I live on an island on the west coast of Florida. I rent the place I live in. I own a house across the bridge on the mainland and rent it out. I would never own a home out here. The highest elevation is 12 feet. We haven’t had a direct hit since 1848, but we’ve had some violent near-misses. It’s crowded, the developers since the 1950s have mostly paved the place over as they have most of Florida. It’s not the same place it was when I was growing up. The fishing isn’t what it used to be. You have to go to the east coast to find good surfing, but it has a nice beach and the sailing is good except during the summer doldrums. I stay here mostly because I have two generations of family here and I am well-known and liked within my profession.
My favorite place in the US is on the coast about 55 miles north of San Francisco. Redwoods, temperate climate (most of the time), 200 foot cliffs that lead straight down to an isolated, rocky, violent pacific shoreline, an hour from one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world. There, I’ve experienced violent storms, floods, landslides, hurricane force winds and earthquakes.
My favorite place offshore is a lightly populated tropical island in the eastern caribbean that has no poisonous spiders or snakes, 365 rivers, artesian pools and hot lakes, tropical hardwood jungle, good fishing, good surfing, good diving, good sailing, good kayaking and nice people. It is small, only 15 miles wide and 35 miles long It has flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Elevations on this speck of green in the Caribbean go from sea level to nearly a mile high in the interior mountains. On the west side, they have nice sandy beaches, on the east side they have beautiful high cliffs reaching down to a rough sea like that north of San Francisco. It has the last of the aboriginal Carib Indians living in the interior. It is a stable democratic republic with English as it’s primary language. The Atlantic breeze blows of the tropical humidity and temperature rarely exceed 86F or go below 60F. But it also is volcanic, has frequent earthquakes and is directly in the Caribbean hurricane path coming off Africa. They have been hit many, many times although their are protected by the mountains in the interior. It’s a trade-off.
I know of no place worth living that isn’t regularly disturbed by some natural event.