Community Chat

[homedecor1]

@elainemasey 

Dunedin and of course, St. Petersburg area have nice downtown  

areas and beaches.

 As for friends,etc. I think it's harder the older we get.

I live in a gated deeded over 55 golf community outside Tampa area and don't have a lot of "friends" they had their "circle of friends" long before I moved here.  I don't golf nor hang in our bar so if your looking for that "neighborhood" feel can you let me know if you find it because after 10 years I haven't 🤷‍♀️😉 although 

I have many "acquaintances"

Good luck, personally I'd move to Venice, Sarasota or Punta Gorda in a heartbeat if spouse would move since our area does not have anything like that☹️.  

I wanted to add many here are younger (like me) and moving to the Carolinas -- and housing, car insurance & homeowners is getting outrageous in FL.  

[Drythe]

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@homedecor1 wrote:

@elainemasey 

Dunedin and of course, St. Petersburg area have nice downtown  

areas and beaches.

 As for friends,etc. I think it's harder the older we get.

I live in a gated deeded over 55 golf community outside Tampa area and don't have a lot of "friends" they had their "circle of friends" long before I moved here.  I don't golf nor hang in our bar so if your looking for that "neighborhood" feel can you let me know if you find it because after 10 years I haven't 🤷‍♀️😉 although 

I have many "acquaintances"

Good luck, personally I'd move to Venice, Sarasota or Punta Gorda in a heartbeat if spouse would move since our area does not have anything like that☹️.  

I wanted to add many here are younger (like me) and moving to the Carolinas -- and housing, car insurance & homeowners is getting outrageous in FL.  

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@homedecor1 

AS it is here in NC, the result of the > 110,000 move-ins we gain yearly.

 We have become the new tornado ally, which used to be Kansas, additionally Hurricanes rarely miss us.

[homedecor1]

@Drythe 

Its absolutely crazy when I moved to this area 10 years ago it was nothing but parks, roaming cattle and 2 lane highways. 

All the farmland has been sold off to developers -- 20,000 homes were built and still building 🙈 every farm parcel of land is now new developments starting at $200,000+ for a "postage stamp" cookie cutter house🙄

and roads are packed with traffic what used to take 15 minutes to get to closest food store now 30+ minutes...and let's not talk about the strip malls popping up...

ugh...disastrous but people keep moving here...and just got my homeowners & car insurance renewal omg I almost had heart failure...as you know they only write 6 month policy in FL I'm paying $1,992/year for 1 car🙈and I didn't open the homeowners as why ruin my day😉

[LizzieInSRQ]

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@Pearlee wrote:

@elainemasey  One important consideration is you don't want to chose an area that is constantly battered by hurricane weather.

I have friends and family in Sarasota, Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch (what you wrote about LR is true!)  But fortunately the hurricanes don't hit there, which is a big plus (perhaps because of being SW rather than SE?)  Anyway, and this goes along with @Mindy D  's point about the cost of homeowners  insurance, I hope you will take this into account when choosing a locale.  Good luck finding what you are looking for.

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@Pearlee wrote:

@elainemasey  One important consideration is you don't want to chose an area that is constantly battered by hurricane weather.

I have friends and family in Sarasota, Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch (what you wrote about LR is true!)  But fortunately the hurricanes don't hit there, which is a big plus (perhaps because of being SW rather than SE?)  Anyway, and this goes along with @Mindy D  's point about the cost of homeowners  insurance, I hope you will take this into account when choosing a locale.  Good luck finding what you are looking for.

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Also just a huge difference between the east coast and west coast of Florida in general. From weather, housing,  beach quality, Atlantic vs Gulf, flora , fauna, sun rise vs sunset etc. I was born on the west coast and I'm going to die on the west coast. No question for me.

[LizzieInSRQ]

Ive always had yearly car insurance policies, not 6 month, no matter what company.

[haddon9]

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@River Song wrote:

You might like Mt. Dora for a small town feel but it's in central Florida, north of Orlando, in the center of the state, not near the beach.  But there are lakes if being near water is important.  

There really isn't anything comparable to Mass here in Florida, sorry.  Most of the coast is becoming one big urban sprawl.  Personally, I would avoid the panhandle, always getting hammered with hurricanes.

