Who has made the move to FL?

[margot31]

I live in Jacksonville and this is our second time here...military. We enjoy it here.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We moved to SW Florida in July. Tropical Storm Emily hit us the day after the movers delivered our furniture. We had been vacationing in Florida for twenty years from NW Louisiana, we are both retired and nothing was holding us there. Our son is in grad school in Miami, so only about two hours away from us. We were hit by Hurricane Irma and had minor damage to our home, no leaks, but needed a new roof. Had to replace the pool cage, but it was original and needed replacing anyway. Tropical Storm Phillipe hit in August. We love the weather during the slightly cooler months, the dry season, other than it's really dry and we need to water our yard a few times a week. Rainy season has started and we've gotten inches of rain since the weekend. But I love having a wardrobe of shorts and tee shirts (pretty much all I wear). Property taxes are a bit higher here, but flood insurance is lower. Homeowners insurance is close to the same. Car insurance is much lower. No state income tax like we had in Louisiana (did the last tax form for Louisiana a month ago).

 

[apassioncorl]

Are they not a compact state? When I moved from SC to TN it was super easy to transfer my license because they were both compact and I even got to work before the process was complete.

Goodness I wish/hope. My friend just spent 4 months as her job is transferring her down to Florida and still doesn't have it . But I'll figure it out . lol . but maybe I'm just missing some detail . or maybe she just made it sound worse then it is. Lol

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I soo want to move to Florida, just to be close to Disney. Even if only a short few years. But, I'm a registered nurse in PA and I need an engineering degree to figure out how to get my license in Florida. But hopefully in 2 years I'll get it worked out ..lmao .

And I really enjoy reading everyone's stories.

Are they not a compact state? When I moved from SC to TN it was super easy to transfer my license because they were both compact and I even got to work before the process was complete.

Florida became a compact state in Jan of this year.



ETA: It looks like PA is not a compact state, so that may make it difficult.

 

[Dgh1973]

OP- We moved here almost 3 years ago. After tons and tons of research, we decided on Clermont. It's the area to the west of Orlando you didn't visit Winter Garden and Clermont (north) are wonderful areas; very family oriented and homeschool friendly as well. We are part of a large homeschool co-op here. There's something for just about everyone. Clermont is growing liked crazy. You might look into the "Horizon West" area of Winter Garden. This is off the 429 where new homes are shooting up. You have access to a major toll, yet you're out far enough to feel a sense of community (not to mention you'd probably see Disney fireworks nightly). Anyway, I just wanted to add my 2 cents since we did the same thing several years ago. Have fun!

 

[Deb & Bill]

OP- We moved here almost 3 years ago. After tons and tons of research, we decided on Clermont. It's the area to the west of Orlando you didn't visit Winter Garden and Clermont (north) are wonderful areas; very family oriented and homeschool friendly as well. We are part of a large homeschool co-op here. There's something for just about everyone. Clermont is growing liked crazy. You might look into the "Horizon West" area of Winter Garden. This is off the 429 where new homes are shooting up. You have access to a major toll, yet you're out far enough to feel a sense of community (not to mention you'd probably see Disney fireworks nightly). Anyway, I just wanted to add my 2 cents since we did the same thing several years ago. Have fun!

Aren't there a lot of sinkholes in that direction?

 

[wendow]

OP- We moved here almost 3 years ago. After tons and tons of research, we decided on Clermont. It's the area to the west of Orlando you didn't visit Winter Garden and Clermont (north) are wonderful areas; very family oriented and homeschool friendly as well. We are part of a large homeschool co-op here. There's something for just about everyone. Clermont is growing liked crazy. You might look into the "Horizon West" area of Winter Garden. This is off the 429 where new homes are shooting up. You have access to a major toll, yet you're out far enough to feel a sense of community (not to mention you'd probably see Disney fireworks nightly). Anyway, I just wanted to add my 2 cents since we did the same thing several years ago. Have fun!

Thank you! Yes, for some reason we missed that whole western side of Orlando. Not sure what happened there...??? Good to know it's homeschool friendly. We are pretty set in our 'lifestyle' as it's worked awesome for us. Can't imagine NOT homeschooling my kiddos.

