[Spring Hillian]

You state that moving isn't so easy. The housing market, job, up rooting children from school, all of which is complicated & very costly.

True. But they got here, right? Now its the reverse process. They realized it was a mistake, now they need to reverse the mistake or suffer in endless despair. Personally, if I was that unhappy with my choice of residence, I'd do what ever it took to correct the problem and not wile away the years posting about how much I can't stand where I live.

No one attacked the cheerleaders? You must have done some selective
reading.

At any rate, I agree opinions are just that. Yes, there are pros and cons
to everything in life. I believe that both sides of the coin should be
viewed. However, it seems to me that only the bad news bears want to be heard and anything but bad news is met with opposition.

I certainly do take into account that everyone doesn't share my views and opinions, but I am going to respond to opinions that I don't agree with.

Originally Posted by SassySpice

Let you get it straight? Naw babe, you got it twisted. Opinions are just like a..holes, everybody's got one. I read just as many cheerleaders as I did naysayers, as best as I can recollect no one attacked the cheerleaders, so that's a false claim that only the negative opinions are welcomed, but give the readers some credit for having basic intelligence, realizing there will always be the pros & cons when it comes to opinions. And yes, people do ask for information & who could give better advice than the residents of the state, then allow people to draw their own conclusions. No one who has a ounce of sense will take any particular posters' opinion as iron clad, who would move to a state based on other people's opinions alone? However they will take into account the advice that's been given to them & be on the lookout so to speak. Messageboards are a great place to vent if you feel the need, no harm in it, let it all out if necessary, but when you get a opposing response it does not warrant guerilla warfare. Now you in particular, it is evident you take great pride in your state & your town & there's nothing wrong with that as a matter of fact I think everyone should, you voiced some sound & steadfast logic, but you need to take into account that everyone just doesn't share your views & their opinions are equally as valid as yours.

And while it's easy to come to the conclusion that if you're not happy with your environment you should just move on, well it's not quite that simple or easy is it? The housing market, your job, up rooting your children from school, all of which is complicated & very costly. You have to understand people are going to say whatever they wish to say, while many will fend off your attacks I'm sure there are others who are intimidated to say anything. This is just a messageboard, so don't take it so personal. This was a long, long thread & I enjoyed all who participated, the cheerleaders as well as the naysayers.

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

You state that moving isn't so easy. The housing market, job, up rooting children from school, all of which is complicated & very costly.

True. But they got here, right? Now its the reverse process. They realized it was a mistake, now they need to reverse the mistake or suffer in endless despair. Personally, if I was that unhappy with my choice of residence, I'd do what ever it took to correct the problem and not wile away the years posting about how much I can't stand where I live.

No one attacked the cheerleaders? You must have done some selective
reading.

At any rate, I agree opinions are just that. Yes, there are pros and cons
to everything in life. I believe that both sides of the coin should be
viewed. However, it seems to me that only the bad news bears want to be heard and anything but bad news is met with opposition.

I certainly do take into account that everyone doesn't share my views and opinions, but I am going to respond to opinions that I don't agree with.

It may take people longer to go back when they came here 17 years ago when it was whole different world, a different Florida. Things were cheaper, the economy was excellent... Etc.

[Sweetbottoms]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

It may take people longer to go back when they came here 17 years ago when it was whole different world, a different Florida. Things were cheaper, the economy was excellent... Etc.

It was very different here you're right. Safer for sure. We've had DAILY and I mean DAILY bank robberies here for the past 2 weeks at least. Yesterday was a drive by shooting involving a young mother and her 3 and 6 year old. A few weeks ago a man decapitated his gf put her head on a screwdriver and dismembered the rest of her. The supposed "sleepy safe" town of Naples , Fl isn't anymore andSWFL in general is just going to the dumps. Schools are going down the drain and things to do with young children are harder to find being a retirement community. More attention is paid to those who enjoy the finer things in life like golfing, expensive dinning and yachting. That wasn't always so.

