TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Living on the water is a dream for many Floridians, but after back-to-back hurricanes last year, local real estate agents say they’re seeing a different trend — people giving up their waterfront dream homes and moving inland, out of flood zones.

What You Need To Know

  • High flood risks are reshaping the dream of living by the water in Florida

  • Some coastal Floridians are moving inland after back-to-back hurricanes
  • Real estate agent says some homeowners are selling to developers for lot value

That’s exactly what one Pinellas County couple did. 

They lost everything in their Treasure Island home during Hurricane Helene and decided it just wasn’t worth the risk to repair it. 

Dave Ditto is living out his dream on Treasure Island, perched above all the traffic, with water views as far as the eye can see.

“It’s the best job ever! I mean, look at the view! Just every day is incredible, every day is different, I love my job,” he said.

Ditto is the Bridge Tender on the Treasure Island Causeway. After spending his career in the hotel business, he and his wife, Cindy, planned to retire on the island.

Five years ago, they turned their dream into a reality.

Dave and Cindy Ditto (Spectrum News/Fallon Silcox)

“This is our old house, 480 15th Avenue, Treasure Island, Isle of Palms. And this is the house that flooded,” said Cindy.

It’s where the Dittos thought they would spend their golden years, but Hurricane Helene changed those plans.

“The water was up to here, went through the house, all the furniture was moved, refrigerator was in a different room, crazy, beds were floating in different rooms, everything was all over the house,” Cindy said.

They say over four feet of water rushed through the house, washing away their dream in an instant. That’s something the Dittos never want to experience this again — so they sold to a developer and moved to higher ground, without a water view.

“We are now 18 feet above sea level, where we used to be 3 feet above sea level. So, we sleep well at night now,” said Dave. “We didn’t want to deal with putting the money out, getting the house put back together, and then having this happen again. A lot of people would tell us, it’s not going to happen for another hundred years, no guarantee so as much as we wanted to stay in Treasure Island, because that was our dream, to stay there forever, we just couldn’t deal with it,”

Tami Simms was the listing agent on the Dittos’ new home. She says after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, there was an unexpected pool of buyers, people just like the Dittos, who didn’t want to give up on their Florida lifestyle, but also didn’t want to repair their waterfront homes destroyed by the storms.

“I think that all of us who’ve been here for a long time have always kind of banked on the ‘it’s going to go in another direction, it’s not going to hit us.’ And this was the closest we’ve come in a hundred years, and so even folks who’ve lived here their whole lives are questioning themselves – ‘what if it happens again, and what if it continues to get worse?’” Simms said.

The Dittos say their new inland home has become their new dream come true.

“We had the dream of living on the water, and then we had the nightmare of living on the water. We’re fine here, we’re fine, we’re happy here,” Dave said.

And while they’re still in the recovery phase, the peace of mind knowing their home is high enough not to flood is turning out to be more of a dream than a water view ever could be.

Simms says many people living on the water also sold their damaged homes to developers for lot value because the permitting process is so tedious and time consuming. Even now, she says she’s had several clients who have decided to give up on repairing their homes months later and are looking to move inland.