[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks Ken!
I want to bring my daughter to the Polar caves up there in NH someday. Too bad the old man of the mountain is gone...

[Spring Hillian]

Ah, Winter Park. I know of where you speak. At one time, not so long ago, Aloma/Goldenrod was the end of the world. Fast forward to now and man, what a difference.

But that's growth for ya. People have to live somewhere. Then come the roads and infrastructure and that nice little spot out side of town becomes just another part of the megalopolis.

I go back to my origins, Brooklyn, NY a few times a year. The changes of "progress" show there too. Old homes torn down for new modern buildings. It's inescapable unless you're way out somewhere. I have a sister that lives in Northern Maine, near Houlton.
Even there they have seen changes due to influx of residents moving up there from Mass, NH, NY over the years they've been there (over 30).

Nah, we wouldn't live in the Orlando metro area again either. Too crowded, too urbanized.

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

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.

[felicitymaxd]

Originally Posted by ferret111

People come down here with unrealistic expectations and/or no financial stability. They do little to no research and, when they fail, they blame it on the entire state and go back to wherever they came from.

I have not really seen getho places in FL. I live in NY and there is grfty. even in the nicest places. And Jersey forget it there is more getho places there in Trenton NJ and many other cities of NJ. Florida is more clean and the landscapes are beautiful. I wouldl love to move to FL as soon as I sell my home. I have a 5 year old and am certified to teach in FL.

[Spring Hillian]

Yes, FL has grown like crazy in the past 10 years, but it always had an upward growth factor. People come for the weather, the lifestyle.

Plenty of those developments here too that were started and never finished once the crash came.

I don't think that many folks here lived through the Great Depression, I surely didn't but I've learned enough about it to know
that the same scenarios played out then. My grandfather lost
his home, his job and all he had when the depression hit. He didn't have much, but what he had was gone due to the lack of money
in the hands of people at that time.

Same thing today.

Hopefully the whole U.S. will recover from this seemingly never ending mess. I don't know how, it took WWII to get us out of the Great Depression. But then the government had the money to
fund the recovery which consisted of military spending like no time
before it.




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.[/quote]

[SassySpice]

[quote=Spring Hillian;20534137]

Yes, FL has grown like crazy in the past 10 years, but it always had an upward growth factor. People come for the weather, the lifestyle.

Plenty of those developments here too that were started and never finished once the crash came.

I don't think that many folks here lived through the Great Depression, I surely didn't but I've learned enough about it to know
that the same scenarios played out then. My grandfather lost
his home, his job and all he had when the depression hit. He didn't have much, but what he had was gone due to the lack of money
in the hands of people at that time.

Same thing today.

Hopefully the whole U.S. will recover from this seemingly never ending mess. I don't know how, it took WWII to get us out of the Great Depression. But then the government had the money to
fund the recovery which consisted of military spending like no time
before it.

Before we moved to Bear, DE we had a 4 bdrm 2.5 bath 1800 sq ft home in Burlington cty, NJ. The real estate taxes just kept going up & up & up due to the many schools in the area & the state government. By the time we sold our home we were paying $4400/yr. I really didn't want to move to DE, thought it was too far since I worked in NJ, so we started venturing out in South Jersey looking at new home developments, everywhere we went no matter how high or low the cost was to build the house the taxes were outrageous. It got to the point that before I'd ask how much was the house, I'd ask how much are the taxes, we were quoted anywhere from $5-10,000/yr & that was in 1997!! NJ has the highest taxes in the USA or least they're a runner up. Husband said let's look in DE, my response was way down there?! So we searched & saw many nice new homes, then we did our homework & decided ya know what, we can do this. The house we built was 3,500 sq ft, 4 bdrms, 2.5 baths, basement, has a den, & master bdrm is the size of a MIL suite w/adjoining sitting rm, on 1/3 acre lot, & the taxes? $1800/yr! Of course that was in 1997, now they're $2500/yr, & God only knows how much they are in NJ. Homeowners insurance cost us $940/yr. What I did observe is all the new people we've met none worked in DE, they live here & commute to the tri-state areas, so I guess we weren't the only ones to make that move. DE also has no sales tax, so whatever you buy that's the final cost, people come from MD, PA, & NJ to do their shopping here primarily at the Christiana Mall cause it sits right on I-95. The only thing I don't like about DE is it reminds me of some sort of hick town in the sense that there's nothing to do here other than shop, shop, shop, & plenty of resturants so you can eat, eat, eat. By 11pm on a Saturday night it looks like the whole town is asleep. We do have mega movie theaters & state parks, the beaches from where I live are 75 miles south, but for real entertainment you must go to Philly, 50 minutes away.

Like I said before there's always pros & cons to any situation, so the cons IMO are lack of entertainment but the pros are you get a much bigger bang for your buck here, home builders are still building here, guess the demand is still there, not as many foreclosures compared to other states, I love my home in this rural setting & I just ought to since it looks like I'm going to be here for a mighty long time, & the problem with that is we are getting older, time to downsize from such a large house but go where, & who's going to buy our mini McMansion during a recession? The utility cost for gas heat here is a mofo, by Jan our bill is usually $530 for gas & electric, another negative for heating these big houses. I love the style of ranch homes they build in FL, you won't find that here, yeah we've got ranches but not with the flair of the FL one's, & if you build 1 here they cost a fortune. Decisions, decisions, huh?

[SassySpice]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

48 days 2 hours and 9 minutes!!!!

Good luck Chris, hope you'll be happy, & surely you'll enjoy the cooler temps with fall right around the corner. Think of me when you pass thru DE, remember I said hi Chris, bye Chris.

[Jo48]

Family #1. Plus, old saying, "Grass is always greener over the septic tank".

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by Jo48

Family #1. Plus, old saying, "Grass is always greener over the septic tank".

What?????????????

[Ken E]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

Thanks Ken!
I want to bring my daughter to the Polar caves up there in NH someday. Too bad the old man of the mountain is gone...

Yeah, its to bad about The Old Man he was in pretty rough shape. There's still no shortage of incredible stuff up here in these hills. Just breathing this air is amazing. I'm very grateful that i made it back.

[hiknapster]

I love, love, love The Flume in The White Mountains.

Goldenrod and Aloma! I drove a catering truck to some of those apartments when they were first being built. Some of the subdivisions, too.

Kind of funny to realize that I probably lived in Orlando at the same time as Chris and Spring Hillian. Who knew!