Thinking about moving to FL

[RivShore]

spirited NY/Jersey/Philly

I would just like to thank you for that surprisingly respectful description

 

[RivShore]

Just because you’re not paying state income tax doesn’t mean you’re getting more Net in the long run. To compare apples to apples you need to go through everything with a fine tooth. Property taxes, what services or “fees” do you have to pay for. Just replace the word “fee” with “tax” there you got it.What is state doesn’t get via income tax they’ll get through other means (charging more for garbage, water etc. insurance tax things like that).

Depends on where you are coming from. From NJ, you will always be better off in a state like FL from a total tax and fee standpoint. And one thing to remember with FL, unlike some other low tax states, you have something like 150M visitors a year paying the bulk of the sales taxes, fuel taxes, tolls that the state needs to run.

 

[EllieJedi]

The political 'leanings' of most places tends to vary by county. Unless you are heavily involved in local politics, I doubt that really matters as a consideration for where to move and really wouldn't have any impact on your day-to-day life. Of all the various states where I have lived, I had NO idea how my friends/neighbors/co-workers felt about various political issues and it was never really anything we ever talked about.

Being aware of the cost/availability of home owner's insurance is far more relevant to consider in deciding where to live. If you live someplace that is considered within a known flood plane and/or the associated cost of insurance IS something to be aware of. If you live in areas subject to hurricanes, your home can be destroyed by one major storm. A snow storm in the northern part of the country can cause some travel issues/power outages/etc., but isn't going to destroy your home or have any major impact on the cost of insurance.

I keep telling myself that it might be an exaggerated Midwestern fear of hurricanes but the homeowners insurance situation does have me a little rattled. It’s not so much the current rates, but where rates will go or if coverage will continue to be available in the event of another bad hurricane year. I am looking for a place I can settle into for hopefully many years.

 

[shh]

I keep telling myself that it might be an exaggerated Midwestern fear of hurricanes but the homeowners insurance situation does have me a little rattled. It’s not so much the current rates, but where rates will go or if coverage will continue to be available in the event of another bad hurricane year. I am looking for a place I can settle into for hopefully many years.

It's gonna be pricier...it's likely to be stressful and ugly in the short term - but there's no way the ability to buy home insurance coverage will disappear in the state of Florida. There are millions of homeowners - and anyone with a mortgage is required to have insurance. It's politically untenable for either party to NOT solve this.

But while insurance will be available, it may not be affordable for most of average income.

Similar to early retirement - where one's ability to afford health insurance is often more important than any other consideration - home insurance will become the #1 determining factor of whether someone can afford to own a house here.

Once the RE mkt calms down, many people will be able to swing the cost of the house, but won't be able to cover what it will cost to insure it.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Hi dvcgirl, just wanted to give our recent experience with moving from NJ (northern shore) to 15 minutes from WDW. Been here a year now and so far we love it but everyone is different...


We have not felt this way at all. Maybe because we always had a rental car on our visits so we were never fully enclosed in the bubble?
We love being able to run over for dinner any night we feel like it, even if it's just QS or F&W booths. And though things have been too busy for us since the move, we can't wait to do some spur of the moment nights at DVC at WDW or Vero.


We moved after the big Covid FL price increases and we still cut our property taxes in half. That probably speaks more to the high NJ tax increases since you were here.


Still true but based on where your coming from, it might be different. Still net out to significant savings for us when looking at all taxes and insurances combined.


We have acclimated well to the heat, but we always preferred dealing with the heat to the cold and snow of the NE. This year, the heat did not really ramp up until the later summer and even then it has not stopped us from going out. We actually went thru a little dry spell this summer where the humidity dropped drastically...thought we moved to AZ for a while there, the dry heat was a pleasant change.

We have a medium size pool and have not run into the need to cool it. I think the hottest it has gotten is 86-88 degrees but when the air temp is 98, it feels cool enough. And with near daily afternoon and evening rains, it keeps the temp from ever getting too high (for us anyway). What water temps were you seeing that you actually needed a cooling system?


That is all relative, we paid more than we wanted to in FL but also got more than we ever expected selling our NJ house.


I don't think shorts and flip flops in Dec and Jan will ever get old but then we were really really sick of winters!

Different strokes I guess....our experience in Central Florida was fine, but not great enough that we'd want to settle there. Glad you like it though. .

 

[RivShore]

Hwy OP,
Not sure if someone posted already but the Disboard guys run a moving to Orlando group on facebook and do regular videos on different areas https://www.facebook.com/groups/Movingtothemagic