Calling all former Floridians...

[Anonymous]

We are looking to move to Florida. We used to live there and loved it. Loved the weather, loved the easy pace of life, and the friendly people. I recently switched to a telecommute job and DH is flexible, so we realized we can move literally anywhere. Florida makes sense for us because, as mentioned, we loved it - plus my husband is already licensed there and we have family there.

We previously lived in the Miami area and loved it, but now that we have kids and don't need to be close to a downtown core for work, we'd rather live somewhere "easier". What I mean by "easier" is: less traffic, a place where most of the schools are 'pretty good' (as in, you just don't have to sweat schools that much), a place where people are a little less busy with life and are a little less transient. The things that matter more when you have kids - like a good community, friendly neighbors, etc.

We don't want to live somewhere that is just a sprawling subdivision of single family houses. Ideally, there is a small downtown area, and not just 30 square miles of gated communities. Would prefer a more established neighborhood.

We would like a 2500 sf+ house with a nice yard and we aren't worried too much about cost. $400-600k would be easy to do. We would like to live in the "nice part of town", but would love to find a town where that doesn't mean everyone is snooty. It's be nice if the nice part of town had doctors and teachers and city workers and other normal but not super high paying jobs. Like, where normal people live. We are liberal and not religious, so we'd also like to be somewhere where people aren't batshit crazy conservative or racist!

I think SE Florida is out -- the fun parts are too traffic-y, and the rest is too suburban sprawl. We know Sarasota, Naples, and Bradenton very well. Naples seems a bit too snooty, and Sarasota/Bradenton have a beautiful downtown area but not much community with families in those parts. Seems like the families all live in the sprawling burbs, which really lack charm.

I'm wondering about Gainesville? A friend is in Ponte Vedre near Jacksonville and loves it. What about the space coast? I don't know those parts at all. Other people rave about the communities outside orlando. I think the Panhandle is too far away, so probably looking at central florida. Any recs?? here's the recap of what we're looking for:

- "easy" living - low traffic, community and neighborhood feeling. Know the kids and families in the neighborhood, go through elem to high school with the same kids.
- not looking for faceless suburbia; ideally an established community. Somewhere with a downtown or core area.
- community that is a bit higher end, but not super snooty.
- good schools. But don't have to be great. Schools were regular good kids go and have the chance to go to good colleges.
- would love to be close to the beach - but that option seems to correlate directly with retirees and lack of family community. So maybe a pipe dream.
- okay for liberals to live there.

I recognize that this sounds like a Unicorn on dcum, but I grew up in a place like this and know friends who live in places like this. I know they exist!! There has to be a few in Florida!

[Anonymous]

St Augustine?

Private school?

[Anonymous]

Vero or Melbourne or Titusville. Best weather in Fla.

[Anonymous]

Hyde Park in South Tampa?
Jupiter?
Delray Beach?

[Anonymous]

I'm from south Florida and have also lived in Jax and Pensacola. I'd do pnote vests beach. Cute beach town, good schools (St. John's county) and no traffic but close to Jax and St Augustine for shopping.
Another adorable area is fernandina beach- adorable beach town with a cute downtown, beach access, and good schools.

I have friends who live in Flagler beach and love it and the town but the schools are just okay (not bad but not exceptional).

[Anonymous]

Sorry, PP here: I meant ponte vedra beach!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hyde Park in South Tampa?
Jupiter?
Delray Beach?

Hyde Park or Davis Islands in Tampa have the schools and the vibe and friendly people (even liberals!) and would be great but housing may stretch the budget slightly since that area is popular for everything that it has to offer. It's not that close to the beach, since Tampa is on the bay but otherwise fits the bill pretty well.

Delray Beach doesn't fit the bill. I live in a beautiful neighborhood near the downtown core area and it's a fun place to be, but there are almost no kids in our neighborhood and definitely not the neighborhood feel that OP is looking for. The Lake Ida neighborhood has that a bit, but it's still hard since the schools in Delray suck. It means that everyone is trying to get into the lottery for a better school or going private and that impacts the neighborhood feel somewhat when kids aren't moving through the schools with their neighbors. Boca has better schools, but even there it's an accepted fact that pretty much anywhere in South Florida that you have to pick to either live east near the beach and put up with barely mediocre schools or move west to the subdivisions and live in suburbia to have good schools. Traffic is also not great here.

