Moving to Florida. Looking for advice.

[rapmarks]

I spent a lot of work time in Florida but not that much in the Jax/St. Augustine area. When we decided to move out of Alabama, we decided to spend a few weeks on the northeast Florida coast and fell in love with the area. I do love to visit the south Florida area but I wouldn’t want to live there. Way too many people and vehicles for more than a few days.

I agree, I could not live in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area. So congested. Maybe some of the people who dislike Florida dislike the overcrowded cities.

 

[Brett]

I live right next to Bonita springs, off Corkscrew road.

I've been to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary !

 

[rapmarks]

I've been to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary !

It’s a treasure

 

[amycurl]

I spent some time living with my grandmother in N. Florida, SW of Jacksonville, when my mother did a medical residency in graduate school. (Fun fact: Caeleb Dressel and I attended the same elementary school, but not at the same time.) I also visited and stayed with her often until she died right after I was married in the early 'aughts. I didn't mind the bugs/ants (and I've been hit by fire ants, LOL,), or the sandy soil, or the heat and humidity, or the flatness. I was very conscious, however, of the extreme racial segregation of neighborhoods, businesses, etc. in her neck of the woods. It wasn't legally enforced at that point (when I lived and went to school there, it was not quite twenty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but red lining had done its work.) I had not lived anywhere like that before that, and over the course of the next 20 years of visiting, I never really saw it get better. Other parts of Florida I have stayed in since then have become more diverse, and the issue is less obvious, but I'm not sure about the more rural/non-coastal areas. I wouldn't want to live there again, though, even now.

Reflecting on that experience has led me to wonder if you've asked yourself questions other than those about weather, critters, and affordability: What do you value most about a community you want to live in? How does the community foster a culture of belonging, of neighborliness, of diversity? Do those values matter to you? I love the place that I live in now--not just because it's within walking distance to our downtown, and we were able to afford what we built because there was risk when we purchased as the neighborhood was re-developing-- but because our neighborhood has done a fantastic job of creating a community out of people with diverse viewpoints, family types, and lived experiences. We won the neighborhood lottery, in a lot of respects, and the people that I've found who have truly loved where they live are in places that have figured out to foster a true sense of community amongst all the people who live there.

 

[joestein]

Talking about critters....

At my old house in Marlboro, NJ - we were surrounded by green acres on 2 sides, one of which has a shallow creek. We had our fair share of snakes, deer, racoons, rabbits, possums, groundhogs, box turtles, chip monks and these gray with black mottling frogs.

I think the frogs used my pool as a sex palace. They were getting busy with their mating calls, which are ANNOYINGLY LOUD. One year when I open the pool, I found a few tadpoles. Shocked that immediately.

TWICE... we found a snake stuck in a glue trap in our garage. I think in both instances, a mouse got stuck in there and the snake tried to get the mouse and got stuck. Pretty bizarre to be in the garage in the morning and see something squirming in the corner. Not really scary as his head was stuck inside the trap. I think I used a 'grabby claw thing' that I used to reach tall things, to pick it up and dumped them down the sewer.

Once we had a loose snake in the garage and I think I used a street brush and the grabby claw to get him out. He was trying to bite whatever I was using multiple times. He met untimely end.

Another time, I was walking off my deck and was about to step on a coiled up snake on my walkway. Somehow I was able to calmly reverse my leg and he slithered away.

BUT WHAT REALLY SCARED ME.... a couple of squirrels had bitten through the cover of my garbage can and must have been having a feast, when I went to throw out the trash in the morning. They flew out of the hole as I was about a foot from the garbage. I think this moment was the closest I have come to a heart attack.

During COVID, I moved to a new part of town... haven't really seen any snake or even squirrels, but lots of deer and a red fox. However usually find one or two dead mice in the pool skimmer each year. Thank god for skimmer angels.

 

[joestein]

We have mountains but they're made of trash. Mount trashmores we call them.

We had them in NYC growing up. It was along the belt parkway between queens and brooklyn - across from Starret City or Starret at Spring Creek (as they call it today). The trash mountain is now the Shirley Chisholm State Park (no joke - that is the name).

Per the website:

The site, which has never been open to the public before, rests atop the former Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue landfills. The Penn and Fountain landfills were operated by New York City Department of Sanitation from 1956 to 1983.

 

[AnnaS]

@amycurl I see you are in NC. Next sister visit will be Mooresville, NC. She moved down from VA last year.

 

[topmom101]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

 

[rapmarks]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

Good idea

 

[ScoopKona]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

You could easily find timeshare bonus weeks/accommodation certificates and stay all over Florida for very little money.

I stand by my comment that Florida isn't worth it unless right on the water. Those sea breezes make a big difference -- not needing AC all summer long is a big deal there. We had a single window unit in our bedroom. And we only turned it on during windless, humid summer doldrum days. Otherwise, leaving the windows open kept the place pleasant all day.

I was never a fan of the concrete pillbox condo scheme. Those things turn into brick ovens in the summer sun. And it's very much buyer beware when it comes to Florida condos, as the survivors of Champlain Towers can attest.

I stopped enjoying Florida after the turn of the century -- for a whole bunch of reasons. If it stayed like it was in the 1980s and 1990s, I'd probably still be there. But now it's a case of the idiom, "You can never really go back."

 

[AnnaS]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

Great idea and good luck!! Keep us posted with your journey.
Are you taking furnishings? Can always store them if worth keeping until you decide. Perhaps rent a furnished place. Less moving stuff around if you want to try different places/areas.

 

[AnnaS]

Florida is a much closer place than Hawaii/CA/Arizona (to name a few) for many. Depending on where one is coming from. Are they leaving family behind, do they fly or want to fly all the time? Some look for places where they already have one or two family members or friends.

Like my niece and her family, some can pick up and go to a whole new place where they have no family or friends. The family just retired/moved to Panama from VA. The husband is retired military. They knew they wanted to live outside of the US and explored a few places but other than that, moving away/out of the country was an easy decision. Her mom, my sister is in NC and her brother still in VA. We all have different wants and needs.

 

[silentg]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

Keep us posted!

 

[geekette]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

Definitely wishing you good luck! Having been on my own wandering journey the past many years, all I can say is you’ll know Home when you find it. Don’t settle for less than That Feeling. I mean, I did, several times, and it was expensive and stressful.

 

[Brett]

Well, after reading the dozens and dozens of comments by all of you, wonderful people, I have decided to take more time and really think this thru. I might just embark on an adventure and do month long rentals to explore different parts of Florida. Cocoa beach and Panama City sound like a good starting point. I cannot thank you enough. Wish me luck!!

+3 good idea
For month long rentals we use Airbnb