[jstnthrgal]

Hello Folks,

My husband and I are trying to move to the Daytona area. I think we would be good with anything from Flagler to New Smyrna Beach near the coast.

He is looking for a well paying position in the IT field, he has his masters in IT and is currently working for our local school district. I would like to not have to work once we get moved and have time to do some volunteer work and spend time with our dogs.

We have three boxers, ages 5, 6, and 2. Our children are grown and will be out of school by the time I move down.

What I am looking for, is information on what the better areas to live are, I am not looking for the ritzy areas just a nice comfortable area to live in that is friendly and not lots of crime. Also what areas are the best to stay away from. You know the ones, the ones that are always on the news, in the paper, and such for all the trouble that is going on in their area. If you know of any good paying IT jobs I would be appreciative to hear about them as well. And finally I am all ears when it comes to dog friendly areas and places, especially for larger dogs. My babies range from 50 - 65 pounds.

Thanks for any info anyone can supply. I would love to make new friends on here so that I would "know" some people when I get down there as well.

Thanks in advance,

Susie

[Honeycrisp]

Hi Susie, you can do a search here about Daytona Beach, there's pro's and con's like there is about anything, I live in the general area and like it a lot, I think there's a dog park in the area too (although we've never been), there's also a dog training school I went to w/ a relative whose puppy was enrolled, there were a lot of dogs there and a lot of ppl and it looked to be pretty interesting (at least 4 rings w/ different things going on in each). You might want to check out the Port Orange area as well as Daytona Beach, not sure what your price range is, and the price of houses is relative, but it seems generally affordable to me, PO is a bit further from DB but not much. It is hot here and humid at times and you'll definitely have to monitor your boxers when they're outside - which probably will be for short periods only, this time of year - but we're happy we moved here and our girls (furkids) seem to like it (as would have our previous boxer and golden girls, now at the RB). W/b neat if we could meet up somewhere (and anyone else in the area), we're still novices to the area and are learning our way around (myself literally, I definitely am directionally challenged, lol -we found a nice little restaurant yest. in DB right on the beach, can't wait to go back again, lol). Best wishes.

[jstnthrgal]

Thanks for the input Honeycrisp.

We visited the area the last week of June, and I fell in love with what I saw, but of course only a couple days is kind of like a first date. You see all the wonderful things and none of the problems.

We had our pups with us, but they spent lots of time at the hotel. There was suppose to be a dog beach at Ponce Inlet but we didn't see much of one, it was late when we got there though.

I will definetly do some searching on here and see what others have to say. I like to get the info from people that actually live or have lived there as opposed to demographics and websites that are just trying to show all the good stuff.

One of the places we ate while there was Boondocks down in Port Orange or Ponce Inlet can't remember for sure. It was good and the atmosphere was great. It's on the river side though.

Susie

[Otherside1]

Port Orange will be your best bet. They just built the Pavilion that has a great theatre and great places to eat. PO also has a number of nice housing developments that are private yet close to everything. The dog beach is on the New Smyrna side of the inlet and is nice. As for IT work... I have a good friend that did my IT work for years. Tough business according to him. I was able to get him linked up with a client of mine that owns a number of car dealerships and he is doing well. Good luck and if you have questions PM me. I have lived there for 28 years, until last month.....

[Honeycrisp]

You're absolutely right that visiting is like a first date, it takes a while to get to know any area - I think Ive heard of it but am not familiar w/ Boondocks (which means nothing other than we'll have to check it out, lol) - the North End in DB is nice and we like Deck Down Under and Inlet Harbor, another good one is Aunt Catfish's, all are in DB, I think. There's a ton of chain restaurants and stores, for that matter. I miss Costco but we joined Sam's Club and when BJ's opens, will prob. join that and maybe drop SC as we don't need to join both (don't have any complaints about it, it's just a little more out of the way than BJ's would be). Havent seen any boxers here but Im sure they're out there - we did see 2 a while ago while we were at a meetup (unfort. I can't rem. the town but it was prob. around an hr away and there was a lake there that the dogs would swim in), the boxers didnt come together, one had a long tail and another a docked tail and they were having a good old time. Let us know when you come back and hopefully we can all get together, that w/b neat, we're pretty flexible as long as we're here. Stay cool -

[jstnthrgal]

Sounds like maybe Jacksonville where the dogs were they have a awesome dog park up there, but maybe not cause I think they might be more than an hour away.

