Pulaski

Surely the reality show "Holiday Home Visa Nightmares" is long overdue.

tipex

FLOOD INSURANCE good luck

scrubbedexpat099

Not normally in the US.

Pulaski

Go on, give us a clue!

durham_lad

Good idea. We've used VRBO.com many times, often renting for a month at a time, I'm sure you could get a 3 month rental so you would get a good feel for different areas and do some research on buying a place.

sir_eccles

Perhaps he means "A place in the sun" which is described on the Channel 4 website as:

Pulaski

So he was responding to something three posts earlier, and on a different page.

indigogirl1976

The clearwater beach area is lovely.....there is a small expat community here....gorgeous beach...good rental opportunities (especially during spring break and the summer) and only and hour and 20 minutes from orlando. It's very pedestrian and has some public transportation....I moved here from the UK nearly 5 years ago and love it :-)

manekeniko

Here comes the BE killjoy post. I saw something at PBS that may put people off of Florida or at least make readers mindful and cautious. The state is very prone to sinkholes, and all would be wise to check a geological map to determine if the property is on solid ground.

People have lost their homes and even their lives from ground that collapses under them. This is caused by Florida's natural limestone water caves below ground and human activities above ground.

NOVA | Sinkholes—Buried Alive

Southy_SWFC

Sink holes are very common in Maine too so I can't win.

Pulaski

Sinkholes are a risk across much of America, though they form for very different reasons in different areas.

If there was an easy way to determine if a house is "on solid ground" in Florida (i) it would be mortgage lender requirement to get the "sinkhole status" checked/certified, and (ii) it would be a code requirement before houses could be built. In practice the start of a sinkhole is a relatively tiny geological flaw several hundred feet below ground level and is for all practical purposes impossible to predict, or to detect until it is about to appear at ground level. "Consulting a map" is IMO a complete waste of time, because although some areas might have more sinkholes than others, given that sinkholes rarely form close together, you might as well look to buy a house on a street where there has already been one sinkhole because a second one on the same street is statistically unlikely.

While there is a risk of sink holes in Florida, it is a very small risk and I could make a long list of better reasons to not move to Florida than "the risk of sinkholes".

WEBlue

My state is OK except for the highlands at our far western border. Looking at the USGS map (links below), it seems that sinkholes are more likely along mountain ranges in my part of New England--ski areas & hiking country like the Appalachian Trail....

But in Florida the problem looks to be state-wide unfortunately. The center of the state seems particularly prone to them (dotted line)....

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/g...evelopment.htm

Redirect to another web page

Is Florida doomed then? Sea rise may wipe out its coast while the rest of the state may sink into holes.........

manekeniko

In the Nova episode they explained clearly why Florida is more prone than other areas. The reasons are purely geological and began long before snowbirds arrived to buy condos. The show had a surveyor poking the ground with a pole, and it slipped straight down into the empty air pockets. That's where sinkholes are.

I thought it was quite shocking. This site may help.

FGS - Sinkholes in Florida

mikelincs

'Place in the Sun' also do a 'Winter Sun' programme, which centre on places like Canaries and Florida

S Folinsky

The United Kingdom has sinkholes: Terrifying sinkholes that are opening up all over Britain | Daily Mail Online

They also happen in my neck of the woods: The looming sinkhole crisis - LA Times