Affects of a CAT 5 Hurricane on the rental market

[John N.]

I live in Panama City, Florida. Last year we had a Cat 5 hurricane that basically turned everything upside down in our RE market. An interesting fact came out recently. The Panama City\Bay County area has the exact opposite owner/renter ratio than the national average. Our market is 70% rental and 30% owner occupied. The has caused a huge problem because of the number of displaced renters. There are simply no rental out there for them. Countless businesses cannot reopen or have limited hours a year later because there are no job seekers. I don't really have a question here, just sharing and soliciting discussion. The situation has made purchasing new rental properties impossible because all values are hyper-inflated for the short term.