hit. With multiple communities literally underwater and the entirety of Southwest Florida facing pricey home repairs, Florida went from being the Sunshine State to the “do we have enough insurance?” state overnight. And with more and more natural disasters taking shape across the US, how can homeowners, landlords, and renters prepare for what mother nature is throwing at us?

Thanks to both heavy state and federal funding, Florida is well on its way to a successful recovery, but how did this happen? To learn more about the ins and outs of disaster recovery, we brought on Jeremy Edwards, Press Secretary at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), to share what the federal government is doing to aid in building back communities. Jeremy touches on storm tracking, pre-disaster preparedness, flood insurance coverage, and temporary housing programs landlords can use to help affected areas.

We also take a detour to talk about the rising insurance costs in disaster-prone areas like the Gulf Coast and the flood mitigation assistance grants that FEMA has set up for local governments to lower their chances of a devastating event. Jeremy also talks about what private homeowners can do if they don’t have enough insurance coverage, and how they can build back better so their own homes are protected when disaster strikes.

Dave:
This is On the Market, a BiggerPockets podcast, presented by Fundrise.
Hey, what’s going on everyone? Welcome to On the Market. I’m your host, Dave Meyer. Today we’re going to be talking about the impact of natural disasters on local economies and the housing market because of what happened recently in Florida with Hurricane Ian. Most of us here at BiggerPockets were actually at the BiggerPockets conference during Hurricane Ian or right after Hurricane Ian. And one of the most common questions that I got then, and following that is, how does this impact people, either renters or homeowners,…