Should I move to Florida?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

I can understand not wanting to move back to DC, but there are other places to move to than FL.

The beaches in the summer in FL now can be hit or miss due to sargasum seaweed and red tide and hurricanes.

Personally, I don't mind the DC winters. It's not that bad, and I'm from CA. But the humidity is horrible in DC, and FL is even worse for humidity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who lives in Florida, I guess there are some savings, but we pay A LOT in home insurance because of the hurricane coverage. Our $1M home costs us $10K a year in home insurance, our property taxes, $13K.

Ouch! That home insurance is A LOT! We have a similarly valued home in VA and our home insurance is just under $2000.

Yes, it should go down once we put a new roof on our house, maybe to around $7k. Many of our friends had a 25% increase in their insurance this last year for no apparent reason (this is before Surfside).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who lives in Florida, I guess there are some savings, but we pay A LOT in home insurance because of the hurricane coverage. Our $1M home costs us $10K a year in home insurance, our property taxes, $13K.

And this is only going to get worse. Plus, the rest of the country will, at some point, get sick of subsidizing Florida's rebuild when hurricanes and floods of ever-increasing frequency and severity continue to decimate it.

Climate change is really going to hit FL hard over the next 20 to 50 years. They are already seeing the impact of it.

I have to say, given what we know about climate change, I think that people who move their now need to have their heads examined. Or pick up a newspaper every once in a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

I can understand not wanting to move back to DC, but there are other places to move to than FL.

The beaches in the summer in FL now can be hit or miss due to sargasum seaweed and red tide and hurricanes.

Personally, I don't mind the DC winters. It's not that bad, and I'm from CA. But the humidity is horrible in DC, and FL is even worse for humidity.

My family is here too, so i can't ask for anything more! I'd rather have south florida summers 100x than DC or any winter.
Life is so much easier not having to even think about or own mittens, hats, scarves, boots etc for little kids.
No issues with seaweed for us.

[Anonymous]

I’m from Florida. If you are crazy wealthy and live near the beach and pay private school, it’s great. Public schools are underperforming, but UF is a decent state school and Florida Scholars makes it very cheap. So if you expect kids to stay FL go ahead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who lives in Florida, I guess there are some savings, but we pay A LOT in home insurance because of the hurricane coverage. Our $1M home costs us $10K a year in home insurance, our property taxes, $13K.

And this is only going to get worse. Plus, the rest of the country will, at some point, get sick of subsidizing Florida's rebuild when hurricanes and floods of ever-increasing frequency and severity continue to decimate it.

Climate change is really going to hit FL hard over the next 20 to 50 years. They are already seeing the impact of it.

I have to say, given what we know about climate change, I think that people who move their now need to have their heads examined. Or pick up a newspaper every once in a while.

+1 I don't even fantasize about retirement spots without checking the climate outlook data on places anymore. Northern Virginia has a relatively strong climate outlook and that has lessened my fantasies about moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live here, I love it. We were choking in northern Virginia/ DC and it is just easier here. Even with one stay at home parent, we can afford things like horseback riding, piano, ballet, vacations, good camps. At the same time it is way less pressure to perform on the kids, which can be freeing. Agree with the above poster that it depends on where - most Northerners (esp on DCUM) have a monolithic, negative view of the place but there are a lot of different places. Some good, some not so good depending on your politics and passions. Some people would absolutely hate it and I can see that. However I must add, ignore the judgey condescending Florida haters on here- not all of us have biglaw salaries or secure fed jobs and we need to do what is best for our kids. I have concluded that life is WAY easier here - but at the same time it is essential to go somewhere else once or twice a year. We try to go to the mountains for 2-3 weeka in the summer and back to Virginia to Grandma’s for a week at Christmas. We are working on saving for a second house / summer house somewhere up “North” like Asheville .

You're living my dream. I hope to move my family to Florida within the next five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

I can understand not wanting to move back to DC, but there are other places to move to than FL.

The beaches in the summer in FL now can be hit or miss due to sargasum seaweed and red tide and hurricanes.

Personally, I don't mind the DC winters. It's not that bad, and I'm from CA. But the humidity is horrible in DC, and FL is even worse for humidity.

