The most expensive FL real estate listed at $295 million is ripe for flooding as sea levels rise. Gordon Point is a nine acre estate near Naples that borders a white sand beach and lagoon, surrounded on three sides with seawater. Flood experts say it will certainly flood when sea levels continue rising due to climate warming. Gordon Point is advertised as Florida's "most exclusive compound". But the lifestyle of the rich and famous is colliding with the climate crises caused by their antisocial greed.
According to a private, non-profit, flood risk analysis group the property has a 68% chance of flooding in the next fifteen years and a 95% chance in the next three decades. Zillow lists the chance of the property flooding as "severe" and its exposure to high winds "extreme". Other than that the estate boasts a private yacht basin, a guest house, another residence, and a sprawling 22,800 sq. ft. mansion fronting the Gulf. The property is owned by the estate of financier John Donahue. [photo credit: Coldwell Banker Realty]
Natural protections from rising water--sand dunes, mangroves, and marshes--have been dismantled so houses can be built as close as possible to the sea, which is 6 inches higher than it was in the 1990's. Five hurricanes have battered the community of Naples in recent years with the most destructive being Hurricane Ian in 2022. The storms are intensified by a super-heated Gulf of Mexico, and have ripped apart homes and inundated streets.
Florida already has some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation. Yet despite the grim future, wealthy retirees keep pouring in to get their slice of the good life. The state's back-up insurance program is insolvent according to Gov. Ron DeSantis. His response to insurance companies fleeing his state was to delete mentioning climate change in Florida laws. His legislation also bans offshore wind farms. MAGA's typical response to problems it cannot solve is to deny they exist. Naples natural resources manager told the UK Guardian,“I just roll with it. It's the game we play, I guess." No guessing is needed in the state of Disney and the land of make believe.
Although the mansion and out buildings are built to withstand severe storms, even the ultra-rich are starting to think twice about spending seven figures on insurance and making costly, repeated repairs of storm damage. They may look elsewhere on the southern Atlantic Coast such as South Carolina and Georgia for their Shangri-la. But as one real estate agent put it, "I suspect there are buyers for anything, at all sorts of prices", referring to a banana stuck on a canvas that recently sold as "art" for $6.2 million. Job creation and investment? Not really--tax the wealth!