Considering a Move to Florida...Where Should We Move?

[Schley]

For those approaching retirement taxes and access to health care are major concerns. Florida checks both of those boxes. I would never be able to tolerate the summers there so having 2 houses, and being a snow bird somewhere will likely be my strategy. Looking at different areas (NC, Palm Desert, Santa Barbara, Austin, Phoenix, possibly Florida, and then Costa Rica). Got 5 or so years to figure it out.

[flgolfpro23]

I currently live in Charlotte county. Half way between ft Myers and Sarasota. It's wonderful here. Low housing costs. Slower pace. Close to world recognized beaches. Ie siesta key Boca grande. Venice is the shark tooth Capitol of the world. I actually run a 5 course facility in Englewood with one membership covering all 5 courses with membership costs around $2500 for a single. I have less than ten minutes to about a dozen really nice courses and plenty more outside that. There's even a futures tour event at course about 10 miles away. 2 hours to Orlando, an hour to Tampa, 4 hours to the keys. I'm very happy here and it never gets cold. Well almost never

[platgof]

East Coast of Florida is not looking great right now, and the Bahamas, awful. I am from Sarasota and we have dealt with hurricanes every year. If they don't hit you, they leave a ton of rain every where.

[RichieHunt]

Cape Canaveral has never suffered a direct hit of a hurricane. That's a big reason why NASA decided to be there as the sea wall has always blocked off the eyes of hurricanes. Hurricanes are no fun, but they still beat dealing with snow on a daily basis for 3-5 months. And in Florida, they have arguably the most stringent building codes in the world to specifically deal with hurricanes.

 

Right now we are pretty good. It rained pretty good at 6am and then stopped. I could probably go golfing right now if the courses weren't closed in preparation for the storm. The hurricane is going to pass us this evening, but the eye...the last I checked...was projected to be 45 miles east of Cape Canaveral. And now they are talking about the hurricane going further out east.

 

I had never seen a hurricane take a path like they were projecting earlier on except for Andrew which went thru Miami. That's why I didn't believe the Hurricane was going to go the way they projected at first.

 

What I do is I have 2 cases of water that I store for the entire year for emergencies because that is what goes out first. I also get ahold of friends that live inland to see if I can stay there. I can live without electricity for a day or two, but after that you're just not going to want to be around. And for the love of god, don't run your generator in a garage or a home and have the exhaust pointed away from your home.

 

Anyway, I'm guessing the courses in Martin County (Port St. Lucie area) will probably take the biggest hit, but even then I don't think it will be all that bad. I fully expect to play golf in Orlando this coming weekend.

 

 

 

RH

[dpb5031]

We're fine down here in Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens. Hunkered down with plenty of supplies and hurricane shutters closed. Intermittent rain and some gusty winds, but overall not too bad. Have not lost power. Very lucky for us that it stayed well east. We even drove over to my cousin's last night for dinner.

 

My folks live on the ocean on Hutchinson Island near Stuart/Jensen Beach. They were evacuated and are staying at my cousin's in PBG since shes got a huge house and a built-in auto-on generator large enough to power the entire house.

 

We moved to Jupiter, FL from NJ late last year, so this is our first hurricane down here. I will say that the entire community down here is better prepared all the way around to deal with these storms than we were in NJ where hurricane Sandy was truly devastating.

 

And I'll take the occasional storm over 4 plus months of miserable winter weather and snow

[jmtbkr]

 

[Warrior42111]

I got some emails from courses in the Melbourne area that were open yesterday at 1pm. I think maybe 2 inches of rain max. Wwntacross the road to the back waves and tides still up to the dunes as of last night.

[RichieHunt]

I work out of Cape Canaveral and there was really no damage to speak of. Have friends that live in low lying areas like Merritt Island and they didn't even lose power.

 

Went to Duran on Thursday and we were hitting off the *grass* no problem. And usually they put us on the mats on Thursdays.

 

Usually the biggest issues after a storm like this is rain afterward. The softening of the soil can make for easy flooding even after some small showers. However, it's supposed to be hot and little to no rain all weekend.

 

 

 

RH

[jmtbkr]

It was pretty good at my club (eastpointe) today. 90* rule but the fairways were really good. Not much roll as it's still pretty soft, but a week of sun with no rain should bring them back. The rough (we call it broccoli) is pretty soft and squishy. Lots of splat balls if you land in it.

[Negncic]

If you haven’t moved yet, check out Plantation Bay in Ormond Beach. Beautiful Gated community, private golf carts, 2 clubhouses, 2 driving ranges, 45 holes of golf with less than 350 members. A few months ago, the super was replaced and they brought the Super from LPGA in. The courses look phenomenal.

[MilkyButterCuts]

Thanks for all of your input here. So helpful, I can't thank you guys enough.

 

Im from SLC, Utah and while I love this place, am in need of a change. Florida checks just about all the boxes for me. I think I've got it narrowed down to 3 options (and surrounding areas); Tampa, Orlando, and WPB/PSL area. I'm going to look a bit more diligently in the coming months and get a set plan in place. Glad you guys got through Hurricane season clean. It just snowed here for today the first time this year and I'm already squirming in my chair.

[fsusmith]

I’m not sure why there’s so much hatred for Jax. Traffic is usually not too bad. There’s plenty to do. The Jags aren’t the best, but it’s at least an NFL team. That’s more than almost any other FL city can claim. We have the Ga/FL football game, a bowl game and we host March Madness games about every other year. There’s the ocean, rivers, plenty of awesome parks. Places like Amelia Island, Palm Coast and St. Augustine are a short drive. I’m not sure how people can hate on Jax traffic but suggest Orlando...makes no sense. But Orlando is less than 2 hours away for short trips to Disney with your family. There is plenty of variety with the golf. Also St. John’s County public schools are some of the best in the country

[platgof]

I can't believe the number of courses near Boca Raton!! Look at the map and it is loaded.

[RichieHunt]

Most of them are private...or at least the ones that are any good. Osprey Point is public and that's very good. I've heard good things about the city course as well. Deer Creek is vastly overpriced (although that is in Deerfield Beach).

 

 

 

RH