Home Buyers Flock to Florida Cities Devastated by Hurricane Ian

Less than a month after Hurricane Ian caused widespread devastation to southwestern Florida, investors and other buyers are scouring for housing deals in a region where home prices have soared in recent years.

Demand remains strong from both locals and out-of-staters, according to residential real-estate agents in Naples, Fla., and other areas near the path of the Category 4 storm. They say they have received numerous inquiries from people still interested in relocating to the Sunshine State, or hoping to pick up distressed properties.

“It’s pretty much business as usual,” said Kelly Baldwin, an agent for Coldwell Banker in Longboat Key, Fla. “I haven’t had anyone reach out who wants to stop their home search.”

The costs associated with fortifying a home against wind and flooding, along with rising premiums for homeowner and flood insurance, are enough to cause some longtime Florida residents to leave.

But some investors with plenty of cash are expressing interest. Friley Saucier, a global real-estate adviser at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Naples, is working with a wealthy individual planning to spend as much as $50 million on distressed real estate in areas that suffered damage from Ian.

“He called me after the storm,” she said. “I’ve spent a week calling agents and others trying to find properties that are off-market because these homes are still being dried out and remediated, so they’re not yet listed.”

Rick Lema, whose primary residence is in Narragansett, R.I., owns a home in a mobile-home park in Englewood, Fla., about midway between Sarasota and Fort Myers, that was damaged by the storm. A cash buyer, he started driving around local neighbourhoods the day after the storm, before he repaired his own home, to look for distressed waterfront homes and commercial properties.

Mr. Lema had been looking for investments previously, but felt that “prices were through-the-roof ridiculous.” Now, he believes owners of damaged properties will jump at the opportunity to unload their holdings. “If they were asking $1 million before the storm, I’ll offer $750,000,” he said.

Certainly, some potential buyers are thinking twice after the damage caused by the storm, which is expected to be between $40 billion and $64 billion for flood and wind losses to Florida residential and commercial properties, according to an estimate by data firm CoreLogic. What is more, 62% of U.S. residents who plan to buy or sell a home in the next year are hesitant to move to an area with climate risk, according to a recent report by brokerage Redfin.

Some with plans to settle in the area are now reconsidering. Kurt Kuemmerle, 60 years old, a carpenter who lives in Marmora, N.J., owns a piece of land in Port Charlotte, about 30 miles northwest of Fort Myers. He said he always thought he would build a home there for retirement with his significant other, Robin Konschak. But now he plans to sell the land.

“We realised that southwest Florida is far too dangerous to live in permanently,” Ms. Konschak said.

Yet many others are undeterred. Connie Langenbahn, 62, a retired school-bus driver, and her husband, Gregg Langenbahn, 61, are leaving their home in Cincinnati in November to become permanent residents of southwest Florida. The couple said they would live with their daughter in Sarasota, Fla., while they shop for a home, a process they began two years ago.

“The hurricane scared my husband, but it’s been my dream my whole life to live in Florida, and I’m not giving up,” Mrs. Langenbahn said.

The two are hoping to spend no more than $450,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath home. “I’m hoping that prices don’t go up higher now because people need homes,” she said.

Some housing analysts think they will, at least for the short term. “We most likely will see an increase in prices almost immediately, driven mostly by continued strong demand and a storm-induced inventory shortage,” said Ken H. Johnson, a housing economist at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business.

“While pricing might be erratic for the first few months, the demand for living along a coastline with warm weather and a business-friendly economy seems to have led to quick economic recoveries after recent past hurricane strikes,” said Dr. Johnson.

Few areas in the U.S. have seen prices run up this much already. According to the Naples Area Board of Realtors, the median sales price for a single-family home increased by 24.9% between August 2021 and August 2022, the latest month for which statistics are available, to $725,000. Condominium prices increased by 34% during the same period.

A study released Oct. 11 by Dr. Johnson and Eli Beracha, Ph.D., of Florida International University, found that the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area was the nation’s most overvalued housing market in August—before Hurricane Ian—with buyers paying an average of 70% over the area’s long-term pricing trend.

“Due to the devastation, there won’t be a lot of homes to sell for a while,” said Kristen Conti, broker-owner of Peacock Premier Properties in Englewood, Fla. Lack of supply, combined with the demand for homes by both end-users and investors, will cause home prices to increase for 12 to 18 months, she said.

