miami

[vpcats]

OH BOY! Am I ripe for this question. I am a former New Yorker myself. Moved to Miami 10 years ago. Fortunately, very, very, extremely fortunately, I got a job with a NY salary. I did enjoy myself a heck of a lot more here than in NY. I was rich. Now....even with your little inflation raises and so on, it's ridiculous. As has been said before, homeowners insurance, which if you are a regular person with "normal" income you won't have to worry about because RE prices are astronomical and probably won't be able to buy anything anyway. Electricity (and everything here runs on electricity), car insurance will be very high until you have a Florida license for 3 years. TRAFFIC. TRAFFIC. TRAFFIC. 24/7. New York drivers are GREAT compared to what you get here. Side note: I work 9 miles from where I live. It took me 2 hrs. 45 min. to get home yesterday!!!
Anyway........yeah Miami, the beaches, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, Cocunut Grove, South Miami are all beautiful if you can afford to have that life and walk to where ever you need to get to.
All construction is now vertical. There isn't one inch of land left.
Would I love to be able to sell my house and go somewhere, mortgage free!

[observer]

My plan is to get out of South Florida and maybe the State of Florida within the next 3-4 years. With my kids being in high school now it would not be fair to re-root them from their family, school, sports, friends, etc. I sometimes feel as though I cannot wait that long; seriously, I want out NOW!!! I however, try to make the best of the present situation and look at the positives around me, and the area in general. Yet, it seems like everyday the quality of life diminishes which includes- rude and inconsiderate people
at public places, stores, malls, banks, etc. - poor customer service is at a rise. - Ignorant hispanics all over the place(by the way, my family is hispanic and I am proud of my family roots) but the increasing ignorance in the hispanic culture in Miami is UNBELIEVABLE!!!
-underqualified people, especially managers in restaurants and service oriented establishments with very poor human relation skills. I know that could be found anywhere, but wow!!! does it seem like it is more the norm here nowadays.

It is sad, but I look forward to my next vacation just so I can get out of town for a while. The sad thing is, when I return from being out of town for a week or 2, I notice even more the negative aspects of living in South Florida compared to many other places. When one is here on a day to day basis for a while one doesn't notice it as much as when one leaves the area.

Once upon a time, Miami was a beautiful place to live where people could really enjoy a decent quality of life. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore.

[Prichard]

What has happened in Miami will quickly happen to many other places in the southern US. Our population in the US stands at 3,000,000. Finding a decent rural place to live in the near future will be next to impossible. Prices in rural areas will skyrocket; and cities will become unbearable.

Buy GOOD land now in an area that you think you will want to be in the next 10 years, if at all possible. I would almost rather rent in an area that I need to live to make a living, just to pay for land in an area that I will eventually want to make my permenant home. If I were single, that's exactly what I'd be doing. I'd live in a little one bedroom apt for less than $500/month and buy as much acerage in North Georgia as I could possibly handle. Even if I had to buy one acre here and one acre over there, etc. As long as its good buildable land in a decent location. I'd let it appreciate, then do an exchange for other land as time goes by. At worst, I can allways sell off the acreage that I've collected over the years, and live on a few acres not to far from a small town. At best, I would have accumulated valuable land, turned some of it into good rental land, taken some profits and build a nice home on 10-20 acres, depending on my level of success. I'd make sure to save enough to have a small home in Florida at an undisclosed location near the Gulf of Mexico, but not right on the water.