I've lived in MI and HI, both real humid climates and had horrible allergies to mold and alot of the flowers.
Here, I only have problems when the dust blows, and that is minor. I love it here. You can grow stuff if you augment the soil and add water, but no termites, no mold, fungus. We do get some strong winds at time, but not hurricane strength sustained. I've seen 70mph gusts. No tornadoes either.
My sister has this kind of yard
http://www.theredcherry.com/pics/sister.jpg
but she lives in MI where the weather is crappy all winter, and a lot of the spring and fall, with huge mosquitoes (we have almost none here, no standing water). Except for living on the sun 3 months out of the year, I think it is darn near perfect here.