The marketplace has spoken and, at least for now, it’s showing preference for hybrids and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) over battery electrics. That makes Toyota’s foot dragging on EVs (and full speed ahead on hybrids) look fairly wise, though the timeline along a bumpy road still gets us to full electrification by 2035.

Italian supercar producer Lamborghini, in business since 1963, is also proceeding, incrementally, toward battery power. In an interview, Federico Foschini , Lamborghini’s chief global marketing and sales officer, talked about the new Urus SE plug-in hybrid the company showed at its lounge in New York on Monday.

The Urus SE interior gets a larger centre screen and other updates.
Lamborghini

The Urus SE SUV will sell for US$258,000 in the U.S. (the company’s biggest market) when it goes on sale internationally in the first quarter of 2025, Foschini says.

“We’re using the contribution from the electric motor and battery to not only lower emissions but also to boost performance,” he says. “Next year, all three of our models [the others are the Revuelto, a PHEV from launch, and the continuation of the Huracán] will be available as PHEVs.”

The Euro-spec Urus SE will have a stated 37 miles of electric-only range, thanks to a 192-horsepower electric motor and a 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery, but that distance will probably be less in stricter U.S. federal testing. In electric mode, the SE can reach 81 miles per hour. With the 4-litre 620-horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine engaged, the picture is quite different. With 789 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque on tap, the SE—as big as it is—can reach 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and attain 193 mph. It’s marginally faster than the Urus S, but also slightly under the cutting-edge Urus Performante model. Lamborghini says the SE reduces emissions by 80% compared to a standard Urus.

Lamborghini’s Urus plans are a little complicated. The company’s order books are full through 2025, but after that it plans to ditch the S and Performante models and produce only the SE. That’s only for a year, however, because the all-electric Urus should arrive by 2029.

Lamborghini’s Federico Foschini with the Urus SE in New York.
Lamborghini

Thanks to the electric motor, the Urus SE offers all-wheel drive. The motor is situated inside the eight-speed automatic transmission, and it acts as a booster for the V8 but it can also drive the wheels on its own. The electric torque-vectoring system distributes power to the wheels that need it for improved cornering. The Urus SE has six driving modes, with variations that give a total of 11 performance options. There are carbon ceramic brakes front and rear.

To distinguish it, the Urus SE gets a new “floating” hood design and a new grille, headlights with matrix LED technology and a new lighting signature, and a redesigned bumper. There are more than 100 bodywork styling options, and 47 interior color combinations, with four embroidery types. The rear liftgate has also been restyled, with lights that connect the tail light clusters. The rear diffuser was redesigned to give 35% more downforce (compared to the Urus S) and keep the car on the road.

The Urus represents about 60% of U.S. Lamborghini sales, Foschini says, and in the early years 80% of buyers were new to the brand. Now it’s down to 70%because, as Foschini says, some happy Urus owners have upgraded to the Performante model. Lamborghini sold 3,000 cars last year in the U.S., where it has 44 dealers. Global sales were 10,112, the first time the marque went into five figures.

The average Urus buyer is 45 years old, though it’s 10 years younger in China and 10 years older in Japan. Only 10% are women, though that percentage is increasing.

“The customer base is widening, thanks to the broad appeal of the Urus—it’s a very usable car,” Foschini says. “The new buyers are successful in business, appreciate the technology, the performance, the unconventional design, and the fun-to-drive nature of the Urus.”

Maserati has two SUVs in its lineup, the Levante and the smaller Grecale. But Foschini says Lamborghini has no such plans. “A smaller SUV is not consistent with the positioning of our brand,” he says. “It’s not what we need in our portfolio now.”

It’s unclear exactly when Lamborghini will become an all-battery-electric brand. Foschini says that the Italian automaker is working with Volkswagen Group partner Porsche on e-fuel, synthetic and renewably made gasoline that could presumably extend the brand’s internal-combustion identity. But now, e-fuel is very expensive to make as it relies on wind power and captured carbon dioxide.

During Monterey Car Week in 2023, Lamborghini showed the Lanzador , a 2+2 electric concept car with high ground clearance that is headed for production. “This is the right electric vehicle for us,” Foschini says. “And the production version will look better than the concept.” The Lanzador, Lamborghini’s fourth model, should arrive in 2028.

Home Buyers Flock to Florida Cities Devastated by Hurricane Ian

‘It’s pretty much business as usual,’ one agent says; area damaged by storm had experienced sharp price run-up