thinkng of relocating to ft lauderdale (Miami, Miami Beach: appointed, rent, crime)

[lexiew77]

Hi, i would really appriciate any input from some locals about s. flordia. My family which consist of 4,5 and 18 month old and my hubby are wanting to move to flordia from oregon. i have never been there but have lived in hawaii and loooove the beaches and nice weather. My husband is a roofer so year round work would be nice. we have pretty bad winters here. im thinking of going to kaiser university to the sonogram program. Anyways is this a good family friendly place to relocate??? I have seen a lot of negatives on here. We are looking at getting a 3 bed hopefully for around 1200, sound about right?? Seriously anything would help me at this point.
Thanks,
lexie

[StilltheSame]

Oh Lexie. Where do I start:
Cost of housing: Moderate to Expensive
Employment: Bleak - at best - besides roofing in the sun and 80-90 weather is beyond brutal
Childcare: Expensive
Schools: Dont get me started.

My advice: Please reconsider. If you are determined to come to Florida - spend some time on these boards and narrow your areas and you will likely get more useful advice.

[Nolefan34]

lexiew77>

My recommendation is that you take a trip here for a week to visit and see the area. Rent a car and drive around to get an idea. There is a lot to see here. Then decide after your trip if you like the area. There are lots of pro's and lots of con's about living here.

If you are sick of the winters, South FL has the nicest winters on the planet. It is hard to beat the winter weather here. Unfortunately, the winters only last a couple of months and most of the year it is hot and humid here. The summer weather from June-September is brutally hot. Many people leave the area around those months to go up north. We get daily afternoon thunderstorms in the summer months, and lots of rain. The heat is relentless as it is 24/7 around the clock. When you step outside of your home at midnight, it is still hot and humid. This is the difference between FL heat and the heat out west in Arizona or Nevada. We also get tropical storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

The crime here is above average, and the schools are bad. Those are some other negatives. Also, coming from Oregon, you will find the area to be heavily populated and the traffic is congested. Not nearly as bad as L.A. or San Francisco, but nevertheless, if you are from a more rural area you will notice a big difference. The drivers here are the worst.

The job market is terrible right now, and the local economy seems to be on hiatus. The South FL economy was built mainly on tourism and service-based industries. Those sectors have been hit hard in the current recession. South FL job market is very depressed right now. The good news is that if you are looking to buy a home, housing costs have come way down since 2006. Many people who could not afford to move to this area now are doing so.

Bottom line with South FL is: You put up with a good amount of crap to live here, but for many people that is worth it.

[Shoegal1075]

I agree and disagree with Nolefan - I agree that it is very hot and your husband being a roofer may not be able to sustain the heat. I do believe that you will find the area to be busier than oregan, but it isn't NYC so, I wouldn't use that as a con. Schools are what you make of them - I have found that a lot of people here complain that the schools are horrible, etc. I have also heard people some where in the middle and people who love the schools. I think it is more likely to be somewhere in the middle. I don't believe the schools are years behind as some whould have you believe (not you, but in general)

[Nolefan34]

Chelsea>

I am just generalizing the complaints you hear the most often about South FL. The schools overall are not very good, but there are exceptions. It depends what area you are in.

I did not say that South FL is NYC-like. Where do you see that in my post? South FL is heavily populated relative to Oregon, but not compared to NYC. Not sure where you picked that out of my post. I said the traffic is not nearly as bad as L.A. or San Francisco. If you rated the traffic on a scale from 1-5, with 5 being L.A. and 1 being Greenbo, Alabama, Broward County is probably a 3.

[fauve]

If you're expecting Florida to look like Hawaii I think you'll be very disappointed. It looks a lot more like Los Angeles than Hawaii.

[jhlcomp]

First, teh sonogram program at Kaiser or any one of the schools down here promise you the moon and the stars. Understand this - there are few jobs in this field because of all the graduates coming out of this sub-standard programs. They all make it sound so wonderful -- think 100 times before proceeding on this course.

Roofer? It's a good skill that your husband is a roofer. Again - very few jobs and low, low pay. First, no construction jobs. Second most of the new roofs were completed within the last few years because of recent hurricanes. Ergo, roofing work is in low - minimal demand.

Hawaii is not florida -- it may be closer than any other state, but there are still differences.

To say your dream is a fools folly is an understatement. If times were different than I would say otherwise.

[Shoegal1075]

Nolefan - I never meant to imply that you thought sfl was like NYC - that was my statement - chill a little I don't think my post should have offended you -

[harttogo]

Yes roofing work is slow right now. But after any hurricane, even mild ones roofers are in demand. After Wilma they could have worked 24/7 for a year. Yes the pay is low if you are a laborer. A licensed and insured contractor is another story. Plus good work with background in carpentry for fascia boards and soffits is very hard to find.
Outfits from Minnesota came down after Wilma. They did nice work and worked as hard as any local roofers if not harder.
I like Chelsa1075`s post on schools, if you look hard and figure where to live some decent schools can be had. I agree with Jhlcomp about those tech schools and Fauve is right, this is not Hawaii, but tourist wise, vibe wise, and expense wise South Beach on Miami Beach comes close to the touristy spots in Hawaii. I think the Keys are unrivaled.
Nolefan34 is very right about taking at least a week, preferably a month to check out the area to see if it might work. When here pick the brains of us. Good Luck.

[Nolefan34]

Roofing will take a while to bounce back. We have an oversupply of housing like we haven't seen in decades. New home construction projects have come to a halt. If a major hurricane hits, sure that will create some temporary demand. But you have 101,000 contractors living down here already sitting back waiting to pounce.

Also, it is questionable if we will get any hurricanes over the next few years. History shows that hurricanes come and go in 30 year cycles. We have one bad decade every 30 years, followed up by two good decades. The period of 1995-2005 was the recent bad decade. Since 2005, we've had no hurricanes affect the area. So we might be entering a 20-30 year stretch of very few hurricanes. Prior to 1995, virtually no hurricanes hit the area during the 1970's and 1980's. People who moved down to FL during those years didn't know what a hurricane was until Andrew hit in 1992. That is also why building standards during those years were low. So I would not count on hurricanes if I were a roofer.