Current Events > Reasons to/not to move to Florida

(+) Yeah! (+)

My wife and I live in NY State. She wants to move down to FL to live closer to her dad and some other family. We've both lived in NY our whole lives.

Her family is offering a pretty significant amount of money to help with the move and to get started on a down payment. It's enough to put about 12% down for a house in that area. Neither of us makes decent money let alone good money, but we could afford a mortgage is we had a down payment. Having a paid for house in 30 years is our best hope of one day retiring.

It's a very weird situation but I'm hoping for people to try to talk me in or out of the idea. My wife is basically completely sold on the idea (she has no family left in our area, and I'm not close to mine). It's probably going to happen but I'd like to hear opinions.

I moved from NY to Florida after college and have stayed here since. Its a huge upgrade. Dont fight it.

well... do you like alligators?

Isn't the price of hurricane insurance for homes literally a deal breaker right on the spot ?

drinking moonshine and wrestling alligators sounds like a helluva good time actually!

Gainerama posted...

Isn't the price of hurricane insurance for homes literally a deal breaker right on the spot ?

Is that not standard in Florida homeowners insurance? I've been seeing it for about 120ish a month but didn't look into what was covered.

Florida Man / Florida Man

whitelytning posted...

I moved from NY to Florida after college and have stayed here since. Its a huge upgrade. Dont fight it.

Can you define what the upgrade is? I'd love to say goodbye to snow but Florida is moving backwards at an alarming rate and I'm not really comfortable with that.

No state income tax sounds cool. The weather can be miserable. Home insurance I'd imagine would be pretty high and having to worry about hurricanes every year isn't fun (saying this as someone from Louisiana who deals with similar issues). But if you like beaches they have some of the best the country has to offer. Cost of living depends really on what part of Florida you're looking at.

She sees it as being closer to her family which is a plus. But what about your family?

Hurricanes suck and are only going to get worse in the future.

Also, places like Miami are going to flood eventually, so be mindful of that kind of risk.

Alligators are a menace.

You get "wonderful" governors like DeSantis you have to deal with.

Good luck getting access to an abortion if someone in your family ever needs one.

The random heavy rain storms in the afternoon and the humidity mixed with the heat isn't fun.

Florida man does some messed up stuff too.

Relient_K posted...

Is that not standard in Florida homeowners insurance? I've been seeing it for about 120ish a month but didn't look into what was covered.

Yes, but make sure to pay attention to your wind/hail deductible. Sometimes it's also called named storm or hurricane deductible. Here in Louisiana they stopped offering flat $1000 deductibles and the lowest you can get now is 2% of your dwelling coverage. So for a $200,000 home you're looking at minimum $4000 deductible. Just don't let someone fuck you over and entice you with a cheap rate by slapping you with like a $10k deductible or something. With how many hurricane Florida gets it's probably pretty similar, but being such a big state there are probably more options as far as companies go.

florida, esp central florida, is pretty cozy aside from the occasional hurricane

Hot.
Constant sweat.
swamp ass
alligators in the actual swamp
The average elevation in FL is 6 feet. So half the state will be below water in 30 years.
Terrible horrible very bad government that will take rights AWAY from people in the name of freedom.

Stick to da coasts and you'll be fine, da only thing worthwhile in central florida is orlando and its parks

WaterLink posted...

No state income tax sounds cool. The weather can be miserable. Home insurance I'd imagine would be pretty high and having to worry about hurricanes every year isn't fun (saying this as someone from Louisiana who deals with similar issues). But if you like beaches they have some of the best the country has to offer. Cost of living depends really on what part of Florida you're looking at.

She sees it as being closer to her family which is a plus. But what about your family?

My family mostly lives in our area. I haven't seen them since Easter of last year. Mostly it would stink to move away from my sister who had a daughter somewhat recently.

Cost of living is lower where we are looking compared to where we live now but wages are also lower.