What is BJs? I am not familiar with them.

We are headed back down that way in mid January. Maybe we can meet up then. It will just me and the hubs, no pups this time.

[Honeycrisp]

BJ's is one of those big-box stores, where they sell tons of stuff in big quantities, they've been around maybe 10 or so years, we were members of Costco when we lived in NJ and I think briefly BJ's too and briefly Sam's Club (split that membership w/ my daughter) but Sam's Club was a good distance away and we found we usually just went to the closest place (which was Costco). Have been to the one here in Orlando but only once (we may have gotten some furn. there, seems like it was a million years ago).

At some point we're going to go north but maybe not around the holidays, given the probable snow (maybe in the fall) but sure, would love to get together ;-)

It is easier to travel w/o dogs, we've almost always taken them w/ us (except on the first trip to FL), wasn't sure about leaving them in a motel even in crates bc they might bark but luckily we found the house here fairly fast and it couldnt have worked out better, they were good travelers (they were seniors and passed not long ago and now we have 2 others who are also good travelers ;-) ).

I have a cousin moving to Jacksonville but dont really know much about it, they have no dogs though (2 teenagers though, dogs might be easier, lol).

Thx for your post, looking forward to it (so nice to have great weather here in the winter, still cant get used to that, lol)

[mateo384]

Whenever I look on Craigslist for IT-related stuff, it's slim, but there are also a lot of old posts, which to me says there is a slight demand but no one qualified. I'd look into that. NASCAR is huge here.

As for living, don't sweat it. Daytona Beach Shores and south is perfectly fine. Port Orange would seem the best fit. That's where most people I know live. They never complain. There is a sketchy area on the mainland of Daytona Beach east of Ridgewood and south of Mason Ave. if you can avoid that you're golden. IMO anything on beachside is perfectly ok. Ponce Inlet is the rich part of town. It's really, really nice.

Take a drive along Peninsula that runs up and down along the river beachside thru Daytona, and then come back and tell me how trashy it is, because it certainly isn't. I would buy there in a heartbeat if I was ready.

You'll find no real big city traffic issues here, because this is a beach town. Everything you need is within a 10-15 min drive at the most. Plenty of great local seafood/beach bars. A few good schools, PLENTY of beach access. A great farmers market. Housing is not that expensive. Good luck!

Where exactly did you "fall in love"?

[jstnthrgal]

We stayed at the LaQuinta Inn on Inter. Speedway Blvd. Drove up and A1A several times, were near Main St. Walked to a gas station from our hotel. Walked along the beach at sunset and walked back to our truck parked off the beach in a publuc access lot. We drove down S Nova and some other streets I am unsure of the names. We saw one housing project or so it looked but it looked well kept and clean at least. We were out and about at different times granted never really late but we never saw anything bad.

I cannot say exactly when I fell in love but the combination of the way everything I saw looked, the fell of everything around me, the ease of getting around and finding things, as well as how welcoming, sweet, and non-judmental all the people we interacted with were. Oh and of course the ocean played a large part in winning my heart as well. My husband and I are both large people, you could even say obese, and as everyone knows that is the one group of people it is still politically correct to ostracize and we didn't get that in the Daytona area at all.

Thanks for your input.

[Otherside1]

I will disagree with Mateo regarding the beachside. From about Silver Beach ramp north to Seabreeze Blvd is trash central. This is to be avoided for living. The shores is very safe and heavily patrolled by a strong police force. They also have very strict code enforcement so the area is clean and uniform. The rental prices will be slightly higher though. The area north of Seabreeze blvd going into Ormond has many nice older homes that may fit the bill. Keep in mind that beachside is always more money.

As for the body type thing... you are right. This area is much more forgiving than other areas. Where I currently live everyone looks like triatheletes. Daytona has a small subculture of body builder/fitness people but a much larger culture of regular people.