"Million-dollar homes increasingly replace small-town beach vibes, pushing out longtime residents and transforming oceanfront communities."
"Jaques and Paulina Sebastiao were the first residents on their street to rebuild their two-bedroom house two years after Hurricane Michael’s 155 mile-per-hour winds leveled almost every building in Mexico Beach in 2018.
Few of their old neighbors in the Panhandle fishing village followed their lead. Some didn’t have insurance, and others battled their insurance companies over claims. Some neighbors just didn’t want to go through the lengthy and expensive headaches involved with building a new house from the ground up under stricter building codes, especially when many of them were in their early 60s.“I think age had a lot to do with it,” Jaques Sebastiao said.
New owners soon scooped up beachside lots that had once held modest homes around the Sebastiaos. They built multimillion-dollar McMansions with a half-dozen bedrooms or more that they often rent out to vacationers when they’re not using the homes themselves. The Sebastiaos’ tight-knit neighborhood group fell away as former neighbors decided not to move back."
Mike Schneider reports for Inside Climate News September 19, 2026.
