Moving From San Diego, CA to Fort Myers, FL. Need your help! (Cape Coral: transplants, 2015)

[mitani]

Greetings!,

My family and I currently live in San Diego. We have 3 kids, all under the age of 4...

I work in the healthcare industry and have a potential job offer in Fort Myers area. We are trying to leave CA due to high living expenses...

The new job will match my CA salary. We are wondering how much of a difference is living expense? Is housing affordable? IS fort Myers / cape coral is a good place to raise a family or is it geared towards retirees ? and more of a tourist

Coming from Southern California, how much of a difference should we expect? Culture wise, weather?

What are the good neighborhoods to live in? (Good school districts) - 30 to 45 minutes commute is OK for the right neighborhood...

We are looking to rent a house first. I am trying to stay between $1800 - $2000. I am not familiar with the rent market over there at all. So if you guys can suggest some areas to start looking at. What areas to stay away from.

Also, what is there fun to do out in Fort myers / Cape Coral? family activities, outdoors, water parks...

Thanks everybody, I appreciate all your feedback!

[FloridaCT]

I had lived in SF Bay Area for about 10 years. Fort Myers is the place that I chose to retire to. In these few years that I lived here, I am happy with the choice.
Pros:
Housing is still more affordable, landscaping is nice, gas is cheaper, as if the dollar is stronger here.
Traffic is lighter, smoother. Fort Myers is not too crowded.
There are always activities going on in the weekend in downtown. About 3-4 hours driving distance to Disney world, it is manageable.
There are plenty of affordable, when compared with CA, waterfront properties with beautiful sunset in Fort Myers, Cape Coral area.
No snows.
Cons:
Humidity is high, summer is like 6 months long.

Do not know about school.

[don1945]

We lived in So. California too, at one time, and fled for a lot of reasons, one of them the high cost of living there. It is much less expensive to live here, and the pace is much slower. California is a rat race IMO, and you will find you will need to slow yourself down internally when you move here. Things and people move a lot slower, and that is one of the nicest things, I find.

I found Californians a little vane and self centered, caring more about material things than simply enjoying life. Here, we find pleasure in the little things, like sunny days, being near the water, and other people.

Is it perfect ? Nope, but NOWHERE is, and I have lived all over this country.

Don

[Olereb]

Coming from San Diego you will find Cape Coral/Ft Myers a lot cheaper. I personally would recommend Cape Coral over Ft Myers,there are good areas of Fort Myers but its a big area that your kids could get bused around to school. Some people don't like to hear this but the school system here compared to a lot of the country is garbage,i highly recommend putting your kids in private school if you can afford it. As for things to do there is a water park in Cape Coral that the kids love,there also are soccer and other sport leagues. I have found the biggest problem though is with it being so hot and humid for 10 months of the year my kids don't want to leave the house to do anything,you do not see kids outside riding bikes and playing like you do in other parts of the country. Another thing to find out is if in Cape Coral are the utilities paid if they are in the ground already because that could be a $20k+ bill you will face,also find out what your Homeowners insurance will be. Many people move here and brag because their property taxes are only 2-3k but then find out their homeowners insurance is another 3k and all of a sudden they are paying just as much as back where they came from. There are a lot of people here that no matter what happens will say this is the best place on earth,it can be great or horrible depending on what your looking for. You will see the schools here ranked A,B,C,etc,etc,but do NOT pay any attention to that,the ranking system is rigged to make them look better than they are. The way the ranking system works is every year when the tests come back a school that had a D can go to an A school if they do good enough but a school that was an A school can only go to a B school even though they got a F grade,my wife is a teacher here so I know this is how it works regardless of what the Cape Coral/Ft Myers cheer squad says. I lived in Reno for work before so there are worse places but were leaving once the school year is over,compared to CA its cheap but the crime rate is going up,cost of living is horrible considering what you get from all the money you pay out. If you do move here I wish you and your kids the best of luck but cannot stress enough the private schools.

[OptimusPrime69]

The culture is not nearly as sophisticated as CA, let's be honest. While Ft. Myers is not necessarily a backwater it's definitely a smaller town/city, etc.

The weather will be hot and humid from May til October.... and from October to April it wil be warm and mostly pleasant.

Snowbirds are a big thing in the winter months. There's not much industry or many major corporations etc here SW FL. It's definitely more relaxed, but it's got it's charms. The beaches are great, it's relatively pretty, tho in my opinoonSan Diego's beauty is a thousand times more striking.

[NoSnow4me]

SoCal is so dense with people. It's nice here that we don't have massive crowds everywhere you go. People complain about the snowbirds crowding the heck out of the place, but it's nothing compared to San Diego and L.A.

