Florida more expensive than Great Falls? I don't know how anyone plans to retire there

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of misconceptions on this board.

Homes are taking longer to sell across the country, not just in FL.

A $3M home is going to have high property taxes in most places. There are plenty of less expensive homes in nice areas in FL.

Home values in FL had significant gains during the pandemic. That also created much higher property taxes. It's no longer a cheap place to retire in the sunshine, although there are still some reasonably affordable places to retire.

Orlando is huge with some great neighborhoods outside the tourist areas. Some of you clearly just think of theme parks and have no clue about the rest of it.

DeSantis is very popular with Floridians. If you must be among only other progressive libs, then skip FL and limit your search to the handful of diehard blue areas where you could be happy.

PP wasn't joking about how efficiently FL is run. It's the opposite of DC city services.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Florida. The central part of the state is hot, humid, buggy, and there's no beach. I do not know why people choose to live there except it used to be cheap.

Near the coast, there is some breeze, you can drive to a beach in under 30 min, and you can find 100 year flood proof land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no income tax in Florida.

Retirees don't have earned income.

Exactly. Why would anyone prefer higher property taxes and no income tax when they're retired? Florida, Texas, Tennessee -- they're all getting you one way or another to pay for the state's budget. That doesn't make them good places to retire.

This is a common misconception. There are much higher tax burdens in some states, especially ones with large public pension liabilities.

Someone who owns a million dollar home in NJ is absolutely paying more than someone in Florida when you add up all the various taxes, insurance, etc.

In NJ your property and state taxes are paying for town governments (as opposed to large counties), highly paid fire and police in every tiny town, corruption and public pensions for school teachers.

It simply isn’t true that you’ll move to Florida and somehow pay this same amount but in a different way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no income tax in Florida.

Retirees don't have earned income.

Exactly. Why would anyone prefer higher property taxes and no income tax when they're retired? Florida, Texas, Tennessee -- they're all getting you one way or another to pay for the state's budget. That doesn't make them good places to retire.

Here is some info on tax burden by state that includes property taxes.

https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/state/2025-state-tax-competitiveness-index/

There is a reason millions of retirees from high tax states retire in Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of misconceptions on this board.

Homes are taking longer to sell across the country, not just in FL.

A $3M home is going to have high property taxes in most places. There are plenty of less expensive homes in nice areas in FL.

Home values in FL had significant gains during the pandemic. That also created much higher property taxes. It's no longer a cheap place to retire in the sunshine, although there are still some reasonably affordable places to retire.

Orlando is huge with some great neighborhoods outside the tourist areas. Some of you clearly just think of theme parks and have no clue about the rest of it.

DeSantis is very popular with Floridians. If you must be among only other progressive libs, then skip FL and limit your search to the handful of diehard blue areas where you could be happy.

PP wasn't joking about how efficiently FL is run. It's the opposite of DC city services.

Florida has by far the most markets indicated as highly motivated sellers (followed by Texas).

From July 12:

As of this morning, the entire state of Florida is blanketed with highly motivated sellers trying to find a buyer based on their listing activity.

These are sellers who are slashing prices, have been on the market and can't find a buyer, are increasing the frequency between price cuts, and are cutting deeper.

The US National average today for the @ParclLabs motivated seller index is right around 3. These for sale homes are > 2x that.

While there are pockets of these sellers primarily around Texas and sunbelt hubs, most of Florida appears to have high intent sellers trying to get rid of their home.

[Anonymous]

You are 50 years behind the times OP if you think Florida is popular with retirement due to the prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of misconceptions on this board.

Homes are taking longer to sell across the country, not just in FL.

A $3M home is going to have high property taxes in most places. There are plenty of less expensive homes in nice areas in FL.

Home values in FL had significant gains during the pandemic. That also created much higher property taxes. It's no longer a cheap place to retire in the sunshine, although there are still some reasonably affordable places to retire.

Orlando is huge with some great neighborhoods outside the tourist areas. Some of you clearly just think of theme parks and have no clue about the rest of it.

DeSantis is very popular with Floridians. If you must be among only other progressive libs, then skip FL and limit your search to the handful of diehard blue areas where you could be happy.

PP wasn't joking about how efficiently FL is run. It's the opposite of DC city services.

I think I’m the one that questioned why anyone would want to move to Orlando. The weather is so disgusting 10 months of the year. Even October and March are way too hot and humid. And it’s very cookie cutter subdivisions, malls with chain stores/rsstaurants and terrible traffic. I see no real attraction. I can understand the attraction of some other areas in Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are 50 years behind the times OP if you think Florida is popular with retirement due to the prices.

