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All - For some reason I can not comprehend, my wife is obsessed with Florida. She does not know why, but she wants to move there in the worst way, and talks about it ALL THE FORKING TIME to the point that it is very stressful.
In 2006, I took her on what I thought was the grand tour of the entire state - we went from St. Augustine, through Daytona, drove US 1 as far south as we could, and then headed to Orlando for 3 days. We Stopped in Miami for three days, went to Linocln Road, South Beach, a couple of clubs and then went to Key West for a few more days. It was a good trip. I thought it would cure her of the Florida blues. But it didn't. She's not any worse now, but infuriatingly insists that Florida would be a better place to live.
She has no idea specifically *where* in Florida she wants to live - anything affordable for us, while not being an urban shack puts us at least an hour from the areas she dreams about being all the time (primarily the eastern beach communities - Miami beach/other beaches. And this is all according to my limited online research).
We are both fortunate to have high demand job skills, and with my current job, I can work anywhere there's an internet connection so moving would be a cinch (My house is paid for and my Mom will rent it from me when my sister divorces her p.o.s. husband). So I'm thinking - I have a tight network of friends here in Houston where I live, and I don't think I want to give up my low cost of living, relationships, and familiarity with my state, to move somewhere that has a huge number of people swearing is one of the worst places they've ever lived in their lives. I have some requirements of the place that I live (Texas meets them all for me) that would have to be met before I'd consider such a move - I'm hoping some Floridians can tell me if all my requirements can be met:
Affordable and nice housing - enough land to build a detatched workshop/garage on and a dwelling with ~3000 sq. ft of living space for around $200 - 300K
Less than 2 hours travel to a marina so I can get to the reds and snook easily.
Decent hunting and outdoor activities (on our little Florida adventure I was really impressed with the Florida State Parks Department - information was easy to come by, and the staff were pretty knowledgeable). But I didn't get the sense there was much deer in Florida except for Key Deer, and while I'm sure they're delicious, I doubt hunting them is allowed.
Reasonable travel (By Texas standards this would be less than 6 hours) to all the touristy stuff there is to do in the state.
In my own searching I've not been able to find what I'm looking for in terms of housing relative to the big 3 South Florida Cities (which I consider Orlando, Miami and all it's sub-communities including Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and other unaffordable neighborhoods, and Tampa/Sarasota). The reason proximity to an urban mecca is so important is because the wife is a hispanic who loves to shake her booty and thinks that Florida is where the ultimate booty shaking is going on. If anyone can suggest a satellite community that might be able to meet these requirements, I'd love to look into it.
I know it's a long post, and most have probably given up reading by now, but I'm torn between trying to provide my wife the life she dreams about and a life I'm comfortable with, while being realistic about being able to pay for it. In addition to specific answers about the availability of the property and activities I've asked about, I'm looking for someone to convince me that it is possible to lead a more fulfilling life in Florida given what I am accustomed to here in Texas. I freely admit to knowing only the most superficial things about Florida, so I hope you will educate me instead of berate me.
I think youll find that its more affordable living from Ocala, Fl. and northward. ...particularly in the Panhandle (inland) . Ive researched northern Florida and Im in the process of moving to Florida and hope to buy a house on my next trip in 3 weeks time. Im sure in virtually any Fl. town, there are opportunities for your wife to shake her Booty while enjoying a tall glass of the best Orange Juice available in the Country and for you to blow the head off of a few Bambi's in the woods.
Just look at certain cities, or towns demographics. City Data has all that info. Ocala is not a happening, "booty shaking" town. Miami is the ultimate, but expensive. Forget Southwest Florida, BORING. That is where I am, nothing here, directed towards older people. Orlando is ok, but you have to be careful where you live. Never been to Tallahassee so I can't form any opinion there, or Gainesville which is pretty much a college town. Clearwater/Tampa/St. Pete are so-so in certain areas I have been to. I lived in Sarasota, beautiful place, but not a clubbing mecca at all. You may want to look around the cities/towns outside Miami. There is a member on here named Compelledtoreply, he is in the Miami area(Weston, FL.... nice town). You may want to send him a private message, he may be able to give you advice, he's a great member on here.
Housing will pretty much kill the deal for you. Taxes will be less here than in Houston, but that is about it.
We just left Houston....and I don't find too many similarities between the two areas. Texans are a whole other breed, and I mean that in the most loving of terms! There is a mindset there (think "Go Texan") that is very different from what you may find here, where stumbling upon a "native Floridian" is unusual.....my son told me relocating here was easy because "everyone is from somewhere else."
Your house is paid for and from your post it is obvious that you love where you are.....just promise DW some regular vacations to Florida for the booty shaking.....