I agree it is harder to move away when you've been here a long while. I've been here 27 years, we have a lot of roots a child, school and work we can't just uproot. I do however plan to get out before my daughter starts school. We are simply waiting for my husband to finish his schooling in the following year. When you're single or just a couple its much easier to say okay lets do this and just be able to go. Having a child complicates it very much. We can't afford to move some place and then one of us doesn't have a job and simply relocate elsewhere till we both have one. There is no room for error in these times and situation!

[Ken E]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

It may take people longer to go back when they came here 17 years ago when it was whole different world, a different Florida. Things were cheaper, the economy was excellent... Etc.

The key when moving to Florida is to not spend all your savings. Once that is gone you'll have a hard time leaving if you want to. A lot of the people that move down probablly couldnt afford to live where they came from now.

[Spring Hillian]

Gotta agree with you Chris. It was different. That is why we left Orlando. It simply lost that small town atmosphere that we loved so much in the early 80's and then we relocated to there in 88. We lived about 4 miles from downtown. We didn't work downtown though. I worked in Winter Park and my wife worked for Universal Studios so we never had much need for being downtown. One day I was downtown and I could not believe the changes.

It was like they built this city on top of my little town. Once the Navy base closed and Baldwin Park was built, it changed the entire face of the area I lived in. My backyard was across the street from Baldwin Park.

Anyway, we were ready to leave Orlando by 2000. We didn't have any reasons. Until 2005.

So, we left in 2005 and came to Spring Hill, a place we had spent a lot of
time visiting over the years and knew it was the place we wanted to be.
When I first saw it in the early 90s it was a sleepy bedroom community, typical. I stated then "this is the next boom area". Well, it did blossom quite a bit. Many subdivisions, which we all know were heavily bought up by investors and anybody who wanted to grab some Florida before the prices rose even higher, bought. Then the "recession" hit hard. First thing to happen is the investors walk away from their no money down properties and default. Others loose jobs, default. Others can't handle those high
mortgages. Prices of homes drop like a rock.

Here, there, everywhere. Same story.

So has the face of Florida changed? Sure it has. Does it make it the
worse place in the U.S. to live? Maybe in certain cities and areas, yeah.
But there are so many choices in Florida that there should be something
for everyone from deep urban to totally out in the middle of a forest someplace.

Yeah, we have heat, bugs, hurricanes sometimes, heavy duty rain fall
in the summer (it's called the rainy season for a reason), sinkholes, alligators, in S.E. Fl they have Iguanas that all out of trees when it gets cold there. All kinds of stuff!. However, its the sub tropics. We (those who live here) came here for a reason. Some very good reasons.

We also have a very beautiful place to live. The abundance of nature
here is great. Land, sea, sky.

Some will leave, also for very good reasons. But we must be honest
about it. It is us who prefer somewhere else and that is why we relocate.
Still it does not make a place bad because it's not for that individual.

One important fact: What you see in FL isn't anything different that
what is being seen/felt/experienced in most of the rest of the country.
Actually its a global thing, but that is a whole nother CD forum.

Living is Florida takes more than moving down.

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

It may take people longer to go back when they came here 17 years ago when it was whole different world, a different Florida. Things were cheaper, the economy was excellent... Etc.

[SassySpice]

Quote: Spring Hillian

(Great post Spring Hillian!)
One important fact: What you see in FL isn't anything different that
what is being seen/felt/experienced in most of the rest of the country.
Actually its a global thing, but that is a whole nother CD forum.


This is true, though according to statistics it has happened on a grander scale in FL due to the excessive developing. I know here in my area of Delaware there are 2 developments/sub divisions that were aborted, the sin of it is there are occupants in them, they were the one's who bought into the developments when they 1st started taking deposits so they could pick the best lots, then the housing bubble burst, the developers jumped ship & abandoned them. It's pitiful to look at, several homes & condo's built in a planned area that now sprout weeds all around them, unkept common areas, grass growing up inbetween the sidewalk cracks, those green poles in the ground that defined where a house was going to be built but there's nothing there other than the pole with high grass all around, the areas look like ghost towns. Then there's the poor suckers that bought, they can't sell & get out cause who's going to buy into a unfinished abandoned development? Absolutely no one. So they're stuck to sit there & rot along with their surroundings, while praying some developer will eventually come along & finish the job. I'm so glad our home was built in 1998, we bought when prices were within reason, saw our equity rise about $250,000 by 2007, now we've lost a good $75,000, but considering other parts of the USA we didn't get hurt too bad. It's ok though cause I had a plan, saw to it that we paid this house off within 10 yrs, so whatever equity is left it's all ours if we were to sell, but that's not happening either, there's no influx of buyers anywhere, banks aren't lending like they use to, futhermore we are happy here, God is good cause I got my dream house & it's paid for, time to be content & count your blessings.

