[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by CA to FL

I decided to wait a week to reply to everything at once.

1. Myrtle Beach- One of the main reasons for leaving CA is for tax purposes. South Carolina has a 7% if I am reading the charts right which is almost as bad as CA. FL has 0% which will give me about an extra $100k per year in my pocket vs. CA. The other main reason against Mytle Beach would be the crime rate. It is more than double Sarasota and around 7-8 times as high as Jupiter.

2. I will most likely be visiting Jupiter one more time in May or June. We will most likely spend a week or two there and find a rental home. Although I would prefer to purchase, I think that home prices will continue to drop substantially for at least another 1-2 years. I will buy at that time.

3. Homes in the Sarasota area were much better priced per square foot given the same conditions (age, distance to beach, golf community, materials in house, etc.). I would estimate a house in Jupiter that is $1.5M would be $1M in Sarasota. I hope that helps.

4. I appreciate the informaiton about Sarasota being a green city. It does help me to better understand the condition of the landscaping throughout the city. I guess I would prefer not to live in a green city based on what I saw.

Thank you all again for your help, ideas, and suggestions. We are proceding with our plans to move from CA to FL in August. CA is currently headed toward a crisis and they can't even pass a new budget. They are currently planning about $13B in tax increases this year but I will be happy to take my family and our $100k per year donation away from CA.

I forgot to mention in my last post, that we also have had several bad cold snaps which have pretty much fried a lot of the landscaping, and perhaps that was what you were seeing? It may not have gotten as cold in Jupiter, don't know.

Sounds like you are really doing your research and making a smart financial move. It probably is best to rent for awhile and see what happens. I don't know how people can make ends meet in California with it being so expensive.

[Roma]

CA to FL, I would love to hear more about your experience in Jupiter. Did you take any pictures that you could post?

We are thinking of Florida as a plan B. We do have a family member living in Jupiter but I would love to hear from a Californian on this. As I lived in Calif for 28 years and Calif is our plan A destination. But with what is going on with that state, it is getting pretty bad so we decided we needed to have a plan B in order and are exploring Florida again as an option, just in case.

Thanks!

[ChrisA70]

Anywhere but Naples......

[ChrisA70]

What about Sarasota. Palm Coast, St Augustine.

[TANaples]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

Anywhere but Naples......

As my 30 year old daughter says, who is moving back to NY after only 4 months in Naples, "nothing but OLD PEOPLE".

If I could just sell ONE of these damned places I own here, I would go back in a NY minute. Maybe I will just abandon one of them and then goodbye.

[Robin Hoodwasright]

Crime will never go away until we start leveling the playing field by redistributing wealth.