Who has made the move to FL?

[KELLY]

I'm so ready. I live in Maine and at 60 degrees I'm freezing already. It was 90 hot and humid in FL when we go and I love it. My room right now is 64 and I have a sweater and blanket over me. LOL We have high taxes, income tax., Excise tax on my jeep this month alone is 450.00,property taxes. We joke and call it taxationland not vacationland!

 

[KELLY]

My in-laws moved to Florida in 2003 and we vacationed there every year. Of course, we went when it was cold up North and thought we were vacationing in paradise. Unfortuntely, my mother-in-law passed away in 2006. A year ago yesterday, my husband and I moved from New Hampshire to Bradenton, Florida.

While I miss New England:

Our daughters and grandchildren.
Cooler weather.
Beautiful fall days.
Hills.
Mountains.
Blue Jays and Cardinals (birds).
Patriots and Red Sox.

There are benefits to living in Florida:

Sunny weather all year round.
Live less than 15 minutes to some of the most beautiful beaches around.
Live 90 minutes from all of the Magic.
In New England, I got pneumonia every year. So far, not one cold.
I have a severe form of psoriatic arthritis - the warmer weather helps my joints.
My husband had seasonal affective disorder, now he is happier than a clam.
Great fruits and veggies year round.

Drawbacks to living in Florida:

Miss our daughters and grandchildren.
Sunny weather all year round.
Having to run the AC most of the year.
Having to spray for bugs every 3 months.
It rains every summer day.
The traffic is horrible - especially when all of the snow birds return.
No Blue Jays, Chickadees or Robbins - just egrets, herrons, and crows.

Live is a trade off. Thankfully, our children and grandchildren come to visit.

Ok I would miss this us New England folks are all about our sports teams. We are kind of freakish about it.

Patriots and Red Sox.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I'm so ready. I live in Maine and at 60 degrees I'm freezing already. It was 90 hot and humid in FL when we go and I love it. My room right now is 64 and I have a sweater and blanket over me. LOL We have high taxes, income tax., Excise tax on my jeep this month alone is 450.00,property taxes. We joke and call it taxationland not vacationland!

I'm in Kentucky and freezing. I am so upset that we haven't moved yet. I hate staring into the abyss of a cold 5 months until spring.

 

[wendow]

I'm so ready. I live in Maine and at 60 degrees I'm freezing already. It was 90 hot and humid in FL when we go and I love it. My room right now is 64 and I have a sweater and blanket over me. LOL We have high taxes, income tax., Excise tax on my jeep this month alone is 450.00,property taxes. We joke and call it taxationland not vacationland!

You sound just like me!!! When we go to FL, and it's hot and muggy and humid, I am so happy! My skin is happy! I love it But then I am originally from SE TX. I just don't mind heat and humidity. Most people would say that is weird but I think you and I might high-five over that lol!

 

[wendow]

I'm in Kentucky and freezing. I am so upset that we haven't moved yet. I hate staring into the abyss of a cold 5 months until spring.

Oh, me too! It has gotten cold here in CO, and it's happened fast! We are expecting a high of 26 on Sunday. What!?! It is October, for crying out loud!!! My 16yo dd was cold a couple of days ago, when this all first began, and she said, "it's ok, it will be warm again soon". I looked at her like she had five heads, and let her know, "it will be warm again in June". She said, "you make our winters sound so long" and I replied, "cause they are"!

I'm sad we were not able to move either We've committed to getting dd16 through high school and then trying again. Jobs in FL are just hard unless you are in certain industries (my dh is tech and that is just not really a tech state) so I am hoping something changes there.

 

[wendow]

Ok I would miss this us New England folks are all about our sports teams. We are kind of freakish about it.

Patriots and Red Sox.

I would struggle too. Still love my Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, & Houston Astros and now, after living in CO for so long, I'm a life-long Denver Broncos fan. It would be hard to not be able to go to a game. I really don't care for any FL teams at all.

 

[wendow]

We're still looking into moving next year. Hubby will be graduating at the end of April. He's planning on starting to apply for jobs after he takes some certifications in December so he can put those on his resume. We're hoping he can have something lined up for once he graduates, but there will be a time where he'd be there by himself because our son won't finish school until towards the end of May. Since we've heard there's high demand in the engineering field we're hoping he doesn't have too hard of a time finding something. We've looked into a few areas, but it's hard to get a feel for them without actually seeing them. We'll be down in December and planned on taking a couple of days to drive around to get a better idea.

Good luck to you guys! Definitely keep us posted on what you end up doing!!

 

[wendow]

You will find a lot great advice here with this question as I asked something similar about 2 years ago. Another great resource someone on here recommended was the facebook group Taking The Florida Plunge. We even found our realtor on that group. (We homeschool too!)

