[TeacupsNTextbooks]

Hello!

I'm posting because I would love advice from the experienced and knowedgable people who have first hand experience living in Florida.

My partner and I work in the medical industry. We are both EMT certified in California. My partner is currently working as a telemetry technician in a hospital and I work in admitting in the same hospital. We are full time students. We're planning to move while I finish my degree online and really want to move to Florida. We are looking for a place we can start a family and practice medicine (specifically rehabilitation medicine/physical therapy).

We currently live in California and regularly mountain bike and trail run, and want a place we can be physically active. I would love to be able to go swimming a lot-I hate cold, dirty California water. Also, having a yard for gardening is a must for me. Any gardeners with tips on where is a beautiful and great place to live for gardeners?

I love the hometown/smalltown feel for purchasing a home, with a lot of nature parks. He would like a city nearby for work and he wants the ability to go out for a nice dinner. The reason we are considering FL is because he grew up on the Pacific Islands and Hawaii is too expensive for us, and the warmth and humidity help my asthma. We love the aloha mentality but don't know if there is a similar mentality anywhere in Florida. We would like a relaxed, calm place for home and a city nearby for medical work. We do not want to live in a huge city like Miami/LA where it is crowded.

We don't want to be in a flood zone, but does that just come with living in FL or only near the beach? What issues do you run into as homeowners? Do houses get destroyed as often as news articles make it seem?

We are currently renting a room and have our things almost completely packed, planning to move when we find a place and apply for jobs before the move.


Thanks for any advice!

[TD*]

Check out Tallahassee. Great mountain biking and parks and trails here. Check out Trailahassee.com

It’s the perfect sized city with medical jobs but a lot of it is preserved with a dense tree canopy rolling hills, and excellent people.

[bmw335xi]

Orlando is my favorite city in Florida (moved here from San Francisco), there are some really great areas to live. My second favorite area to live would be Boca Raton in South Florida. Money or work wasn't a main factor when we moved to Florida as I work from home and my income here allows me to live in any city in Florida. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

[the searchers]

Average Tallahassee temperatures
High °F Low °F High °C Low °C
64 39 January 18 4
68 42 February 20 6
74 47 March 23 8
80 52 April 27 11
87 62 May 31 16
91 70 June 33 21
92 72 July 33 22
92 72 August 33 22
88 68 September 31 20
81 57 October 27 14
73 48 November 23 9
65 41 December 19 5
80 56 Year 26 13


As you can imagine, the temperatures rise as you work your way South in this long state.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by the searchers

Average Tallahassee temperatures
High °F Low °F High °C Low °C
64 39 January 18 4
68 42 February 20 6
74 47 March 23 8
80 52 April 27 11
87 62 May 31 16
91 70 June 33 21
92 72 July 33 22
92 72 August 33 22
88 68 September 31 20
81 57 October 27 14
73 48 November 23 9
65 41 December 19 5
80 56 Year 26 13


As you can imagine, the temperatures rise as you work your way South in this long state.

Someone who hates heat shouldnt live anywhere in FL... just like someone who hates cold shouldn’t live anywhere in MN.

[Machiavelli999]

I am in the same boat as OP. Have lived in Bay Area for the past 8 years and have had enough of this grind. Want to cash out of our house here and move somewhere with cheap housing. We are eyeing Florida and North Carolina.

[PBToast]

1. medical Field Jobs - check. Especially near any bigger city.
2. warm water swimming - check.
3. Mountain Biking - Not Hardly. Flat biking trails - check. Search for Rails to Trails.
4. Running Trails - Flat, yes. Have seen people running Tampa River walk (look for videos online). Also Robinson Preserve Bradenton. When I'm there I spend a lot of time in the Preserves photographing wildlife. I don't see many people running but it's probably better very early AM before humidity gets too high.
5. Gardening - can be severely restricted by HOA. Check before hand. Unless you buy far outside city which will affect commute and the nice dinners.
6. Flood Zone maps are available online. It will increase home insurance but property taxes are lower. They have problems with a lot of road flooding in Miami in recent years.

Good Luck!

[fly_me]

Delray Beach, FL

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by TeacupsNTextbooks

Hello!
We currently live in California and regularly mountain bike and trail run, and want a place we can be physically active. I would love to be able to go swimming a lot-I hate cold, dirty California water. Also, having a yard for gardening is a must for me. Any gardeners with tips on where is a beautiful and great place to live for gardeners?

I love the hometown/smalltown feel for purchasing a home, with a lot of nature parks. He would like a city nearby for work and he wants the ability to go out for a nice dinner. The reason we are considering FL is because he grew up on the Pacific Islands and Hawaii is too expensive for us, and the warmth and humidity help my asthma. We love the aloha mentality but don't know if there is a similar mentality anywhere in Florida. We would like a relaxed, calm place for home and a city nearby for medical work. We do not want to live in a huge city like Miami/LA where it is crowded.

We don't want to be in a flood zone, but does that just come with living in FL or only near the beach? What issues do you run into as homeowners? Do houses get destroyed as often as news articles make it seem?

It sounds like you want to be on the coast versus someplace inland where a spontaneous trip to the beach requires 60 minutes or more by car on a congested highway. Secondly much of the coastal areas tend to be crowded and over-developed (i.e. Southeast FL) and lastly for gardening you'll most likely want to be below the freeze line which is roughly south of the line drawn between Vero Beach on the Atlantic coast and Bradenton on the Gulf coast. Cities like Sarasota, Stuart or Fort Myers will offer everything on your wish list and provide plenty of non-flood zone neighborhoods less than 30 minutes from the beach. To answer your question regarding homes being destroyed, it's fairly rare in general and prior to last year's storm (Hurricane Irma) the last one that affected the state to any degree was 12 years prior in 2005.

[BucFan]

There's a lot to do in the Tampa Bay area (St Pete is very well known as a liberal, gay-friendly area, btw). Other than Tampa, ST Pete the area has Clearwater, Sarasota/Bradenton nearby - and Orlando is only 90 mins away.

Great airport, hospitals, a major university USF, beautiful beaches, concerts, entertainment, major league sports NHL, MLB, NFL (NBA in Orlando), Busch Gardens - Ybor City, Channelside are growing.

I've been here for nearly a decade - it is getting congested (traffic), but hopefully the FDOT can keep up w/ the demand with new roadways.

I grew up in Hawaii as a kid and this area is as close as I could find to what I had there minus the mountains, Hawaiian locals, and cooler breeze temps. Much cheaper. You don't have to live in the heart of Tampa, St Pete to enjoy what it has to offer. You can live rurally then enter the areas as you need - jobs included.

https://www.swampclub.org/alafia-river-state-park/

https://www.stpetepride.com/en