Florida Residents?

[PLUTO2]

This question is for anyone who lives in Florida year-round. We are thinking of moving to Florida and I would appreciate your pros and cons of living there. Thank you for your help!

 

[tinkersmama]

I have lived in FL my whole life and love it! We have great weather, but it does get hot in the Summer. Last night it got down to around 30 degrees here, so we had to put on the heater. We are theme park buffs, so it is great that we live close to WDW, Sea World, Studios, and Busch Gardens. We also love being close to the beach.

The cons about living in Florida is the price of housing, insurance, taxes, and hurricanes.

 

[mommaU4]

This question is for anyone who lives in Florida year-round. We are thinking of moving to Florida and I would appreciate your pros and cons of living there. Thank you for your help!

I started a thread awhile back that has some really good info in it that might be of interest to you:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1034156

It's not that long, only about 5 pages, but I learned alot about FL that I didn't know, both good and bad.

 

[John VN]

This question is for anyone who lives in Florida year-round. We are thinking of moving to Florida and I would appreciate your pros and cons of living there. Thank you for your help!

You should love it here since it is becoming exactly like where you are now living.

All you need to add to the things you like/dislike about where you now live would be the heat, the bugs especially fire ants and mosquitos and spiders and scorpions, the gators and sharks, the really bad traffic when the snow birds start coming down and they are now coming earlier and leaving later.

Oh, not sure if you have a drinking water problem but with all the development, (residential, business, golf courses....), that is being allowed water will become even harder to get. Seems that people from up north must have a green lawn all year long and many also want to play golf on nice green golf courses all year long.

If you don't like to shovel snow than you will be happy about not having to do that here.

 

[DMickey28]

where are you moving from? Why do you want to come down?

DH and I just moved down from the north, Chicago and previously Boston. We have been here since July. DH loves it, I don't. I miss the seasons. I don't like the area we live in at all, but I know that can be changed by moving to a different town/area. We live in a city in an apartment and I don't have issues with bugs/gator or anything like that...


It really depends...

 

[Cindy's Mom]

, the really bad traffic when the snow birds start coming down and they are now coming earlier and leaving later.

PRO: Using the snow birds tax dollars when they aren't even there to reep its benefit. My parents pay $25k a year to the Palm Beach Assessor for an apartment they use for 3 months out of the year. No they are not complaining, they can afford it. What bothers them is comments like I quoted. Snowbirds may be a pain sometimes - but you gotta take the good with the bad.....

 

[ChristmasElf]

PRO: Using the snow birds tax dollars when they aren't even there to reep its benefit. My parents pay $25k a year to the Palm Beach Assessor for an apartment they use for 3 months out of the year. No they are not complaining, they can afford it. What bothers them is comments like I quoted. Snowbirds may be a pain sometimes - but you gotta take the good with the bad.....

Technically, your parents are just not getting an additional "homestead credit" of 25,000 off the assesed value of their house/apartment/condo.

Living in Florida now is a lot different than Florida used to be even just 10 years ago. The cost of living has really climbed and houses have doubled and even tripled in cost in some areas.
South FL is one of the worst areas as far as housing costs go. They are WAY overpriced and the yards are very small and the houses are close together.

Florida is also getting to be VERY crowded. They are constantly widening the highways and I think Orange Blossom Trail will be getting work done to it until the year 3000! The schools are hit and miss. Some areas have great schools, some are just so so and some are really awful.
Crime is also getting a little out of control throughout the state.

If you are looking for "old style Florida" look in the areas in the Northern part of the state as it seems to have still hung on to that feeling. At least, so far.

As to the bugs, they are not really a problem if you get a good pest control firm to spray your house inside and out on a regular basis.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Technically, your parents are just not getting an additional "homestead credit" of 25,000 off the assesed value of their house/apartment/condo.

I must admit that I don't know what this means....but I do know that twice a year, my dad cuts checks to the Assessor for 25K. So Palm Beach County does benefit from having him and others like him with condos that they only use in the winter (jan 15-April 15) are the only time my parents tie up A1A.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I must admit that I don't know what this means....but I do know that twice a year, my dad cuts checks to the Assessor for 25K. So Palm Beach County does benefit from having him and others like him with condos that they only use in the winter (jan 15-April 15) are the only time my parents tie up A1A.

In FL, say you have a house/condo valued at $500K and your property taxes are $5,000 per year on that house/condo. If you as the property owner had a "Homestead Exemption credit" that would mean that your property was only assessed taxes on $475,000 giving you a $25,000 exemption credit on the property taxes. So it is essentially a "discount"

In fact, there is even been talk of the exemption getting raised to 50K.

I cant think of anything your father would be paying 25K for, he should really check with a real estate attorney on this as this seems incorrect.