Do you find lots of homeschool opportunities? I'm not planning on giving up homeschooling so looking to enrich that however I can!

 

[Happyinwonerland]

You sound just like me!!! When we go to FL, and it's hot and muggy and humid, I am so happy! My skin is happy! I love it But then I am originally from SE TX. I just don't mind heat and humidity. Most people would say that is weird but I think you and I might high-five over that lol!

I'm from S.Carolina, Florida, and Alabama. Heat and humidity are life!
I agree about the skin, mine is so soft and vibrant looking down south. I get dry, cracked, dull skin here. And I'm allergic to whatever is constantly in bloom here, so I'm always scratching and have red watery eyes. All of that goes away in Fl.

Oh, me too! It has gotten cold here in CO, and it's happened fast! We are expecting a high of 26 on Sunday. What!?! It is October, for crying out loud!!! My 16yo dd was cold a couple of days ago, when this all first began, and she said, "it's ok, it will be warm again soon". I looked at her like she had five heads, and let her know, "it will be warm again in June". She said, "you make our winters sound so long" and I replied, "cause they are"!

I'm sad we were not able to move either We've committed to getting dd16 through high school and then trying again. Jobs in FL are just hard unless you are in certain industries (my dh is tech and that is just not really a tech state) so I am hoping something changes there.

26 makes me want to cry for you, that is so cold! DH's job opportunites are better in Florida, and mine are hit or miss. We had to cancel our move to Orlando because the hospitals there paid half of my current salary. But I got a call from a recruiter in Tampa recently that actually pays more than I currently make. Go figure.

 

[kandb]

My family and I moved to Florida 2 years ago from Central NJ. We moved to South Sumter County. We're an hour from Tampa, an hour from Disney and an hour from the gulf. It's very rural here and we love it. We were able to pay cash for our home with the proceeds from our NJ home. 2000 sq ft home with a pool on 10 acres.

Our property taxes are $800 a year (down from $13,000 a year in NJ). Our homeowners is $2000 a year. It would be much less if we didn't have cattle (we carry extra liability on them). Full coverage auto insurance for myself, my husband and our 18 yr old son is $2400 a year (2013, 2014 and 2006 vehicles).

The summers are hot as heck (but that's why we have ac and a pool). Any work that needs to be done outside gets done early in the day or after 5. Well paying jobs don't exist here (but I knew that ahead of time). I commute into Orlando for work.
My husband is a blue collar worker (those kinds of jobs are plentiful). He works locally.

Moving here was the best thing we ever did. We should have done it sooner!

Can you give examples of salaries in the area? We live in NJ and salaries are higher but I am wondering how much higher.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Don't forget about Spring Training in Florida. The Red Sox are just about 40 miles from me for Spring Training. Miami is a two hour drive (and we did it for the season opener this year to watch my team, the Cubs - all four games). Tampa is only about three hours away for American League play and some interleague play (we saw the Cubs play there in 2017).

I live on an island at the end of I-75 before it turns east to go to Miami. We have robins here and blue jays. We were surprised. But lots of egrets, ibis, osprey, eagles here, too. The only tough time is during "the season", about late Nov through mid-April. You almost have to have an appointment to go to the grocery store. Our island swells from about 15,000 to about 45,000 people. You go early or late, but not mid-day. We see more Ohio, Indiana, NY, Penn, Maine, Jersey, etc license plates than Florida.

Our flood insurance on the island is less than what it was in Louisiana (and we did get flooded twice there) and our house was less expensive in Louisiana. Our homeowners insurance is higher here and it can be hard to find. We've had State Farm for over 40 years and they don't write home owners policies in Florida. Our State Farm (for our car) got us a home insurance company.

 

[amalone1013]

We're still looking into moving next year. Hubby will be graduating at the end of April. He's planning on starting to apply for jobs after he takes some certifications in December so he can put those on his resume. We're hoping he can have something lined up for once he graduates, but there will be a time where he'd be there by himself because our son won't finish school until towards the end of May. Since we've heard there's high demand in the engineering field we're hoping he doesn't have too hard of a time finding something. We've looked into a few areas, but it's hard to get a feel for them without actually seeing them. We'll be down in December and planned on taking a couple of days to drive around to get a better idea.

What kind of engineering is he in? DH and I have kicked around Florida as an option. Hes in mechanical engineering

 

[OnlyDisney]

Do you find lots of homeschool opportunities? I'm not planning on giving up homeschooling so looking to enrich that however I can!

We have found a great homeschool group! We live in Lake County about 1 hour NW of Disney. I've found that all the homeschool groups are through facebook down here. Some groups are more active than others, some are more religious, some are secular, some are inclusive.

