If you live in FL (or have)

[vettechick99]

Hi everyone!

Wanted to talk to the folks that live in FL (or did at one point). My fiance is an Asst. Golf Course Superintendent and will hopefully be running his own course soon.

So next year I want to move to FL (mostly b/c I lived in Gainesville once and loved it and also b/c I want to be closer to the Mouse ).

<b>I was hoping you could tell me what city you live in and if you recommend it. </b>Definitely a plus if you have a lot of golf courses, an avg cost of living, >100K people and within an hour of a beach (and the closer to the Mouse, the better!) Florida is so vast, its hard to know where to start!!

Thanks!!

 

[floridafam]

We used to live in the Holiday/Tarpon Springs area. We enjoyed it. It seemed to have a small town atmosphere. We were near the beach and several nice little parks. This was on the Gulf side of Florida North of Clearwater.

We also like Vero Beach. It's a beautiful town and there is a good mixture of people. It's more upscale than the above mentioned town but there are some nice new developments with reasonable house prices.

Many towns in the panhandle area are nice.

St. Augustine is nice and quiet.

Flagler Beach is absolutely unspoiled, quiet, small town, laid back.

We've found that there are several areas where you can find reasonable priced homes even though there are beachfront mansions just a few miles away. You just have to know where to look.

Good luck.

 

[JoNo]

I live in Okeechobee.... You're probably like okeewha???. Personally, I wouldn't recommend living here unless really laid back is your type.

Myself, I would like to move to vero beach or jensen beach. Both of which are very nice places. The only bad thing about them is that IMO, they're becoming mini-orlandos and they're growing; FAST! If you like a faster-pace and always want to be able to do something, then those 2 are your choices!

 

[kadaten]

We loved living in Jacksonville. The area is really nice and the TPC is just down the road a bit. Around, there's St. Augustine and lots of other places on the coast....the whole area was great for us

 

[vettechick99]

Thanks for the suggestions! I've visited St Aug. and the Orange Park area. I'm thinking those are two areas at the top of my list!

Any others??

 

[DocRafiki]

Well you probably know all about Orlando, but I also lived near St Pete. The Tampa/St Pete area is pretty nice. I could always smell the beach from my house, which i loved. There are some nasty areas around there, so you have to be careful (not "the hood" so much as just not well-kept). Tampa is much more metropolitan than Orlando, which I like. I also think the weather was nicer there. Warmer in winter and not as stagnant in the summer (compared to Orlando). I wouldn't want to live any farther north than Orlando because I just can't stand cold weather in the least, plus you start getting more of that "good ol' boy" mentality the farther north you go. I lived in Jacksonville before I was old enough to even remember, but I know a lot of people like it there, plus it has a reputation for being more "metro." Also consider it's not isolated from the rest of the world like we are down here on the peninsula.

 

[Poohbear123]

Miami, you do NOT want to live here, unless its in a different area.

 

[RedNeckChik13]

I live in Valrico...its right outside of Tampa...well like 30 mins out. I love it. Not as big as Tampa, but we have what we need. It only takes an hour to get to the beach(more than 1 choice) and an hour to get to Disney(I've gone for dinner after school). The weather is really good and there is a lot of stuff to do. Ybor for clubbing or Bucs/Lightning/Devil Rays games. Its a nice area.

 

[Mickey's sunshine]

I live in Pinellas Park - basically between St Petersburg and Clearwater. Pinellas County is okay, not alot of golf courses though. I think if I were to move to another part of FL it would be on the other coast. Somewhere between Orlando and Jacksonville. I like the panhandle too but they get more hurricanes.....at least it seems that way.

I do like my general area though because of the sports teams as RedNeckChick stated. I work in downtown St Pete and can see Tropicana Field from my office (Devil Rays)

 

[tstobb]

There are more golf courses per square mile AND per person in the Fort Myers/Naples area than anywhere else in the world. On the gulf, 3-4 hour drive to Disney, #8 destination spot in the country. Season is winding down and the snowbirds are heading back north so the 1-1/2 hour lines when you want to go out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night will be gone soon!