 

[PLUTO2]

You should love it here since it is becoming exactly like where you are now living.

All you need to add to the things you like/dislike about where you now live would be the heat, the bugs especially fire ants and mosquitos and spiders and scorpions, the gators and sharks, the really bad traffic when the snow birds start coming down and they are now coming earlier and leaving later.

Oh, not sure if you have a drinking water problem but with all the development, (residential, business, golf courses....), that is being allowed water will become even harder to get. Seems that people from up north must have a green lawn all year long and many also want to play golf on nice green golf courses all year long.

If you don't like to shovel snow than you will be happy about not having to do that here.

Wow! Why do you live there?

 

[Amity 3]

here we go again...

 

[PLUTO2]

here we go again...

What does that mean?

 

[ChristmasElf]

You should love it here since it is becoming exactly like where you are now living.

All you need to add to the things you like/dislike about where you now live would be the heat, the bugs especially fire ants and mosquitos and spiders and scorpions, the gators and sharks, the really bad traffic when the snow birds start coming down and they are now coming earlier and leaving later.

Oh, not sure if you have a drinking water problem but with all the development, (residential, business, golf courses....), that is being allowed water will become even harder to get. Seems that people from up north must have a green lawn all year long and many also want to play golf on nice green golf courses all year long.

If you don't like to shovel snow than you will be happy about not having to do that here.

C'mon! The heat isn't that bad once you get used to it! The secret is to move down in January or February and then slowly acclimate yourself to the point you will hardly notice it when your kids are frying eggs on the driveway!

Mosquitos? I find them to be much worse when we visit New York, Minnesota and Texas. Buy a can of Off!
Really bad traffic? You have never been on the LIE have you? Or Houston, or Los Angeles or Atlanta or....
Snow birds? Just stay north of West Palm Beach and you will hardly notice em.

Not to change the subject, but by any chance did you happen to be at the Costco on OBT yesterday afternoon about 3:30 ish? You asked me about the grapefruit I was putting in the cart. Small world if it was you.

 

[JimB.]

Pro - no snow, lots of sun, the beaches, Rocket launches, WDW, water sports, Florida Gators football (& basketball, too!!!).

Con - Insects. Increasing tax burden and cost of living. Too much immigration (both legal & otherwise). Hurricane season.

 

[Amity 3]

What does that mean?

this always turns out to be a love florida/bash florida debate.

already talk of scorpions, sharks and alligators have made their threats known.

why hasn't someone added stingrays to the list yet?

 

[PLUTO2]

I' m sorry I was not looking to start a debate just get some ideas.

 

[Amity 3]

I' m sorry I was not looking to start a debate just get some ideas.

don't be sorry, 'moving to Florida' threads always seem to end up in a debate. the only cons I know of are the inflated property taxes and insurance rates.

the snowbird season does affect traffic, because the Q-Tips seem to always drive in the left lane.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

In FL, say you have a house/condo valued at $500K and your property taxes are $5,000 per year on that house/condo. If you as the property owner had a "Homestead Exemption credit" that would mean that your property was only assessed taxes on $475,000 giving you a $25,000 exemption credit on the property taxes. So it is essentially a "discount"

In fact, there is even been talk of the exemption getting raised to 50K.

I cant think of anything your father would be paying 25K for, he should really check with a real estate attorney on this as this seems incorrect.

You can only use the exemption if its your primary residence.....his primary residence is in Chicago. He would have to switch his residency...but then he loses, his exemption in Chicago and would not longer be a residence there, which he prefers to be. Thanks for the info.

 

[palmtreegirl]

We grew up in NJ after a short stop in PA we moved down to Florida-

Pros-

-Weather!
-People are very friendly
-There's so much to do even beyond the theme parks. Beaches, beautiful state parks, springs, lots of great year round recreation. Great towns from the historic (Saint Augustine) to Miami.
-Lots of diversity in everything from people to towns.
-Great shopping, the one thing I miss from up north is Ikea and we're getting one.
-Casual lifestyle, I love the laid back feel of life down here, it suits us.
- The palm trees, lush landscaping, wildlife.
-Oh and once again the weather.

Those are just some of the top of my head, there are really many more for us.

Cons-

-It's much more expensive then we thought it would be.
-Right now were still in an apartment, hopefully we'll be buying a house this summer.
- The jobs in general pay less then up north but the house prices are still high, especially when compared to the money most people are making.
-The summers can be very hot but I'd take being hot over freezing any day.

Bottom line, it's not for everyone but it's definitely for us.

 

[Savsmommy]

I've lived in South Florida for 22 years. We are looking into moving to North Carolina in about 2 years. I love Florida but I'm ready for something different.