I live in Naples, in the poor part, meaning not on the beach and not in the City of Naples proper.   The beaches are beautiful, it's green in the winter, hotter then the hinges on the gates of Hell in the summer, the humidity will suffocate you.  Housing is expensive, wages are low.  Hurricane Irma in 2017 was a direct hit and I was without power for two weeks.  Hurricane season, June 1 - Nov. 30, makes me anxious.  The only decent weather is between New Year's and Easter.  Gee, what's not to love.  My goal is to move out of Florida in a few years, I just have to figure out where to move that doesn't have hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, mudslides, earthquakes or volcanos.

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@River Song   Here in the mid-atlantic (SE PA) and the northeast you won't find any of those weather related issues mentioned (hurricanes can happen but they are rare).  However it does get cold and some winters are snowy but the summers are much more bearable.  We have periods of heat & humidity but then it will suddenly cool off and be very pleasant for a while before it goes back to hot & humid.

The best of both worlds is to have a place up north for the summers & become a snow bird and go south for the winter.

[Cats3000]

@elainemaseyWe lived in the Orlando area for 11 years.  Never really got into "Florida".  Moved back to New Hampshire and glad we did.  Wouldn't consider moving again.

[novamc1]

@elainemasey 

Husband and I relocated to his home state of Georgia after I grew up in a Wash DC suburb and we both lived in that same zip code for many decades.

We now live in  the Piedmont Region of Georgia.  So far,  this region, while not in the mountains but maybe protected by them, doesn't suffer from some of the severe weather events pounding on other areas.  You'd be not too far from some  easy vacation trips to  high-end resorts in coastal Georgia, South Carolina and  Florida, or  to Georgia's plentiful lakes, where  many of our neighbors own second homes.

Our older son and daughter-in-law take themselves and often  our granddaughter on really nice vacations to western Florida locations.  They live close to us and get away to some very nice places all the time.

Also check out the Georgia tax situation, especially beneficial for seniors and retirees.........we think it's dirt cheap here, compared with Northern Virginia/Wash DC area.  We live on the (supposedly) more affluent side of our Atlanta suburban county, and I couldn't be happier with the convenient transportation routes and quick access to every type of shopping we could ever need.

Also easy access to good health care in all directions.

The  weather damage people around here tend to suffer is usually  caused by falling trees, which are plentiful in older neighborhoods.  I learned long ago never to live in a house located under big old trees or anywhere close to them.  Wind and wet soil can be their downfall, right onto houses, cars, human heads.

Maybe worth investigating this area at various websites, including: 

Piedmont Geographic Region | New Georgia Encyclopedia

• Georgia's Piedmont region sits between the Coastal Plain region and north Georgia. The terrain has valleys and tall hills that resemble mountains. 

See more on reference.com

[Texasmouse]

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@River Song wrote:

You might like Mt. Dora for a small town feel but it's in central Florida, north of Orlando, in the center of the state, not near the beach.  But there are lakes if being near water is important.  

There really isn't anything comparable to Mass here in Florida, sorry.  Most of the coast is becoming one big urban sprawl.  Personally, I would avoid the panhandle, always getting hammered with hurricanes.

I live in Naples, in the poor part, meaning not on the beach and not in the City of Naples proper.   The beaches are beautiful, it's green in the winter, hotter then the hinges on the gates of Hell in the summer, the humidity will suffocate you.  Housing is expensive, wages are low.  Hurricane Irma in 2017 was a direct hit and I was without power for two weeks.  Hurricane season, June 1 - Nov. 30, makes me anxious.  The only decent weather is between New Year's and Easter.  Gee, what's not to love.  My goal is to move out of Florida in a few years, I just have to figure out where to move that doesn't have hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, mudslides, earthquakes or volcanos.

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@River Song this was our quest as well so, when we chose South Central Texas, we were spared all of the natural disasters you mention. What we didn't consider was grapefruit-sized HAIL. We experienced a severe hailstorm five years  ago that broke out windows, damaged our roof and destroyed both of our vehicles. They happen here, every so often, but no one had ever told us about those. I guess there's no such thing as being completely safe anywhere!

[riley1]

@Drythe - I agree with you. Car & Homeowner's insurance is crazy. And, thousands more houses have gone up in a short period of time. Traffic is a mess. Took me almost an hour to go 10 miles last week.