Thinking About Milton

2024 Is Shaping Up To Be The Most Expensive Year For US Disaster Clean-Up
The Frequency And Intensity Of Natural Disasters Is Ramping Up
The Cost And Availability Of Insurance Will Have A Profound Impact On Housing

I’ve only known one Milton, and he was kind of a disaster. I met him when I was a teenager working summers in the kitchen of a large restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He was a big, affable man who was always in trouble, an accident waiting to happen. In between, humming bars of “Blueberry Hill,” he used to extoll the upside of going to prison to get “three squares a day and a dry place to sleep” while we were standing side by side prepping seafood for the day’s menu in a sweltering kitchen. The looming hurricane version of Milton that is hitting the Gulf Coast of Florida tonight reminds me of him. We’ve all had a few days to get to know him. But this version of Milton is not our friend. We know he will eventually cause extensive damage to the lives and properties of residents in his path because that’s what hurricanes do. And there will be many others that follow him. Frankly, with family and friends on his (indirect) path, it makes me nervous, and discussing any other housing-related topic today doesn’t seem that important.

Recent Housing Notes On Catastrophe Insurance

I’ve found myself writing about natural disasters and the housing market much more than I have in the past as the frequency and intensity of events increase. Here are some of my Housing Notes from the past couple of months that are packed with a lot of useful information on the topic.