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Second thoughts, he is right, it is horrible down here, stay away. This weekend is going to be hell, I live 10 minutes from where the Superbowl is playing at the Hard Rock stadium.
We left northwestern Illinois last year when I quit my job at Honeywell, and moved just outside of Athens, GA.
We love it here! A year ago, the Corvette had been sitting in the garage for at least two months, and temperatures were in the below zero range.
Since we took up residence here, we've driven the car every month. The winter here is mainly rain and temperatures in the forties and fifties. I love being unemployed and living in much better weather!
I grew up in South Florida, if you like it now, you should have been there when it was actually good before it got ruined. My hometown of Jupiter went from a nice suburban beach town to an uppity cluster of crap. Anything that had some space, they threw up giant plazas on. Property values and taxes went to an insanely high level, so if you're not spending half a million or more on a house, you're not going to find anything worth living in. If you need to go anywhere, it's total gridlock and the traffic is a nightmare. Then there's the people, and they flat out SUCK. They all think the world revolves around them, and expect everyone to just let them do whatever they want and its everyone else's responsibility to deal with what they do. No wonder there's as many road rage shootings as there are.
I miss the climate, but NC isn't that bad either. Plus you can afford to live here, and people don't suck as much. I'd go back to Florida… but not South East Florida.
Thought about moving to Fla. several times. But every time we see the destruction left by a hurricane we're glad we didn't . Other than losing loved ones can't think of much worse than knowing the'res a storm bearing down on you thats probably gonna in just a few hours destroy your home and everything that you've worked for. Wouldn't mind going down for the winter months though.
We left northwestern Illinois last year when I quit my job at Honeywell, and moved just outside of Athens, GA.
We love it here! A year ago, the Corvette had been sitting in the garage for at least two months, and temperatures were in the below zero range.
Since we took up residence here, we've driven the car every month. The winter here is mainly rain and temperatures in the forties and fifties. I love being unemployed and living in much better weather!
Steven
If I could find a job making what I make now, I would move to GA in a heartbeat. I love it there.
I grew up in South Florida, if you like it now, you should have been there when it was actually good before it got ruined. My hometown of Jupiter went from a nice suburban beach town to an uppity cluster of crap. Anything that had some space, they threw up giant plazas on. Property values and taxes went to an insanely high level, so if you're not spending half a million or more on a house, you're not going to find anything worth living in. If you need to go anywhere, it's total gridlock and the traffic is a nightmare. Then there's the people, and they flat out SUCK. They all think the world revolves around them, and expect everyone to just let them do whatever they want and its everyone else's responsibility to deal with what they do. No wonder there's as many road rage shootings as there are.
I miss the climate, but NC isn't that bad either. Plus you can afford to live here, and people don't suck as much. I'd go back to Florida… but not South East Florida.
I moved down here in 1996 and seen a big change since then, we are early birds so always up before the sun. As you can see in pic the beach was empty. Traffic sucks in rush hour, but early morning, evenings and weekends it is fine. I don't think it is as bad as you describe above but it has changed a lot. And not for the better. You can still get decent priced homes here. There is no state income tax here, not like in NC or GA where you do pay that. So that offsets some of the real estate taxes. Also depending on what county and city you live in on re taxes.
I spent 4+ years working / living in SoCal, specifically north county area of San Diego. Moved back 'home' to the Kansas City area and we've had two bad winters. The
difference in weather meant I needed a F-150 4x4 Supercrew & also traded the auto C6 for a manual 6spd. Six speed on I-5 is not a lot of fun in SoCal most days.
My sister-in-law told me that they're moving to FL when she retires in a few years and expect me to follow a couple years later. Not sure I'll leave the grandkids again but it's tempting!
I moved down here in 1996 and seen a big change since then, we are early birds so always up before the sun. As you can see in pic the beach was empty. Traffic sucks in rush hour, but early morning, evenings and weekends it is fine. I don't think it is as bad as you describe above but it has changed a lot. And not for the better. You can still get decent priced homes here. There is no state income tax here, not like in NC or GA where you do pay that. So that offsets some of the real estate taxes. Also depending on what county and city you live in on re taxes.
A lot of it depends on where you are too - I have friends in Fort Myers, and it hasn't changes nearly as much as the east coast. You can still buy a house there for reasonable money that isn't an hour away from everything. The space coast too is still somewhere that one could reasonably expect to live a decent life.
Jupiter area has gone to ****. Everyone that isn't spending insane money on a house is being pushed out to like Wellington or Royal Palm, which I'm told are nice now, but as I grew up there that was the middle of the swamp in the 90s, and only inbreds and legitimate alligators lived out there. So yeah, I wouldn't live there, even though now it's just a western suburb with constant city running out to it.
Ironically, Fort Lauderdale and Miami seem to have fared better than West Palm, because they ran out of room to grow a long time ago. So while West Palm has grown unimpeded to the west, Miami and Fort Lauderdale stayed closer to the same.
State income taxes suck, but when you see the difference in property taxes, you'd be amazed. My property taxes here are for a year what my parents were spending in a month in Florida. Granted, their house was more money, not 12x so. Any money you're saving in state income taxes you're definitely not getting back in property taxes unless you just have major high income and rent or live in a very inexpensive home in FL
Don't get me wrong - I miss Florida, and always look for ways to go back. But my friends that haven't left have all said to not expect to go back to how it was 10 years ago, let alone 20. My family has all had all they could take of it and are moving out of Florida. Every day up here in NC I meet more people from Florida that are leaving. The real irony is a lot of them are Florida born like me, and they couldn't be happier to leave. I'd still go back, but I'd probably end up disappointed.
I prefer southwest to southeast. No humidity, and people just come here for a few months to get away from the snow. After that they head back home and things are peaceful again.
Last edited by Corvette_Ed; 01-27-2020 at 11:32 AM.
I prefer southwest to southeast. No humidity, and people just come here for a few months to get away from the snow. After that they head back home and things are peaceful again.
I went to Phoenix once in the summer, I think I was over baked and I was only out for 5 minutes. Then I couldn't breath, my mouth was so dry and my nose crusted up like someone dropped an A bomb, I thought I would burn my insides if I took a deep breath..
01-27-2020, 07:51 AM
Got the Winter Blues, Move south.