I don't know enough about Jupiter (as opposed to Tampa and Delray where I've lived) but it might be a good fit. OTOH, I have definitely found people to be friendlier on the Gulf Coast than on the Atlantic Coast. I'm not sure if it's just less crowded, or the fact that more people on the Gulf Coast have relocated from the midwest while people on the Atlantic Coast have generally moved down here from NY/NJ and the attitudes reflect that.

Orlando is miserable in the summer. It's as hot as DC is right now, for months without any respite.

One thing we have learned living in SE FL is that if you're within a mile or so of the coast there's often a breeze that helps with the heat. It's still hot, but in the shade with a breeze it's not unbearable.

[Anonymous]

My in-laws are in Seminole in Pinellas County. Ten minutes from the beach and the schools have a really good reputation (my SIL is down there, too.) Your budget would get you something really nice.

[Anonymous]

Former Floridian here - in addition to Hyde Park/Davis Island for Tampa, South Tampa (Culbreath Isles, Culbreath Bayou, off of Westshore Blvd) is another really good neighborhood with good schools.

If you want to be nearer to the beach and a slightly smaller hometown vibe (and more arts), St. Petersburg is nice but I don't know about the schools.

Avoid Clearwater. Lovely beach but the city is 99% owned by the Scientologists and it affects everything there. Read "The Truth Rundown" in the Tampa Bay Times for some of the craziness.

Sarasota is lovely. Don't know about the grade schools but New College and Ringling School of Arts are really good.

Gainesville is really nice and has a great hometown vibe. If you like the beach, it's not the greatest pick, but there are gorgeous springs to swim in like Ginnie Springs or Ichnatuckee Springs. Don't swim near cattails!

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Ponte Vedra has excellent schools. I know several young families who moved there and are very happy with their decision.

[Anonymous]

Jupiter - good schools, family friendly, traffic not crazy.

South Tampa - good schools (but only in south Tampa - so be careful). Traffic isn't great in Tampa and the social scene is a bit hard to break into if you are not Tampa native.

Naples has really good schools and I don't think it's that snooty - it's very sleepy there when it's not season and the population definitely trends older.

Gainesville - hot hot hot in the summer. However, very low cost of living comparatively and has good schools. The Uni is the major employer and outside of gvil is very rural so not much else going on. It's family friendly but hard to travel anywhere because airport is all and you would need to go to jax for decent flight options (1.5 hrs away)

Ponte Vedra is lovely but i don't know anything about schools there.

Avoid Orlando at all costs.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks everyone, keep this stuff coming!!

A word on budget: I said $400k-$600k because having looked around Zillow, there are so many places in florida where that buys you a really nice house in a nice neighborhood, so it seems we shouldn't have to spend more than that if we plan wisely. We have a lot of home equity and savings so we'd like to buy a place all cash and be semi-retired in 5-7 years. So keeping costs down really low is part of the appeal of this plan, to expedite retirement. That said, we could go over that budget without too much trouble.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Florida and HATED it. I found the majority of people stupid or slow (or both), the schools were very poor, everyone was new money and flashy about it (think NJ Real Housewives).

If you have kids, I do NOT suggest moving to FL, or be prepared to put them in private school. Look into Coral Springs, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Florida and HATED it. I found the majority of people stupid or slow (or both), the schools were very poor, everyone was new money and flashy about it (think NJ Real Housewives).

If you have kids, I do NOT suggest moving to FL, or be prepared to put them in private school. Look into Coral Springs, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach.

I'm the OP. We loved Florida when we lived there for 8 years, in part because of the total absence of self-righteous narcissists like the PP, that are so omnipresent in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

I have heard the public schools in Florida are not good anywhere. Period. And, most people with money put their kids in parochial or private schools. My family lives full time in the DC Metro area but we own a home in Boca Raton. I would never move down there with grade school children. I have kids in middle school now. At least in the DC area you have a wide variety of school options but not in Florida. Plus, people down there are stupid (culturally, socially, politically...) at least in South Florida. OP, you should think long and hard about it.