After going through some groups that weren't a good fit we are now with Happy Homeschoolers of Central Florida. There are more activities with this group then we can do each month! In the past month we've done Science Experiment Day, Craft Day, Fire Station Tour, some plays, farm tour, Wonderworks, Radio Station tour, train ride, local park day every Wednesday (different park each month), Robotics club, sewing lessons. It only costs $8 per family per year to help pay for a website to list and sign up for all the field trips. You just pay for whatever field trips you like. This group is truly inclusive as there are religious, atheist, LGBQT, cis, unschoolers, ect. - All are welcome.

You can homeschool two ways here. Through the county with a letter of intent and annual reviews or through an umbrella school with no reviews. Both have good and bad to them. We're going through an umbrella until high school then we'll switch to through the county so they can Dual Enroll in college.

 

[wendow]

We have found a great homeschool group! We live in Lake County about 1 hour NW of Disney. I've found that all the homeschool groups are through facebook down here. Some groups are more active than others, some are more religious, some are secular, some are inclusive.

After going through some groups that weren't a good fit we are now with Happy Homeschoolers of Central Florida. There are more activities with this group then we can do each month! In the past month we've done Science Experiment Day, Craft Day, Fire Station Tour, some plays, farm tour, Wonderworks, Radio Station tour, train ride, local park day every Wednesday (different park each month), Robotics club, sewing lessons. It only costs $8 per family per year to help pay for a website to list and sign up for all the field trips. You just pay for whatever field trips you like. This group is truly inclusive as there are religious, atheist, LGBQT, cis, unschoolers, ect. - All are welcome.

You can homeschool two ways here. Through the county with a letter of intent and annual reviews or through an umbrella school with no reviews. Both have good and bad to them. We're going through an umbrella until high school then we'll switch to through the county so they can Dual Enroll in college.

Thank you! Great info! My teens can get dual credit here too in CO. We have loved that option and would definitely plan to continue that.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Funny, I'd love to get out of Florida. But I've lived here all my life.

 

[Huff]

I live in Phoenix. No way could I handle FL's summer heat. The humidity is intense, far worse than AZ's summers! Not to mention all the flying insects in FL!

In AZ in the summer we can drive 1-2 hours and be in the cool mountains for the weekend. In the winter we can drive the same 1-2 hours to play in the snow, ski etc. for the weekend. In FL you drive 1-2 hours and it looks just like the place you left!

 

[wendow]

Don't forget about Spring Training in Florida. The Red Sox are just about 40 miles from me for Spring Training. Miami is a two hour drive (and we did it for the season opener this year to watch my team, the Cubs - all four games). Tampa is only about three hours away for American League play and some interleague play (we saw the Cubs play there in 2017).

My dh and dd18 are HUGE baseball fans so this would go over so well

 

[wendow]

I live in Phoenix. No way could I handle FL's summer heat. The humidity is intense, far worse than AZ's summers! Not to mention all the flying insects in FL!

In AZ in the summer we can drive 1-2 hours and be in the cool mountains for the weekend. In the winter we can drive the same 1-2 hours to play in the snow, ski etc. for the weekend. In FL you drive 1-2 hours and it looks just like the place you left!

We are in CO, and have talked about AZ. My dh has had to go for work trips in Nov to Phoenix and he loves the weather there. But I am not sold on AZ...I really don't mind humidity and feel my skin does better in a humid climate. It's probably because I was born and bred in SE TX. I miss moisture!! Here in CO, I'm constantly itchy and dry. Yet, when we go back to TX or FL, my skin feels great.

And while I do not love bugs, I'm absolutely terrified of arachnids...spiders and scorpions are the stuff of nightmares for me...Yep, I know it's irrational but I just can't help it.So, how many scorpions and spiders do you get?

Otherwise, Phoenix sounds heavenly!

 

[Huff]

And while I do not love bugs, I'm absolutely terrified of arachnids...spiders and scorpions are the stuff of nightmares for me...Yep, I know it's irrational but I just can't help it.So, how many scorpions and spiders do you get?
Otherwise, Phoenix sounds heavenly!

I have not seen a scorpion in decades and I live in a small housing development that borders open desert. I have heard others finding them but living in 4 different homes as well as at families homes none of us have seen one in years. Haven't seen much in the way of spiders either. We have a few geckos that live around our home. They seem to get rid of any insects such as crickets whenever they show up.

I've heard people say they are used to humidity and have trouble with the dryness here. I'll never understand that. In FL summer the high humidity and intense heat just drain any energy quick. I struggle just to breathe. Guess its what you get used to.

 

[kandb]

We live in NJ and visit Florida every summer. I grew up going to Florida every year as we had relatives in Daytona Beach. I really love Florida but TBH, I would never want to live there year round. Living up north can be annoying but I love our spring and fall and winters a lot (just as long as they are not too long, lol). I don't think I could adjust to Florida weather year round. I think snowbirds have the best of both worlds, if you can afford it.