Quoted from OLDPINGUY:A few Good things about Florida.
1) 2 Beaches from 2 different Oceans!
Tropical Gulf, with Coral reefs, Turquoise Blue Water, and incredible sealife
Atantic Ocean from Surfing to Fishing, on into the Keys.
2) Low taxes....no state Income Tax. My proprty tax on an average 2000 sq ft, is $1200-$2500
3) Low utilities...from Natural Gas, to fireplace, almost no heating Bill, and if you get an ocean Breeze
AC is minimal. My daughters/my retirement near the beach, has never seen a utility bill over $75, and averages under $50.
4) Most important, Clean air...from 2 oceans scrubbed clean, or down from the mountains.
We are blessed with new fresh air everyday, and we take for granted we breath non stop!
If one lives in NY or LA, I love both to visit, but long term air....I need this as well, as mountains and desert.
5) Real Estate. Working on a 2/2 on a lake in Orlando to help my brother moving from NY.
$68K property taxes $650. Very affordable living.
Lots of not so good....Tourists, traffic, heat in summer, bugs, but we learn to avoid the tourists and traffic, and address the heat and bugs!
Floridians vacation to the mountains, often in the Summer! We also rarely go to theme parks in the summer...way to hot in the concrete jungle...we leave that for the tourists.
Whats also great are the pinheads....yes, we have a few rough around the edges guys, but for the most part,
like the rest of pinside, a great supportive group, somewhere to play every weekend as a group, and low pin prices to be found as well!
#1 for me is the clean air, and 2 oceans!
I need to move to Winter Park. Taxes on my 1550 square foot home are about $2200 a year. In the summer, my utility bill is often around $400 with the air on all the time.
As far as the houses being close together that is generally true. My house is a little older, built in 1982. It is on a half acre lot with woods in the backyard so plenty of space between neighbors and lots of privacy. You can also swim most of the year if you have a pool. I don't have a heater and my pool temp was still 88 degrees this past weekend.
Yes, there are a lot of reptiles. I have identified 6 different snake species just in my yard. No poisonous ones yet fortunately. Lots of wild life with tons of lizards, frogs, birds, squirrels, etc. Very few rabbits for some reason as my NY home had lots of rabbits.
Albany, NY