The beaches here are a lot different than California's. Most have no restaurants, shops and boardwalks along the waterfront, which was disappointing when we started exploring. I believe it's because of protection of turtle habitat and perhaps poor planning that allowed too much beach front to be consumed by millionaires' houses. The beaches are more crushed seashells than sand, and they aren't filthy like most of the ones I've been on in California.

Cost of living is much much lower here than SoCal, but there is less in the way of things to do. It will be a lot different than what you're used to, to be sure, but I'll bet you'll love it, with maybe some time to adjust before you really start to appreciate it.

[ant4sho]

Originally Posted by Olereb

Coming from San Diego you will find Cape Coral/Ft Myers a lot cheaper. I personally would recommend Cape Coral over Ft Myers,there are good areas of Fort Myers but its a big area that your kids could get bused around to school. Some people don't like to hear this but the school system here compared to a lot of the country is garbage,i highly recommend putting your kids in private school if you can afford it. As for things to do there is a water park in Cape Coral that the kids love,there also are soccer and other sport leagues. I have found the biggest problem though is with it being so hot and humid for 10 months of the year my kids don't want to leave the house to do anything,you do not see kids outside riding bikes and playing like you do in other parts of the country. Another thing to find out is if in Cape Coral are the utilities paid if they are in the ground already because that could be a $20k+ bill you will face,also find out what your Homeowners insurance will be. Many people move here and brag because their property taxes are only 2-3k but then find out their homeowners insurance is another 3k and all of a sudden they are paying just as much as back where they came from. There are a lot of people here that no matter what happens will say this is the best place on earth,it can be great or horrible depending on what your looking for. You will see the schools here ranked A,B,C,etc,etc,but do NOT pay any attention to that,the ranking system is rigged to make them look better than they are. The way the ranking system works is every year when the tests come back a school that had a D can go to an A school if they do good enough but a school that was an A school can only go to a B school even though they got a F grade,my wife is a teacher here so I know this is how it works regardless of what the Cape Coral/Ft Myers cheer squad says. I lived in Reno for work before so there are worse places but were leaving once the school year is over,compared to CA its cheap but the crime rate is going up,cost of living is horrible considering what you get from all the money you pay out. If you do move here I wish you and your kids the best of luck but cannot stress enough the private schools.

ya nailed it!! well said.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by Olereb

Coming from San Diego you will find Cape Coral/Ft Myers a lot cheaper. I personally would recommend Cape Coral over Ft Myers,there are good areas of Fort Myers but its a big area that your kids could get bused around to school. Some people don't like to hear this but the school system here compared to a lot of the country is garbage,i highly recommend putting your kids in private school if you can afford it. As for things to do there is a water park in Cape Coral that the kids love,there also are soccer and other sport leagues. I have found the biggest problem though is with it being so hot and humid for 10 months of the year my kids don't want to leave the house to do anything,you do not see kids outside riding bikes and playing like you do in other parts of the country. Another thing to find out is if in Cape Coral are the utilities paid if they are in the ground already because that could be a $20k+ bill you will face,also find out what your Homeowners insurance will be. Many people move here and brag because their property taxes are only 2-3k but then find out their homeowners insurance is another 3k and all of a sudden they are paying just as much as back where they came from. There are a lot of people here that no matter what happens will say this is the best place on earth,it can be great or horrible depending on what your looking for. You will see the schools here ranked A,B,C,etc,etc,but do NOT pay any attention to that,the ranking system is rigged to make them look better than they are. The way the ranking system works is every year when the tests come back a school that had a D can go to an A school if they do good enough but a school that was an A school can only go to a B school even though they got a F grade,my wife is a teacher here so I know this is how it works regardless of what the Cape Coral/Ft Myers cheer squad says. I lived in Reno for work before so there are worse places but were leaving once the school year is over,compared to CA its cheap but the crime rate is going up,cost of living is horrible considering what you get from all the money you pay out. If you do move here I wish you and your kids the best of luck but cannot stress enough the private schools.

And the private schools will eat up the savings in regards to COL. That's the dig, people move to FL from higher COL states, than find they need to pay for private schools.


Nice to see someone who can admit it is hot and humid most of the year, coming from San Diego(sure it costs more it's a nicer place to live with much better weather and scenery) it's going to a huge adjustment.

[don1945]

Private schools are no panacea and are not the only way to get a good education here. Both of my Sons went to public schools and somehow managed to go on to college and build very successful lives for themselves.

Yes, public schools have become slightly worse because of busing kids in from less desirable neighborhoods, but that is about the case no matter where you live.

Don

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by don1945

Private schools are no panacea and are not the only way to get a good education here. Both of my Sons went to public schools and somehow managed to go on to college and build very successful lives for themselves.

Yes, public schools have become slightly worse because of busing kids in from less desirable neighborhoods, but that is about the case no matter where you live.

Don

Hopefully they learned the difference between vane and vain.


And FL is loaded with vain, self absorbed, and rude people, most of them transplants.