OT Does any one on actually live

[MissBritt]

DH and I have lived in FL all our lives (30 and 25 years, respectively). We are embarassed to say we have never even seen snow! We are currently 2 hours from WDW, and with my pass I have done 5 visits/7 park days in the last 50 weeks. We have to work, too! And the schools here are, for the most part, awful.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

DH and I have lived in FL all our lives (30 and 25 years, respectively). We are embarassed to say we have never even seen snow! We are currently 2 hours from WDW, and with my pass I have done 5 visits/7 park days in the last 50 weeks. We have to work, too! And the schools here are, for the most part, awful.

The school quality really does depend on which county you live in, though. Some counties do have great schools. That's why it's really important to do research before you move/buy a house here.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

No personal property tax? What, exactly, does that mean. On our tax return, we write off our little sticker tabs for our plates on the car...is that what you mean?

In MA we had to pay an annual excise tax on our autos, and it could be pretty steep depending on the make/model/age of the car. Maybe something like this is what s/he meant.

 

[MissBritt]

I attended school in Polk, Gilchrist, Hernando counties, and college in Columbia, Hernando and Alachua, and even though you find a few "A" schools here and there, most are sorely lacking. Luckily, I started out in a private school and DH finished up in a private school.

 

[mhsjax]

DH and I have lived in FL all our lives (30 and 25 years, respectively). We are embarassed to say we have never even seen snow! We are currently 2 hours from WDW, and with my pass I have done 5 visits/7 park days in the last 50 weeks. We have to work, too! And the schools here are, for the most part, awful.

Ha Ha, got you beat. 47 and never seen snow. lol

 

[rumrunnergirl]

.

 

[TiggerTails57]

DH and I are empty nesters and just moved from Maryland to Georgia and love it!! We are a day closer to our son and G-kids in Destin FL. One day we will make the leap over to the 'Sunshine' state. But, for now we are happy here Glad NOT to be getting four feet of snow like we did last year in MD

 

[angwill]

Are Polk county schools any good?

 

[elf]

I found with the quality of schools in the area I was looking into and lived in "Winter Springs" it's even more localized than county. There seem to be many schools within the towns and some were not so good some were very good. I had to purposely pick a house well within the zone that wasn't likely to be changed or rezoned. It took tons of research, parents reviews, scouring through City-Data forum.
Whereas here on Long Island we usually go by town.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I found with the quality of schools in the area I was looking into and lived in "Winter Springs" it's even more localized than county. There seem to be many schools within the towns and some were not so good some were very good. I had to purposely pick a house well within the zone that wasn't likely to be changed or rezoned. It took tons of research, parents reviews, scouring through City-Data forum.
Whereas here on Long Island we usually go by town.

Very, very true! I think that in general, some counties have good reputations for school quality overall. You really do need to be very selective even within the county, though. I have to agree with that. We bought in a town that won't be rezoned as it's incorporated and has a town school. We bought in the incorporated section of town. Soooo many of my friends who live on the mainland have been rezoned in the past year in the most random of ways. You can literally live across the street for an elementary school and not be zoned for that school. There are no guarantees, but doing a lot of research into particular schools/areas is a very good idea.

 

[elf]

I should also say we loved the nature in Florida. We loved the weather from the wild daily summer storms to the mild winter.
There were frogs, turtles, birds, gecko/lizards, and other critters all around. On the beach one day I saw what I think was a hermit crab the size of my fist, I never saw one outside of a store. All that nature might gross people out but we liked it. We had cranes that were practically my daughters height that lived in the field behind the house. Rainbows across the whole sky, which I haven't seen on Long Island in years.

Our first week living there we saw a HUGE turtle crossing a road we were so excited I pulled over and sat and watched it til it disappeared.

Things I hated:
Transient population in many areas. Snakes, crocodiles. Couldn't get used to them. I was afraid to visit lakes for fear that myself/and/or kids would run into one. My DH loves Kayaking and went without me.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I should also say we loved the nature in Florida. We loved the weather from the wild daily summer storms to the mild winter.
There were frogs, turtles, birds, gecko/lizards, and other critters all around. On the beach one day I saw what I think was a hermit crab the size of my fist, I never saw one outside of a store. All that nature might gross people out but we liked it. We had cranes that were practically my daughters height that lived in the field behind the house. Rainbows across the whole sky, which I haven't seen on Long Island in years.

Our first week living there we saw a HUGE turtle crossing a road we were so excited I pulled over and sat and watched it til it disappeared.

Things I hated:
Transient population in many areas. Snakes, crocodiles. Couldn't get used to them. I was afraid to visit lakes for fear that myself/and/or kids would run into one. My DH loves Kayaking and went without me.

Where did you live that you had crocs?! I thought that they were only in the Everglades??? I don't do freshwater stuff as I am not a fan of gators myself, but we live on a barrier island so we have brackish or ocean water to choose from. Gators don't like either thank goodness!

