Winds of change

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Riding out the ferocious winds of Hurricane Charley in their ranch house, the Tanay family made a decision: They were moving.

The Tanays had come to Florida from New Jersey seeking a small-town atmosphere for their four children, and were already becoming disillusioned with the bustle of their rapidly growing community. When Charley blew through town Aug. 13 and left the area in shambles, that was all they needed to begin looking elsewhere.

“The hurricane definitely pushed us to make our decision sooner,” said Joe Tanay, a home construction project manager.

Many Florida homeowners are having similar thoughts, and in the aftermath of four devastating hurricanes this year, many people are concerned about the storms’ impact on the state’s booming housing market.

After Hurricane Andrew slammed into south Miami-Dade County in August 1992, about 75,000 residents of Homestead moved out. While the conditions this year are somewhat different, some real estate experts expect there will be homeowners who eventually make their evacuations permanent.

Because property transactions typically take weeks or months to complete, it’s impossible at this point to statistically track the trend.

Still, whatever effect this year’s storms might have, most real estate agents predict it will be short-lived. They note that despite the exodus from Homestead, new residents streamed into the rebuilt area, attracted by new homes constructed according to higher safety standards.

And most real estate experts don’t expect the storms to permanently affect the value of Florida real estate, which is among the most rapidly appreciating in the United States.

“People are in such an emotional state because of the severity of those storms and the deaths and property damage,” said Liane Bennati, owner of a chain of Buy Owner real estate offices from Atlanta to Naples. “It might take a little longer for it to sink in, but there are going to be more people who are ready to go home.”

For the Tanays, their children’s schools were in shambles and some of their neighbors were moving away to places such as Maryland and Georgia. Earlier this month, the family went to Charleston, S.C., and found a house they liked. Their 2,100-square-foot, custom remodeled ranch house, which suffered only minimal damage and has since been repaired, was put on the market.

“Here in Port Charlotte, they are talking about a year to rebuild the city,” Joe Tanay said. “We’ve got four kids, and they’re only going to school a half day. You know the sayings, ‘The signs are there.’ These were the signs for us.”

But some real estate agents are confident that the market will be fine.

“Two days after Charley hit, this lady drove down here and said she was here to see property and she didn’t care if it was destroyed or not, she wanted to see property,” said agent Tania Pleischl, of Fort Myers.

Pleischl warned prospective buyers that they won’t find steep discounts on damaged property because the most valuable part of a home site near or on the water is the land itself, Pleischl said. Particularly in areas such as Punta Gorda, where thousands of small, older homes sit on boat canals, the homes themselves hold very little monetary value.

Others predict that the allure of gentle winters and relatively low housing prices will still beckon buyers to the state.

Even in some badly damaged areas such as Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda, agents said phones continue to ring with prospective buyers.

“It’s been an interesting month,” said Johanne Wallace, a real estate agent in Punta Gorda. “We have had buyers panic and back out on deals. One might say some of these folks are making a big mistake.”

Wallace said in the deals that did fall through, the homeowners were still able to sell their properties within days. She said she’s getting a steady stream of e-mails from people whose winter homes were destroyed and who are looking for new properties in the area.