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The last straw: Property tax spikes compound Florida affordability crisis

Florida has 3 cities among the top 5 biggest hikes since 2019.

If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

That old joke about luxury items may also apply to property tax bills, which are going up in three Florida metros like almost nowhere else in the country, per Redfin.

In Jacksonville, property taxes are up 59.6% in the last five years, to $228 a month on average. Tampa homeowners are experiencing a 56.7% hike, to $250 a month. And Miami is not exempt, experiencing a 48.1% increase in the same period, to $367 a month.

The reasons for the spiraling costs, per Redfin, include “pandemic-driven migration,” the “homebuying boom” and “the increasing intensity of climate disasters.”

“Florida was alluring for remote workers during the pandemic because of its relatively affordable housing. Somewhat ironically, the state’s population boom has driven up home prices, and property taxes along with it,” said Elijah de la Campa, a senior economist at Redfin.

Cost of back-to-back hurricanes now exceeds $4B in Florida

Some 250,000 homeowner insurance claims have been filed in Florida following back-to-back hurricane strikes in Florida.

The financial wreckage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton has now exceeded $4 billion in Florida alone, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).

The OIR website that tracks Catastrophic Claims Data and Reporting shows the mounting estimated cost of the back-to-back storms that slammed the state within two weeks of each other has now climbed to $4.285 billion combined. OIR uses the Insurance Regulation Filing System to compile estimates and dollar costs for lost property and other factors.

As of Oct. 25, there have been 247,432 total insurance claims filed in Florida for damage caused by Hurricane Milton, which slammed the state initially on the west coast on Oct. 9 and exited the peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 10. Those claims add up to an estimated total insurance loss in Florida of $2.848 billion thus far.

Seminole Tribe settles legal challenges to online sports gambling exclusivity in Florida

The tribe announced Monday that it was partnering with West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. for a comprehensive agreement. As part of the settlement, the companies have agreed to end litigation against the tribe’s gaming operations and instead will begin a new partnership to offer Jai Alai wagering on the tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of businesses that operate racetracks and poker rooms have settled a yearslong legal dispute over whether the Seminole Tribe should have exclusive rights to online sports betting in Florida, the tribe announced Monday.

The Seminole Tribe, along with West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., have entered into a comprehensive agreement where the companies have agreed to end litigation against the tribe's gaming operations and instead will begin a new partnership to offer Jai Alai wagering on the tribe's Hard Rock Bet app.

“Rather than engaging in years of additional litigation, this agreement will allow the parties to work together to promote Jai Alai, which has played an important role in Florida’s gaming landscape for nearly 100 years,” Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen said in a statement.

A look at the numbers as more than 4.5 million have voted in Florida so far

More than 4.5 million people have voted in Florida so far ahead of next week's election, according to new statistics from the state released on Monday.

Data posted on the Florida Division of Elections website showed that 2,090,681 ballots had been cast by mail, while 2,508,243 had been cast at early voting sites.

Overall, 2,066,479 Republicans and 1,565,445 Democrats had voted, along with 868,941 unaffiliated voters and 98,059 third-party voters

Early voting sites opened last Monday in most of the state, and counties are required to offer early voting as of Saturday.

South Florida voters were also taking advantage of early voting and vote-by-mail.

As of Monday morning, the unofficial voter turnout in Miami-Dade was at 465,854, with 279,466 votes cast in early voting and 183,866 cast by mail, according to the county's supervisor of elections.