What about the sinkholes?

We are still in 'limbo land'...waiting on job stuff...

 

[wendow]

Are they not a compact state? When I moved from SC to TN it was super easy to transfer my license because they were both compact and I even got to work before the process was complete.

Ugh, didn't think of all this. I guess I just figured it would be easy. My oldest wants to be a nurse. If we aren't able to move soon, we will wait until my next dd graduates and that means my oldest dd will be in her nursing program.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Fiance just gave the go ahead that in a few years we can both transfer to the new Cocoa distribution center. I'm thinking late 2020 or early 2021. Anyone have suggestions on places near there to live?

 

[herdtoDisney]

Looking online, I don't think Clermont has any big problem with sinkholes. Last report was years ago that I could find.
Clermont is gorgeous-I love driving through there on the way to Disney.

 

[jen7233]

Clermont is gorgeous-I love driving through there on the way to Disney.

Is Clermont the hilly part of Florida?

 

[Natasha Steele]

We lived down in Southeast Florida for a year & a half & really wish we would have stayed down there...miss it so much! So much to do & the weather is great.
We only left due to a job promotion...we love Texas & have been here for over four years but we are planning a move back to South Florida within the next few years. We always vacation in Florida & love both the beach & WDW.

 

[Lynn CC]

These are some great tips on areas to look for our new 55 plus community...
Jimmy Buffet is planning a new 55 plus community at the panhandle with St. Joe
It sounds like something we might love!

 

[cherylnj]

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!

 

[thiabelle]

Just chiming in... I am a sunbird- live in PA during the school year and go to Florida for the summer (haha I get the best of all the seasons!!).

OP- definitely check out Cheval/Lutz- north of Tampa. Our house is in Lutz and we live three minutes to the Veterans Parkway. It's a toll road that goes directly to the airport. Takes me about an hour and a half to get to Disney. My parents live in The Villages and it about an hour and change to their house. It's perfect for us.

My husband has a job that requires extensive travel and the only consideration when we bought the house was access to the airport. In PA it can take us way more than an hour to get to/from PHL if his plane lands at a bad time. I hate that drive.

(The other thing to consider is where your kids want to go college- if they are planning on it. It takes a year and a day to establish residency and there is a huge difference between in state and out of state tuition- our DD is heading to FSU or UF so that was also a consideration)

We found our car insurance went up in FL but everything else seems cheaper. We also had to find a new homeowners insurance company because USAA doesn't write policies in FL anymore. The mortgage guy helped us with finding everything we needed. We have never regretted our purchase. I can't wait to head to FL next week with my puppies!

 

[MillauFr]

I was looking at a few communities in Florida and Naples seems nice. Not sure if I could live there though as it seems you need a car to get around. I am used to walking and riding a bicycle to get around.

 

[wendow]

I was looking at a few communities in Florida and Naples seems nice. Not sure if I could live there though as it seems you need a car to get around. I am used to walking and riding a bicycle to get around.

Naples looks really nice (but pricey for FL??). It's simply gorgeous! I think I prefer a bit more north but I could see vacationing in Naples.

 

[jen7233]

Naples looks really nice (but pricey for FL??). It's simply gorgeous! I think I prefer a bit more north but I could see vacationing in Naples.

I'd imagine if you move to Florida all of these lovely places could be an easy day or overnight trip, and therefore much cheaper than planning a trip from far away. Definitely a bonus!

 

[wendow]

I'd imagine if you move to Florida all of these lovely places could be an easy day or overnight trip, and therefore much cheaper than planning a trip from far away. Definitely a bonus!

Definitely! Would be so cool For the pricey part, I meant living there...not vacationing...The average home price in Naples is much higher than other cities in FL. I would so love to have all these beautiful cities be just a day's drive (or even less) away!

 

[DVCcurious]

Aren’t y’all afraid of alligators? One just dragged that woman into the water when she was walking her dogs. I read there are over a million alligators in Florida and that every non-pool body of water has them.

How do you handle seeing a pond and not get freaked out?