Insurance-scarred Florida emigres
stream to Atlanta
Wave of transplants affects new architecture,
real estate marketing campaigns, schools
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/23/07
When Warren Lambert's insurance company canceled his
homeowner's policy, it was the last straw.
Even though he had never filed a claim despite a
punishing year of hurricanes in 2004 and had absorbed a 40 percent rise in his
insurance premium, Lambert was among thousands of Florida homeowners left in
the lurch by retreating insurers.
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JOHNNY CRAWFORD/Staff |
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Terrilyn Jones, now a |
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JOHNNY CRAWFORD/Staff |
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Kyla Williamson and her
mother, Terrilyn Jones, beam in front of their new
home in |
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For the short term, Lambert bought a policy that added
yet another $600 a year to his payments. Then, he came house hunting in
Atlanta, where he had lived in the 1990s.
Pleased by the growing urban sophistication of the intown
areas, he settled into a Peachtree Street loft.
Lambert, 44, is among a wave of transplants migrating to
metro Atlanta from coastal communities, driven by soaring insurance premiums,
devastating weather and a volatile real estate market that has priced much
coastal housing beyond the reach of average workers.
Leslie Johnson, vice president for business development
at Coldwell Banker The Condo Store, said recent research about the Midtown
market shows that 33 percent of all the buyers there over age 55 are moving
from Florida.
"I think there will be more when those people in
Florida can sell their houses," Johnson said.
Lambert confirms that a number of his Florida friends
have shopped for homes and jobs in Atlanta while waiting for a buyer.
Johnson even notes that the numbers of homebuyers coming
from Florida are having an effect on the architecture of new construction and
the style of real estate marketing campaigns.
At Aqua in Midtown, for example, developer Scott
Leventhal acknowledges drawing inspiration from the design of condo towers in
Miami.
And the Related Group, Miami's signature residential
developer, is currently in its design phase for CityPlace Buckhead near Lenox
Square, its first Atlanta project.
This geographic shift is not just being felt inside the
city. In fact, every part of metro Atlanta is absorbing a notable share of
coastal transplants.
Gainesville real estate broker and analyst Frank Norton
Jr. said his data is showing that former Floridians comprise the largest identifiable
group of regional transplants now buying homes in north Georgia.
"About a quarter of people relocating here are from
Florida," Norton said. "It's our largest source of relocation."
Expanding problem
Georgia State University insurance professor Martin Grace
said the uptick in severe hurricane activity in recent years has produced
widespread insurance-company re-evaluation of risk levels and loss protection
throughout East Coast and Gulf of Mexico communities.
"This is having the greatest effect in Florida
because that is where most hurricanes hit, where they do the most damage,"
Grace said.
But the effect of increased hurricane activity is being
felt all over the East Coast, said David Colmans, executive director of the
Georgia Insurance Information Service.
"People who want to live in paradise have to realize
there's a cost to that," Colmans said. "Now, all of a sudden, people
in the Northeast are realizing they are vulnerable as well."
With insurance companies withdrawing from the Florida
market and the remaining companies raising rates to shocking levels, Florida
legislators attempted to provide government relief for strapped homeowners,
only to discover the loss estimates driving insurance company premiums were
accurately calculated, according to Grace. An attempt earlier this year by the
Florida Legislature to stem the rising tide of premiums did little to reduce
rates.
"The insurance industry wasn't pulling a fast
one," Grace said. "It really was expensive."
Simple math
For a growing enclave of Florida transplants in Henry
County, those costs combined with a growing market of attractive salaries made
moving to metro Atlanta a no-brainer.
Miami teacher Nannette Bradley, 34, said the annual
$3,000 insurance cost for her three-bedroom, two-bath townhouse was straining
her public-servant salary to the breaking point.
"The bills were piling on," Bradley said.
"You couldn't see the end to anything."
In January, she visited friends already living in the
Hampton area and found a lot to love about the area, including higher teacher
salaries. With a job secured in the Henry County schools, she will close on a
new home this month for herself and her 8-year-old son. The new five-bedroom,
four-bath house in a Hampton subdivision was the same price as her Miami townhome.
"In Miami, that house would have been at least
$600,000," Bradley said.
Terrilyn Jones, also a teacher in Henry County, moved
into her Liberty Square home in May. When she was living in Miami, she said,
she had to rent because homeownership was so expensive.
"Even if you can buy a home, you can't afford to
maintain it," Jones said.
Staying up north
Miami's loss is Atlanta's gain, especially for real
estate agents like Clifton Gerring, an agent with Jenny Pruitt & Associates
who has enjoyed a lot of referrals from his Florida transplants to friends and
family who are joining them in metro Atlanta.
Gerring got his first two Florida clients in 2005 after
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
"Then, they started referring their friends and
relatives," Gerring said. He estimates he has helped as many as a dozen of
these referrals over the past two years.
The problems in coastal communities are also helping to
stabilize the Atlanta area by making retirees reconsider their beachcomber
dreams.
Vinings resident Ruth Stockinger and her husband were
considering a move to Florida after his retirement from SunTrust Bank in
September. But the costs that emerged as the couple shopped in the Naples,
Fla., area for a home changed their minds.
"Homeowners' insurance is so difficult to get for us
because we had a very small claim" at their Vinings home, Stockinger said.
"They won't take on any new customers in Florida if they've had a claim in
the last five years."
So, the Stockingers decided to stay in Atlanta, which
they have loved since moving here from Richmond, Va., four years ago. They'll
use the money they save to fund shorter beach getaways throughout the year.
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