[marymarymary]

Anyone out there lived in both CA and FL recently or have any thoughts on the differences between the two? I am desperate for answers and this forum and it's participants seems pretty interesting. I've been agonizing for days on whether to stay in Sacramento (CA in general) or move to St. Petersburg / Tampa (FL in general) area. I moved to Sacramento from NYC last year for a lobbying job that now went away. The timing now is actually perfect for me to take the July bar exam and become a lawyer (hopefully) since lobbying wasn't as interesting or stable as I had hoped. Now I just need to decide if I will settle in Florida or California for most of the future. I DO NOT want to have to take the hellish bar exam more then once but you really need to take the exam in the state where you will be working. I need to make my decision NOW and here's what I've come up with:

CALIFORNIA:
No humidity and relatively nice winters depending on where you are (I don't dig cold)
Way to high housing costs (I'd really rather own then rent)
Only 2 friends in San Fran and 1 in Sac and I'm finding it hard to connect to people and have no family in the area (I think I'm a bit NY abbrasive for these nice folks over here)

FLORIDA:
Big cities like Tampa have higher rents then Sac and on par with LA
Much lower housing costs to buy and property taxes seem similar to CA
Oppresive humidity in summer but beautiful winters (I'm kinda used to bad summers from NYC)
A little bit of family in area and a cousin who's already offered to set me up with a guy (lol ) and I haven't met anyone in Sac since I've been here
Bigger Jewish population (Which I am, although I'm not AT ALL religious but really relate culturally )

FINALY, My last concern is with the job market. I would like to do Wills, Trusts, Estates law but I figure that both states are full of older folks and rich folks in general so I think the job market should be pretty much the same.

SO, ANY THOUGHTS ANYONE???????????

[Stitch01]

I spent 20 years in So. Cal. (OC) and recently moved here to Tampa. I love CA but I also do not regret at all my move to FL and rather am, finding I like it more. It's far more affordable and depending on where you live, the 'vibe' is much more laid back like CA used to be. There's no surf, but the beaches and water are much more accessible and nicer.

[wacahootaman]

the price of housing in the Sacramento area is due for a huge reduction in the next two years. Lots of forclosures will be clogging up the books of banks soon and then they will let them go for half price. Of course, Florida has the forclosures too, but the Sacramento area is really full of them, so if the cost of housing is the main factor, consider future price declines