My family is here too, so i can't ask for anything more! I'd rather have south florida summers 100x than DC or any winter.
Life is so much easier not having to even think about or own mittens, hats, scarves, boots etc for little kids.
No issues with seaweed for us.

YMMV

I don't mind mittens, but I would literally be a hermit in the summers in FL. It's horrible.

Red tide and sargasum seaweed are an issue, but not necessarily every year. It depends on which way the tides are going, but it's going to get worse every year.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/weather/2021/05/25/sargassum-weed-sea-and-its-coming-florida/5197878001/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who lives in Florida, I guess there are some savings, but we pay A LOT in home insurance because of the hurricane coverage. Our $1M home costs us $10K a year in home insurance, our property taxes, $13K.

And this is only going to get worse. Plus, the rest of the country will, at some point, get sick of subsidizing Florida's rebuild when hurricanes and floods of ever-increasing frequency and severity continue to decimate it.

Climate change is really going to hit FL hard over the next 20 to 50 years. They are already seeing the impact of it.

I have to say, given what we know about climate change, I think that people who move their now need to have their heads examined. Or pick up a newspaper every once in a while.

+1 I don't even fantasize about retirement spots without checking the climate outlook data on places anymore. Northern Virginia has a relatively strong climate outlook and that has lessened my fantasies about moving.

Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep well at night

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who lives in Florida, I guess there are some savings, but we pay A LOT in home insurance because of the hurricane coverage. Our $1M home costs us $10K a year in home insurance, our property taxes, $13K.

And this is only going to get worse. Plus, the rest of the country will, at some point, get sick of subsidizing Florida's rebuild when hurricanes and floods of ever-increasing frequency and severity continue to decimate it.

Climate change is really going to hit FL hard over the next 20 to 50 years. They are already seeing the impact of it.

I have to say, given what we know about climate change, I think that people who move their now need to have their heads examined. Or pick up a newspaper every once in a while.

+1 I don't even fantasize about retirement spots without checking the climate outlook data on places anymore. Northern Virginia has a relatively strong climate outlook and that has lessened my fantasies about moving.

Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep well at night

DP.. why do you say this?

Don't some people say they wouldn't move to CA because of all the forest fires and drought? Natural disasters is something I would definitely look at when deciding to move some place. I would never want to live in tornado alley, for example, or anywhere that frequently gets hurricanes, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

I can understand not wanting to move back to DC, but there are other places to move to than FL.

The beaches in the summer in FL now can be hit or miss due to sargasum seaweed and red tide and hurricanes.

Personally, I don't mind the DC winters. It's not that bad, and I'm from CA. But the humidity is horrible in DC, and FL is even worse for humidity.

My family is here too, so i can't ask for anything more! I'd rather have south florida summers 100x than DC or any winter.
Life is so much easier not having to even think about or own mittens, hats, scarves, boots etc for little kids.
No issues with seaweed for us.

YMMV

I don't mind mittens, but I would literally be a hermit in the summers in FL. It's horrible.

Red tide and sargasum seaweed are an issue, but not necessarily every year. It depends on which way the tides are going, but it's going to get worse every year.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/weather/2021/05/25/sargassum-weed-sea-and-its-coming-florida/5197878001/

PP here. We live on a bay and have a constant breeze. It feels oppressively hot in the rest of the city, but along a body of water....extremely pleasant. We spend every day after school outside for at least 2 hours...in the shade and with the breeze, it is honestly idyllic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

TO each her own - I much prefer NE weather to Florida's.

That said, I do love south Florida, and many of the amenities you describe (other than the weather). But somehow, in his quest for a dramatically lower COL, I doubt OP is going to end up in south Florida.

In his post, OP had two sentences, one of which was that he was interested in doing his job in south Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI is $415 for the first time this year. Maryland taxes are killing me. COLA in DMV is a PITA. I could fly up every other week and do my job fine from south Florida. In laws are down here. Income tax alone would save me $24k!

No, you’d still owe MD taxes. Just move to va.

[Anonymous]

It's boring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's boring

Instead, go rent an airbnb in Cornwall. Stay as long as you wish.