Live in Lovely Saratoga Springs, convince me not to move to FL (Buffalo: house, buying)

[Ellwood]

Originally Posted by loveautumn

OK, thanks...I'll keep checking the foliage reports starting Sept.

Foliage Forecast

make a reservation as soon as you decide when you are coming as there are quite a few "leaf peepers" visiting at that time.

[NJDevil]

Sorry, I cannot read all 8 pages, but 2 reasons not to go - TOO HOT and TOO FLAT!! Not all parts of FL are alike, you would probably find an area you would like, but I lived there for 10 yrs and never got used to the heat. January couldn't come fast enough. Tourist season is killer. As many of these other folk have explained, you aren't missing anything.

My only suggestion, if you like diving or snorkeling, is to visit the coral reefs in the Keys.

[Ellwood]

Originally Posted by NJDevil

Sorry, I cannot read all 8 pages, but 2 reasons not to go - TOO HOT and TOO FLAT!! Not all parts of FL are alike, you would probably find an area you would like, but I lived there for 10 yrs and never got used to the heat. January couldn't come fast enough. Tourist season is killer. As many of these other folk have explained, you aren't missing anything.

My only suggestion, if you like diving or snorkeling, is to visit the coral reefs in the Keys.

Or go to Hawaii for some fantastic snorkeling and diving! Plus the trade winds will keep you cool (May or June is a great time to go!).

[History Rules]

Originally Posted by llong

We live in Saratoga Springs and enjoy all of the opportunities here for families and education system. We have family in the Boca Raton area of FLorida that for the past 7 years have tried to convince us to move to Floirda. Well after our trip to Disney, and the never ending winter, I have thought about moving. The problem is that I like everything here except the winters. Is it worth moving my whole family just for sunny skies???? Does anyone have any insight on this?

I just saw this, I'm from upstate New York, moved to Florida and moved back, I have enough information to fill a book. Let me know if you haven't moved yet and I will fill you in. The bottom line is don't consider moving to Florida for all the money in the World.

[Phoenix lady]

We lived in the Hudson Valley area and moved to the East coast of Florida years ago. It was horrible. I realized within a few months what a backwards place I had moved to. It took us more years to break free from it--selling the house.
I still look back at that venture as one of our worst misstakes. There are many, many worse things than cold weather. And, the northeast, although cold, has so much more to offer than any part of Florida ever could (or the Carolina's, too, IMO).

[Southrngal]

I have to agree with all of the naysayers about moving to Florida......read my status....I wish I wasn't in Florida, should be a good indication of how I feel about this state. My husband (who is from Buffalo) and I are looking at moving north in the next 3-4 yrs, we have to wait that long to get our kids in college, sell the business and the house. If I won the lottery tomorrow I would be headed north by Friday.

[Skyecrafts]

Well, here's my story. Grew up in Long Island, NY. Met and married and wanted a rural lifestyle. Moved up to New Hampshire. The winters and housing prices were way to much for me. Got cajoled into moving down to Florida by a relative.
We are looking to move back to NY. Not Long Island but upstate. Well, which is why I am here.
The schools are pretty bad. I have 3 kids and truly believe into sending them to school. Heck, my husband was a teacher and I wanted to work as a school media specialist . Well, after a year in Pasco County schools on the Gulf Coast of florida, we pulled our son out and homeschool him. It was a disgrace and I didn't trust my son's safety, as a 5 year old at the time to even be in the school.
I have come to the sad conclusion that I don't know what a community is. so I hope to find one eventually. Most of what I read here is true about Florida, except for the spraying of the roof for mold. I have never done that.

We have large roaches, snakes and rats. The roaches are the size that you find in NYC. The rats mainly eat the fruit from the trees and the roaches are because of the weather. We have a large amount of birds of prey and other scavengers like lizards. so, nature balances itself out. I do enjoy the ducks that come and visit me every morning. They eat a lot of the insects and dangerous spiders as well. However, people are sick and started shooting them with arrows. Well, not my current crop but previous generations. These poor ducks were flying around with an arrow sticking straight through their necks or wounding their torsos. Sick. These are the Muscovey Ducks. Not native to Florida, so people can kill their eggs. I must say though, the ducks are not mine, they just hang around places that are safe. Birds of prey eat them as well.

It is a land of development and tourism. Orange groves are destroyed to make way for /Home depots and Walmarts.
Trees are knocked down to make way for lower income housing.
Strip mall after strip mall dot the landscape.

If you find yourself in a natural place and you discover what Florida should look like if we didn't destroy it, it is enough to make your heart weep.

I am moving back because I need to have people buy from my retail shop. I am a small business and can't compete with the preferred big boxes. I am a green business and this is not very welcome here.
I need to send my kiddos to school so I can afford to make a living.
I want to see trees over head again.
I want to swim in water that is not polluted. I must go down to Clearwater, an hour away, to swim in the Gulf. The beaches by me will make me sick.

I wish that I had rented instead of bought a house. I would have been long gone. However, I also would have been on another path, so who knows. If you are content with your life except for the snow part, then you should rent in Florida and not move until at least a year later. Shop at the supermarkets, use the post office, check out library books, see how people really are. Read all of the opinions in the local paper.

[IceSkatingYorkie]

Was wondering what the weather is like in Saratoga? I heard it is better than Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica.

Skating Yorkie

[michael11747]

i was born in NYC and raised on long island, and after college i lived all over the country for 7 years, and i can tell you that after 7 years, when i am ready to start a family, and settle down i chose upstate new york around saratoga springs.

i lived on key largo for awhile, and it was absolutely terrible. it was humid all the time and they had palmetto bugs, which are giant flying cockroaches. at least in new york they can just scurry about; in florida they take off and land on your face when you flick the lights on. it was never as sunny as i thought it would be also. it seems like most of florida's suburbs are just sprawled out, over priced, stucco boxes, with a sad looking palm tree out front, and are completely lacking of the feeling of small town upstate new york. i have never been to boca raton (maybe i have and don't remember), but to me it sounds like a postcard from a tacky vacation.

when it comes to havings kids, making a decent living, having a lot of family oriented things to do, especially in the outdoors, upstate new york is my favorite. yea there are more exotic places like florida, and more obscure and adventurous ones like montana, but i bet florida would get old fast. either way good luck.

[michael11747]

Originally Posted by Skyecrafts

I have come to the sad conclusion that I don't know what a community is. so I hope to find one eventually.

that is very true. my wife and i have lived all around the US for our jobs, and the places we lived in were all the same. it seems like this trend is happening all over the country. we also are thinking about starting a green building business in montana, but it hasn't been easy. it just isn't supported out here.

the small town vibe and rugged individuality of the west is gone. it is replaced by valley girls with bug eyed sunglasses, hipsters, desperate housewives, and the all-american dad we watch on TV everyday. there really isn't much of a community anymore, just a cookie cutter lifestyle in everything we do, be it from our cars to hairstyles. i always found the people from upstate new york to be much more genuine, and i could always pick them out of a crowd.

i was also raised on long island, and from what i remember about upstate is awesome vacations, and happy times visiting relatives at thanksgiving and christmas. so we are also considering upstate new york to raise our family. we were thinking of buying in glens falls since it is so close to the adirondacks. i have 20 million acres of public land a few miles from where i am sitting, and it will be very hard to give that up. the adirondack park should help a little. good luck!