Affordable and nice housing - enough land to build a detatched workshop/garage on and a dwelling with ~3000 sq. ft of living space for around $200 - 300K
Check out Loxahatchee, Florida. You might be able to pick up a foreclosed home CLOSE to (if not) that size on an acre or two for 300k, almost certainly a 2000 square foot home for under 300. It's only a half hour away from West Palm, has decent highway access to get to other areas, and you will get a lot more land for your money compared to other areas. The area known as Loxahatchee and "The Acreage" has a very rural feel as the name would suggest, but you are only 10-15 minutes away from almost anything you need in Wellington including a nice new mall. The area is a little crude and unrefined (no fancy gated communities and HOA's) but still considered to be very desirable, and you will find anything from mobile homes to HUGE sprawling estates out there. The area is pretty diverse too, yet with an unusually large (yes) "Native Floridian" population. I don't think you can do much better price wise when you consider how the location is pretty central.
I think you are pushing it a little wanting a home that size for 300K that is close to a "booty shakin" area.
A few general thoughts....
-Living in Florida is WAY different than coming here on vacation. That doesn't mean it is bad, it means it is different. You have to work, shop, commute etc.
-Many people move here because they think the Florida lifestyle is like on the postcards. They come to escape the cold. Then they get here with no job, money, housing or family support. They are shocked at the cost of living, low pay, poor schools, and now have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Reality sets in and they can't go to the beach everyday.
-You seem to be a step ahead in having careers that can be transferred and appear to have some finances available to make the move. There are many posts on this board of people who are homesick, I would think about this if your roots are in Texas.
-If your wife needs to work absolutely make sure she has a job BEFORE you move and you know what the pay is.
What kind of work does your wife do and do you have kids?
That usually tends to make it worse. If you're in love with something and you get to be with it for a short period of time, having to leave it again doesn't usually lessen the love for it.
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She has no idea specifically *where* in Florida she wants to live - anything affordable for us, while not being an urban shack puts us at least an hour from the areas she dreams about being all the time (primarily the eastern beach communities - Miami beach/other beaches. And this is all according to my limited online research).
(Just fyi, first, I was raised in Florida and lived the majority of my life there, but I'm currently living in Jersey City. However, I'm working on moving back there and probably staying there while my parents are still around. So I've been researching various things about moving back--including real estate all over the central and southern parts of the state--for awhile now.)
Miami is behind the curve in being hit by the real estate slump. It seems like in general the bigger cities across the US have been slower to be effected. That's because most of them tend to have not much more room for development while having more diversified economies and often more diversified populations, including people who are from other countries with different economies.
On the east coast, you'll find affordability increasing as you go north of Miami (as well as a small area far enough south) with utter steals available once you hit the Port St. Lucie area. Since you don't have to worry about work, and don't have to travel for work, that should make it much easier for you. Palm Beach County, most of which IS an "Eastern Beach Community" (well, depending on whether you define that as being "right ON" the beach or not) is very affordable at the moment--the real estate slump has hit it fairly hard, partially due to the fact that during the boom, extremely rapid development was occurring in the county.
For example, my wife and I DO have to worry about work and do have to travel for work, and unfortunately my wife is only comfortable with a relatively narrow line of work (as that's all she's done her whole life--I've done an unbelievable variety of things, on the other hand, and I'm open to almost anything). She also tends to make a fair amount more money than I do. She has a good chance of being able to transfer to Miami, but we couldn't find the kind of house we were looking for (something we can afford, fairly new, a decent size, on a lot bigger than a postage stamp, in a neighborhood where my wife won't be paranoid) without either going down to Homestead around Florida City or up to Palm Beach County. So as long as the transfer works out okay, we're going to live in Palm Beach County (which is where my family is anyway) and she's going to commute to Miami when she has to (she can work at home some, too).
If it would be okay with your wife to move to other parts of the state instead, you can find even better bargains in other areas, and if things like heat + humidity bother you, you'll find other areas more tolerable on that end too. If my wife and I didn't have to choose where we're living based primarily on where we can find work, I'd more strongly consider other parts of the state too--something within a weekend-drive distance to my folks, my sister's family, Disney, sports venues, etc., but something more rural, that can get cooler, that has or is closer to elevation changes, has some different scenery than what I've lived in so far, etc.
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to move somewhere that has a huge number of people swearing is one of the worst places they've ever lived in their lives.
It also has a huge number of people swearing they'd never move from it (and that includes most of my family there), and probably far more folks in-between those extremes.
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Affordable and nice housing - enough land to build a detatched workshop/garage on and a dwelling with ~3000 sq. ft of living space for around $200 - 300K
Check.
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Less than 2 hours travel to a marina so I can get to the reds and snook easily.
Big check. Nowhere in Florida is further than 75 miles from the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, and there are lakes, rivers, marinas, public boat launches, piers, etc. all over the place.
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Decent hunting and outdoor activities . . .
I don't hunt (I'm certainly not aganist it, though), although I had friends who hunted when I was growing up in Florida. However, I haven't really known any hunters there since the 80s, at least, and I have no idea what the hunting (and hunting laws) are like there any longer.