I hear more people moving to South Carolina. I’m not sure the pros and cons but that eeems to be the place.

[Anonymous]

I thought the real estate market in Florida was crashing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of misconceptions on this board.

Homes are taking longer to sell across the country, not just in FL.

A $3M home is going to have high property taxes in most places. There are plenty of less expensive homes in nice areas in FL.

Home values in FL had significant gains during the pandemic. That also created much higher property taxes. It's no longer a cheap place to retire in the sunshine, although there are still some reasonably affordable places to retire.

Orlando is huge with some great neighborhoods outside the tourist areas. Some of you clearly just think of theme parks and have no clue about the rest of it.

DeSantis is very popular with Floridians. If you must be among only other progressive libs, then skip FL and limit your search to the handful of diehard blue areas where you could be happy.

PP wasn't joking about how efficiently FL is run. It's the opposite of DC city services.

I think I’m the one that questioned why anyone would want to move to Orlando. The weather is so disgusting 10 months of the year. Even October and March are way too hot and humid. And it’s very cookie cutter subdivisions, malls with chain stores/rsstaurants and terrible traffic. I see no real attraction. I can understand the attraction of some other areas in Florida.

You don't know what you're talking about. There are several non-cookie cutter neighborhoods (not subdivisions) and plenty of original shops and restaurants in Orlando. The weather is a matter of opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of misconceptions on this board.

Homes are taking longer to sell across the country, not just in FL.

A $3M home is going to have high property taxes in most places. There are plenty of less expensive homes in nice areas in FL.

Home values in FL had significant gains during the pandemic. That also created much higher property taxes. It's no longer a cheap place to retire in the sunshine, although there are still some reasonably affordable places to retire.

Orlando is huge with some great neighborhoods outside the tourist areas. Some of you clearly just think of theme parks and have no clue about the rest of it.

DeSantis is very popular with Floridians. If you must be among only other progressive libs, then skip FL and limit your search to the handful of diehard blue areas where you could be happy.

PP wasn't joking about how efficiently FL is run. It's the opposite of DC city services.

DeSantis is not popular

Destantis and his shit wife embezzled taxpayer funds millions of them what do you not under about that? What do you not understand about how he has done nothing but ruin the state and enrich himself?

Orlando is a pit it’s in the middle of the state with bugs and humanity and old aging infrastructure


I am four generation back Floridian my family was the largest private donator to the University of Florida you are an idiot cult member

Florida when the next hurricane hits with no warnings I hope to hell it wipes out the whole west coast from top to bottom and Republicans ask DeSantis for help .
That will be glorious

[Anonymous]

Any home in Florida will be underwater soon enough. Look at Miami. They already have water in their front yard yet are in denial about the cause. The water is the ocean.

They actually call the water "problem water" instead of "sea rise." Whatever. Hope they enjoy swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The very wealthy are buying up those expensive homes, including many wealthy foreigners.

The not so wealthy buy smaller condos, and they are also hurting due to the high insurance costs.

I would never buy a condo after seeing that one in Miami collapse. Too many of the buildings have major issues because they don't follow building codes or rules.

No, thanks!

This was going on in the 70s when my grandfather decided not to buy a condo because he saw it was built poorly. Sure enough. Years later, all the residents had to pitch in major money for the construction fixes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP searches in areas that are among the most expensive in the entire state and declares the entire state unaffordable.

I’m not OP but is Orlando really one of the most expensive areas? I can’t really see the attraction of living there unless you work in the tourism industry. (I guess a lot of retirees do work part time at disney for the employee discount so maybe that drives up home prices.). Anyway I think the answers are — because no income tax people just divert money to real estate and with recent spikes in insurance costs the property market is coming a little unhinged.

Orlando is boring unless you are there as a tourist doing the tourist things or unless you like golfing.

[Anonymous]

Florida is experiencing a very self-contained real estate crash right now. People who bought during the pandemic and now need to sell are competing with new construction everywhere in the state, with the result being no one is selling anything, even with prices plummeting. Seven of the top ten metro areas with the largest price declines in May were in Florida (two of the others were in Texas), and in March, Florida had its largest year-over-year price decrease (based on average sale prices) in 13 years.

I guess if you're looking to buy and hold on to something for decades, it could be a good time to buy. But good luck getting insurance. Florida is one Andrew away from complete catastrophe, and Trump has made sure there will be no federal recovery money coming.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-collapse-begun-florida-010054772.html