Pros:
1) no state or local income tax
2) beautiful weather year-round
3) driving distance to Disney World / Universal / dozens of other tourist traps and interesting places to visit

Cons:
1) hurricanes (the strength and frequency of which are just going to get worse)
2) a self-serving madman currently acting as governor with a complicit legislation
3) lots of rednecks and bad drivers; and the heat does make people crazy

The doomposter in me warns that, at the rate it's going, Florida will be an ecological cesspool within a few decades thanks to climate change, increasingly incompetent governance, and the sugar industry. Our current governor is doing his best to cement this future by attempting to turn Florida into the next big red state haven, but there's always the chance things could turn around.

My parents moved to FL from upstate NY and they love it but they are in a retirement community.

Vegy posted...

Stick to da coasts and you'll be fine, da only thing worthwhile in central florida is orlando and its parks

i'm referring to "central" with north-south in mind, not east-west

though checking maps, apparently my idea of central florida is just northern south florida

The city/town we are looking at is on the east coast mid state. We are also looking at nearby places but a lot of places are run down mobile homes which I have no interest in. The place her dad lives is largely a retirement town and very nice. We visited back in Oct.

Most of the things mentioned are things I've already considered. It's hard to be fully confident about this.

Old people and no jobs, a lot of ignorant voters, burden on Federal Tax, Florida Man and Hurricanes. But but but its sunny though! Lol

Vegy lives there/Vegy lives there

Moved from Ny (Westmoreland.. 15 minutes between Utica & Rome) in 91 to Florida. Been down here ever since.

Other than the hot weather its fine.

Pros
1. No state/local income tax

2. The food is excellent

3. You can get more specialty food items like alligator easier

Cons
1. It's a natural disaster haven: hurricanes, tropical storms, lots of flooding, tornadoes, and waterspouts

2. Real Estate is really expensive.

3. For those thinking Disney is a pro, look at the price, it's so expensive that it negates any pros about Disney. Forget about any special event accommodations unless you're mega rich.

4. Car insurance is quite expensive as well for full coverage, it's alright for a clunker with minimal coverage though, but if you don't drive a clunker, then you got to pay up.

5. The snakes are bad, like really bad; they even have pythons and while you can eat them; be aware that they have a lot of mercury in Florida and scientists barely even know why. It's the same with iguanas too, which sucks because those are good eating (They're safer to eat in the Caribbean).

Never lived in Florida but I visited my relatives.

Reasons to move :
It's beautiful and has a lot of natural attractions
It has lots of other entertaining attractions as well
Sunshiney weather

Reasons not to move:
Crocagators
Hurricanes
Awful drinking water. I've never tasted anything like it in my life.

I don't know how high/low cost of living is?

I live here and Im gonna tell you that the prices here are about to skyrocket. At least in NY they pay you enough for cost of living. Desantiss policies are gonna bite us in the ass pretty hard soon economically

Pro: If you like cubanas south florida is like a dream come true

Pro: Good party beaches

Pro: Its not nyc

Ron DeSantis

I have good memories of Florida, but the last time I was there was like 15 years ago. Went to Universal Studios. I've wanted to go back for a couple reasons, but scouting out potentially living there was one of them. I was still too hesitant to actually pull the trigger and fly down there, and I feel like the pandemic just compounded onto that.

Idk much about Florida, but I can see it skyrocketing in price in the next decade if not sooner. Tech companies are leaving California in droves and one of the next best places to go to is Florida.

If you can get a house do it. I tell everyone to leave the city and go buy a house anywhere possible. Living in the city is a giant trap people fall into. If you can't see yourself buying a house there because it's damn near impossible then leave.

Best part about Polk County.
Half hour between Tampa and Orlando.
And Sheriff Grady Judd

Where are you looking to move? You said along the east coast in the middle of the state which has me guessing anywhere between St. Augustine and New Smyrna Beach. Between those is most notably Daytona Beach.

The loom of her reproductive rights being taken away from her at a moments notice will loom over your wife.

Florida Man

Hurricanes are like 10x more common in Florida than New York