A COA with which I was briefly associated along Alabama's Gulf Coast (yes, we do have some coast line....) tried to claim that it was not responsible for insuring the complex -made up of detached units- against flood but did so only out of compassion for the Owners and threatened to stop paying.  

If you are looking for rentals, did you know that Alabama has a coast line?  

That being said, just because the property is near to the coastline, does not mean that flood insurance is more expensive than elsewhere. 

Once my rental lease ends I would like to House hack in either the Southern Connecticut Coastline/St Petersburg, Florida/ Grand Rapids, Michigan 

Rather than trying to do everything, I focused on solely looking for 2 family houses with long term tenants within 2 miles of the coastline.

A great deal of your cash throw off is subsumed into HOA fees potentially and these fees can change without your permission - additionally special assessments can be levied that can destroy any profit you have and you have no power to stop it - trying to sell a townhome / SFH or a condo with an unexpected special assessment on it or a large improvement project in the community that is projected to hike up the fees next year is challenging.Investing well necessitates your ability to pivot and retain flexibility to minimize your risk and leverage your asset or liquidate it when you need to - an HOA is not your best route.The lease restrictions in FL are so widespread because the state needs to provide economic stability to it’s residents because we have the most miles of coastline and therefore vacationers than any other state- if every residence could be rented at will it would obviously reduce the value of the property and precipitate all of the negative consequences of that.Hope that helps!

However, the Atlantic side has a much more accessible coastline, more wave activity and our water does not get disgustingly bath water hot end of summer.

COVID may change that and perhaps this winter there may be solid rentals all along the Eastern Coastline.

There is only so much coast line and they are not making any more of it.

Port Angeles is where the main visitor center is for Olympic national park, the black ball ferry runs to/from victoria from there (when the border is open), a few small casinos nearby, not far from Forks and coastline, and the olympic discovery trail runs through.