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

Gotta agree with you Chris. It was different. That is why we left Orlando. It simply lost that small town atmosphere that we loved so much in the early 80's and then we relocated to there in 88. We lived about 4 miles from downtown. We didn't work downtown though. I worked in Winter Park and my wife worked for Universal Studios so we never had much need for being downtown. One day I was downtown and I could not believe the changes.

It was like they built this city on top of my little town. Once the Navy base closed and Baldwin Park was built, it changed the entire face of the area I lived in. My backyard was across the street from Baldwin Park.

Anyway, we were ready to leave Orlando by 2000. We didn't have any reasons. Until 2005.

So, we left in 2005 and came to Spring Hill, a place we had spent a lot of
time visiting over the years and knew it was the place we wanted to be.
When I first saw it in the early 90s it was a sleepy bedroom community, typical. I stated then "this is the next boom area". Well, it did blossom quite a bit. Many subdivisions, which we all know were heavily bought up by investors and anybody who wanted to grab some Florida before the prices rose even higher, bought. Then the "recession" hit hard. First thing to happen is the investors walk away from their no money down properties and default. Others loose jobs, default. Others can't handle those high
mortgages. Prices of homes drop like a rock.

Here, there, everywhere. Same story.

So has the face of Florida changed? Sure it has. Does it make it the
worse place in the U.S. to live? Maybe in certain cities and areas, yeah.
But there are so many choices in Florida that there should be something
for everyone from deep urban to totally out in the middle of a forest someplace.

Yeah, we have heat, bugs, hurricanes sometimes, heavy duty rain fall
in the summer (it's called the rainy season for a reason), sinkholes, alligators, in S.E. Fl they have Iguanas that all out of trees when it gets cold there. All kinds of stuff!. However, its the sub tropics. We (those who live here) came here for a reason. Some very good reasons.

We also have a very beautiful place to live. The abundance of nature
here is great. Land, sea, sky.

Some will leave, also for very good reasons. But we must be honest
about it. It is us who prefer somewhere else and that is why we relocate.
Still it does not make a place bad because it's not for that individual.

One important fact: What you see in FL isn't anything different that
what is being seen/felt/experienced in most of the rest of the country.
Actually its a global thing, but that is a whole nother CD forum.

Living is Florida takes more than moving down.

When I first came to FL in February 1994, we landed in Inverness, small town feel, pretty much cow pastures. I really liked it out there being I am from the woodsy side of MA. We ended up moving to Winter Park at the end of Goldenrod where it meets Aloma Ave. It was very different for me, but I liked it. We had everything around us there. I was at a pretty decent apartment community, that is where I got into apartment management. I took a ride through there a few years back, it's not the same place. The area is more built up, a lot of places I used to go(restaurants) are gone. It's not quite as nice as it used to be. I wouldn't live there again.

I used to want to move to the Jacksonville area, but I was told it's not too great there. I almost moved to Port Orange last year, it looked pretty decent there. I was trying to get to a northern part of FL.

I just wish I could deal with the heat better..... If I could I would probably be staying here.

[Ken E]

Only 7 weeks or so to go. You'll be getting a whole lot more than cooler temperatures.

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by Ken E

Only 7 weeks or so to go. You'll be getting a whole lot more than cooler temperatures.

48 days 2 hours and 9 minutes!!!!

[Ken E]

Thats fantastic. I wish you luck with your move. If you ever get up into these mountains over here stop in and say Hi. I'll leave the light on for ya.