I have to agree with you about the transients. We don't really have a transient population where I live (as in, people don't move in and out for short periods of time). This is a very multi-generational area...people grow up here and stay here to raise their own families. We do, however, have WAY more than our fair share of bums (sorry, there is really no better way to say this). Our county has services for them, so they come here and stay here. It's frustrating at times, but for the most part the police do keep them from harrassing the general population.

 

[elf]

LoveBWVVBR, I saw that you won box tops, Congratulations! That reminded me that one thing I looked for was strong parent/pta participation in schools. While on Long Island we certainly volunteer for things but in Fla. it seemed even more important, since they don't seem to have the same influx of money or spend it differently not sure why. But I found in good schools Parent participation is much more organized and active with lots of volunteering in the three schools that I got to know. That seems to be where all the cool extra's come from for Technology, fun activities, etc.

 

[kimluvswdw]

We moved here a year and a half ago. The economy isn't great. but there are things to like. We live just a few minutes from the entrance to Disney World and have gotten three horses since moving here. My daughter wants to take advantage of all the rodeos here and start barrel racing her horse. We often think about moving back to Virginia Beach, but we hate the cold weather.

 

[elf]

There was Lake Jesup County Park, Wekiwa Springs, we and a couple of others we used to also used to visit Mount Dora. I was always paranoid if there wasn't a boardwalk. Crocs and Gators same thing to me. LOL

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

We live here just a few minutes from Disney but we are soooo tired of Florida. I love Disney but not enough to make me stay here. We have been in Florida for over 10 years now - enough is enough and we are heading north this month.

Part of it is what one of the other posters said - when you live here 24/7, it is not in a vacation state of mind, unless you are retired or something ! The rest of us need to work, jobs are scarce here at the moment (like most places in the country) and wages are low (I could not believe it when I saw how low wages are at Disney and Universal - some of those poor people, what they need to put up with from unruly guests is certainly NOT worth what these companies are willing to pay...)

I am not overly excited about the winter months and snow up north BUT it beats the horrible heat, bugs, etc. of Florida. December-April are great but the rest of the year - YUCKY, IMO.

Everyone has their own opinion of course. When we first moved to Florida, we were very excited to be here - that faded in the last few years.

We can't wait to move North.

 

[MiniGirl]

I'm in Brevard on the beach and ther are gators in our parks. I used to see the one at Gleason all the time. I like living here. I enjoy seeing the kids on their bikes and skateboards with their surfboards tucked underneath their arms on their wy to the beach. I enjoy seeing the girls going to prom and even getting married in blinged out flip flops. I love that I get to see the ocean everyday, and that we can take our homeschool outside almost year round.

I don't like how crowded it has become just in the short time we've lived here. I don't like our high property taxes and insurance rates, but I guess the no state income tax makes it all a wash. We don't have family here, but that's okay. They are spread out all over the country, so we wouldn't be near more than 1 sibling even if we were to move.

Pros and cons to be sure. For now though, the pros still come out ahead.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I'm in Brevard on the beach and ther are gators in our parks. I used to see the one at Gleason all the time. I like living here. I enjoy seeing the kids on their bikes and skateboards with their surfboards tucked underneath their arms on their wy to the beach. I enjoy seeing the girls going to prom and even getting married in blinged out flip flops. I love that I get to see the ocean everyday, and that we can take our homeschool outside almost year round.

I don't like how crowded it has become just in the short time we've lived here. I don't like our high property taxes and insurance rates, but I guess the no state income tax makes it all a wash. We don't have family here, but that's okay. They are spread out all over the country, so we wouldn't be near more than 1 sibling even if we were to move.

Pros and cons to be sure. For now though, the pros still come out ahead.

I think that we live in the same town if memory serves me. I'm interested that you homeschool...I think about it from time to time, but so far our school is working out for us. There are so many choices here that it's tough to pick a school. If we are in the same town, I can say that our town school wasn't an option for us. It's academically decent, but the school itself is physically to me anyways.

The high property taxes thing has me scratching my head. Where did you live before? Property taxes here aren't high to us anyways. What we pay in 1 year on our big house with a pool is what my sister pays in 6 months on her tiny townhouse elsewhere. We're in the incorporated section and pay taxes to the town too and they're still way cheaper than we were paying on our tiny house in an icky town in MA. Homeowners is higher than I'd like, but it's not horribly unreasonable even with wind added in.

Doesn't Gleason have a pond? That would explain the gator I guess. I think I'll stick to Ryckman or Paradise...gators don't like the river or the ocean

 

[MissBritt]

I don't like how crowded it has become just in the short time we've lived here. I don't like our high property taxes and insurance rates, but I guess the no state income tax makes it all a wash.

I currently live in the county with the highest property tax rate, at $24.47 per $1,000 of property value. My parents live in another county that borders mine and for a similar size house and piece of land, pay less than 1/3 what I pay.

 

[dyna]

Yes some do live in the Sunshine state...we just retired here this week 1 hour an 10 traffic lights from disney. We have sold our home up in Barely In got 1 more trip to make up there to get the the stuff we stored an we be done.