So if Florida has bugs, lizards, snakes, crowds/traffic, hurricanes, heat, humidity, high cost of flood insurance, and high cost to heat a pool - why are so many people moving there? Certainly decent winter weather and no state income tax can’t be enough to draw people to Florida.
Being that FL is the fastest growing state, I can only conclude everywhere else is worse!
I'll trust the collective wisdom and continue enjoying living here.
My thought and experiences on each:
Bugs: I rarely have a problem with them, in the suburbs or the city. Current house is the newest I've owned here and have had one dead palmetto bug in 4 years and black ants the first year but found the tiny hole they entered and none since. I experience more bugs visiting people further north -especially house spiders!
Lizards: Don't bother me and outside are amusing, indoors don't really bother me. The anoles generally stay outside. House geckos are pretty neat; I've only seen one in this house a couple years ago but my prior house had several... they eat bugs and we peacefully coexisted.
Snakes: Around my homes I have only seen black racers, eastern glass lizards (not a snake but looks like one), and eastern ring neck snakes -all harmless and all outside. I've only seen poisonous snakes when hiking/paddling out in nature. I think poisonous in residential areas are more common in less dense areas and further south. Pygmy rattlers are nasty but most I know with personal experience with those nasty creatures bugging them at home are further south than Tampa Bay.
Crowds/Traffic: FL is a big state, you can get away from people if you want (but amenities may not be what you desire). Also, if you live in a walkable area rather than the suburban/PUD sprawl, traffic is not that much of an issue if you don't need to drive for everything.
Hurricanes: Can't control the weather but then you better stay 200 miles inland along the entire Gulf and East Coast to be "safe." Risk can be mitigated with construction and awareness of geography.
Flood Insurance: Don't buy in a flood zone and it is not required and cheap if you choose to carry it anyway. Lots of non-flood areas in FL.
High Cost to heat pool: Only if you have a pool and want to keep it hot... probably cheaper to heat than a pool in WI.
Y'all forgot Sinkholes!: That's the scariest one to me, hard to protect against (other than knowledge of geography to some extent or an expensive geotechnical survey) but if your property has one form (not likely to be catastrophic but we have those too and they hit the news) then your property value takes a BIG hit. Sinkholes, other than "Catastrophic Ground Collapse" are not covered under standard HO policies without an expensive rider.