[Drew1987]

Hello,

I was raised in Rochester Ny (that's 7 hours north west of the city) in a very rural 3rd ring suburb on the verge of being the straight up country. I like it. I don't like that my little 105 year old 3 (2.5 really) bedroom, 1.5 (1.25 really) bathroom colonial on .3 acres cost 118,000 and 4k per year in takes. It's adding insult to injury when we have 7 weeks under 20°f. 5 months of not so nice weather

Long story short, before owning this home, we rented in south Florida. We were first in Boca in a nice community by palmetto park and military, then in boynton by gateway and congress. We spend all our free time diving (no tanks) and surfing. We rented, never owned. Now things are differnt. Owning a home is a must, finding a good church and good community is a must, and we are having a baby soon. I am thinking central... Daytona maybe Tampa. I just wonder a few things:


Is it possibly to have nice grass that a kid can play in? During the summers here, I can lay in the grass. I know that's not possible when I lived in south Florida. Also, up here, owning a pool can be a major hassle... Is it more worn it in central Florida? Is it very costly?

I have and enjoy Classic cars (VERY low budget - my 1950 Chevy is worth $6,000) is it pricing to register/insure classics in places like Tampa / Daytona?

Are there any rural communities where I can get a couple acres but not be more than 30 from beach/downtown?

I'd love to get a discussion going about these things and more concerns as they come up... If we go back down, it's going to be a lot more permanent

[kyle19125]

What is your price range for a home with a pool on a couple of acres?

[snowtired14]

A BIG thing you're leaving out, are you retiring to FL or will you need to work there? That's probably going to be the determining factor of where and how far from the coast you can afford. Pay isn't great and it really depends on what you bring, financial and proffesional services in cities, manufacturing tends to be east coast, jobs at tourist attractions but don't pay much. I can't say much about living there, we're a couple of years from being full time residents, so I'll leave that to the locals. As far as lawns, I think you'll find you can get whatever you want to, it depends on how much you're willing to spend and water is more expensive down there than you'll find up north. Good luck.

[Drew1987]

Price range is kind of weird… Up here, it's like 130 or 140 because of the taxes… But I'm willing to spend 11 or 12 or 1300 on the total monthly payment for mortgage taxes and insurance. Down there, I think that gets me a house in though 160-180 range. Don't know what homeowners insurance is like, obviously a lot more. But I think ours will be going up. On my house as described above, it's 350 a year. But with one out of three people having pretty extensive damage from this crazy winter we had, I think originally it will go up.

I certainly don't have to have multiple acres, but it's an absolute must that I have a backyard that's somewhat private and I can build a fire pit in to sit around and have campfires. I also have been looking at Jacksonville. It's very important to me that I could sit in the grass and my children can run around and play in it… That's something that appear we take for granted, but there are many parts of the country that either don't grow grass, or do but have terrible bugs that bite and staying in it

[carnivalday]

The Ocala area is a lot farther from the beach; it takes me 1 1/2 to get to Crescent Beach; but its really rural, prices havent gone up that much; I believe theres a lot of inventory now.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Drew1987

Price range is kind of weird… Up here, it's like 130 or 140 because of the taxes… But I'm willing to spend 11 or 12 or 1300 on the total monthly payment for mortgage taxes and insurance. Down there, I think that gets me a house in though 160-180 range. Don't know what homeowners insurance is like, obviously a lot more. But I think ours will be going up. On my house as described above, it's 350 a year. But with one out of three people having pretty extensive damage from this crazy winter we had, I think originally it will go up.

I certainly don't have to have multiple acres, but it's an absolute must that I have a backyard that's somewhat private and I can build a fire pit in to sit around and have campfires. I also have been looking at Jacksonville. It's very important to me that I could sit in the grass and my children can run around and play in it… That's something that appear we take for granted, but there are many parts of the country that either don't grow grass, or do but have terrible bugs that bite and staying in it

Look around the Yulee area near Jacksonville (NE) Lots of area though some with new homes, but some homes with land available. SE of jqcksonville showed quite a few. Use Zillow for a search. Put in a bit above your upper budget amount to get the best idea of availability.

[StarfishKey]

You are unlikely to be able to pay a lot less for the Florida home than the Upstate NY home, given that for the tradeoff of lower taxes, you will have much higher hazard insurance. Do a search for sinkholes also in the county you're considering. When you click on the county, you'll find more detailed information on where the sinkholes were located, and there will be an additional link to click for exact locations: Sinkhole Maps of Florida Counties

Just some things to consider. Make sure too to ask your car insurance company for a comparison quote in the new prospective zip code. It might be the same, but it might be much higher.

Publix is the closest thing we have to Wegmans. It is a bit lesser quality and of course variety, but has a lot of buy-one-get-one free sales if you learn to look for them before buying. Florida is not known for as much fresh produce as up North, and in some towns there are no farmer's markets, or there is one but it is actually just produce bought at a grocery store and resold, sometimes still in the grocery store baggies! Our soil is not as easy to grow fruits/vegetables in as in Monroe/Wayne county NY, so you may not be as successful for a few years trying to grow your own produce, either.

You might really like the move, but it might not be a much cheaper or better quality of life than you're used to currently. Certainly you can expect more natural disasters to contend with than your current location. Also, the way FL deals with snow is comical - avoid the roads in light snow because local drivers are DANGEROUS on it! They do not have the experience, and they don't use salt in FL either. This only matters if you move far enough North in Florida that snow accumulates, but just an inch or so and everything shuts down. They don't have the equipment to deal with it.

Upstate NY grass is so soft and cool and safe - Florida grass is usually sharp and spiky, and has fire ants or snakes or something that may bite you if you lay down on it. Some of the softer grasses do not survive the climate here. Most of the time though, while you should not walk through Florida grass with bare feet like you might up in NY, you can probably lay down on a towel on it and be fine. It just won't feel as cool and nice. On the other hand, in SFL at least, the clouds make FAR better shapes to stare at than NY skies. And we tend to have more rainbows due to the frequent sunshine.

I can't give specific ideas on prices because I am only familiar with SFL real estate costs, but some of those other details might be relevant to you.

[Drew1987]

Thanks all.

I lived in sofla and liked it. Paid $1300 for a nice 2/2 condo (rental). The housing market in Boca (2012 or so) squeezed me out... But northern Florida, Jacksonville lets say, seems much more affordable.

Didn't like the congestion.

I am not opposed to being farthet from the beaches if I had a pool or alligatorless fresh water lake to swim in. the better quality of like is being able to wake up EVERY morning and take a walk. There is something unexplainably terrible about -30°f wind chills. I think it's worrse than -30°f without wind. Here, 7 weeks below 15-20°f with two heavy snows (several inches) per week. At one point, I had 4 feet drifts in my yard.

So ocala... Is there jobs? I am in sales currently.

[TestEngr]

A pool can be expensive to maintain, especially if you get one with spas heaters and so on. They are nice to have when you use them, and costly when you don't.

I am not into collecting cars but Daytona is the place for that. I meet so many people here in Volusia county that are into that, so if part of collecting cars or classic cars is also about meeting others you won't have any trouble.

Well sitting in the grass... if there are ants you might not like it!

[Drew1987]

A pool is must especially if there is no grass lounging! I have heard in Daytona people drive right onto the beach. That can make for an awesome cars show. Certainly not doable in Boca