I am a bit of an "outdoorsman", otherwise, though. I love hiking/backpacking, canoeing/kayaking, boating, fishing, snorkeling, diving, etc. The big minuses there are that most of Florida has no elevation changes, and if you have problems with heat, much of the summer, and maybe even a good chunk of the other seasons, especially in South Florida, is only going to work for you if you do outdoors stuff very early--so that you're on the trailhead, for example, just before sunrise, and you don't stay out too long. For example, I was just there for about a month, in August and September. I'd start my hike (or walk, if I couldn't get to a trail that day) in the morning around 6:30-6:45 a.m.--when you're just beginning to get a little light. In the summer, I wouldn't have been able to hike much past 11:00 a.m.
However, there are a lot of plusses, too, including that Florida has a lot of nature areas, it has flora and fauna that you won't find anywhere else, it has snorkeling and diving that is probably the best you can have in the US, etc.
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Reasonable travel (By Texas standards this would be less than 6 hours) to all the touristy stuff there is to do in the state.
Check. Everyone calls me "grandpa" when I drive, because I drive so, er, relaxed , and it takes me maybe 8 hours to drive from the West Palm Beach area to Jacksonville, which is just south of the border with Georgia--so everything else going north will be less than that. It would take a bit longer to drive to Pensacola, because you have to drive quite a bit west as well as north, but I never drove there. Disney from WPB is under 3 hours, maybe 4 from Miami. Tampa is about 4 hours from WPB--probably not much longer from Miami, because you could just take 75 across (whereas from WPB, you've got to cross on "country roads"--either two-lane or a four-lane choice with periodic 30mph zones). Miami from WPB is under 90 minutes. Key West from WPB is about four hours for me, so everything south is going to be less than that. If you drive like many Floridians (who seem to think that "95" is a speed limit sign), you can cut all these times down a lot.
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In my own searching I've not been able to find what I'm looking for in terms of housing relative to the big 3 South Florida Cities (which I consider Orlando, Miami and all it's sub-communities including Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and other unaffordable neighborhoods, and Tampa/Sarasota).
I don't know where you're searching, and I don't think I can list another website here, but you're not looking in the right place, then. There's a site with "realtor" in the name that's easy to use to find what you're looking for. I'm on that site almost every day in our search, too. Try using the new beta version.
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The reason proximity to an urban mecca is so important is because the wife is a hispanic who loves to shake her booty and thinks that Florida is where the ultimate booty shaking is going on.
She'd probably like Miami the best, although per the above, you're going to find real estate more suited to your needs, at a more affordable price, in Palm Beach County. Look in the Acreage and Loxahatchee--that's the area I'm concentrating on, too. Maybe we'll end up being neighbors.
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I'm looking for someone to convince me that it is possible to lead a more fulfilling life in Florida given what I am accustomed to here in Texas.
That I'm afraid I can't do. It's too subjective, and I think that being fulfilled is far more a matter of personality/attitude than environment. We can't really be fulfilled until we realize this, and then we can be fulfilled just about anywhere.
Last edited by Tungsten_Udder; 09-22-2008 at 08:38 AM..
Check out Jupiter Farms, or Palm Beach Country Estates, in Northern Palm Beach County. There should be hidden deals in this market SOMEWHERE.
The price range for the square footage and land you're looking for might be difficult to come by, however, in South Florida.
Well, doing a search on the site I mentioned, at the moment there are 19 properties listed within 50 miles of West Palm Beach that are on 1 or more acres, with a minimum of 3000 square feet, and between 200 and 300k. The majority of them are in Loxahatchee and the Acreage.
Also, note that the square footage reporting is supposedly a bit unreliable, as sometimes they're counting garage space (and sometimes that's air conditioned, too--it was in one of those houses that my mom just looked at for me this past weekend), sometimes they're counting the patio space, etc. You also have to be careful with the search radius. If you try doing the same search for Miami, you get pretty much the same houses--mostly in the Acreage and Loxahatchee, even though they're more than 50 miles from the Miami city limits (although just a bit more).
If you do the same search for Orlando, you get 27 properties--including one that's supposedly 3685 square feet on 5 acres for 300k.
Anyway, use that site to lead you to realtors, and they'll usually have even more properties that meet your needs.
Also notice that in the current market, you can often offer quite a bit below the current asking price. So it doesn't hurt to look at properties a bit above 300k too, as there's a good chance you'll get them for 300k or below.
. . .oh, and it wouldn't hurt to make the bottom limit BELOW 200k, as you might find some surprises there.
Last edited by Tungsten_Udder; 09-22-2008 at 09:09 AM..
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, and it takes me maybe 8 hours to drive from the West Palm Beach area to Jacksonville, which is just south of the border with Georgia--so everything else going north will be less than that. It would take a bit longer to drive to Pensacola, because you have to drive quite a bit west as well as north, but I never drove there. Disney from WPB is under 3 hours, maybe 4 from Miami. Tampa is about 4 hours from WPB--probably not much longer from Miami, because you could just take 75 across (whereas from WPB, you've got to cross on "country roads"--either two-lane or a four-lane choice with periodic 30mph zones). Miami from WPB is under 90 minutes. Key West from WPB is about four hours for me, so everything south is going to be less than that. If you drive like many Floridians (who seem to think that "95" is a speed limit sign), you can cut all these times down a lot. 
