Moving from NJ to Florida for 1 year. Good or bad idea?

[liamnwk]

To me florida is a nice place to visit but its too sprawling to put roots down anywhere. You could find jobs in your skillset in Jacksonville or in Miami but the problem is where are you going to live as those 2 locations aren't commutable even if you lived in the middle of the two cities. Even if you play it save and live in Orlando its still 3 hours from miami and Jacksonville and forget it if you find a job in the pan handle. Only if you are wealthy could you really live their otherwise working in IT or finance it would be hard to find a place to live unless you choose to rent.


Places like Houston,tx dallas,tx and altanta,ga are hubs where a lot of jobs are in one central area which makes it more attractive. Jersey is sort of like that too with a ton of jobs in north jersey as well as mass transit between different hubs (New Brunswick, New York, Newark etc). Florida doesn't even have that and it feels more like the boonies which is why you have a lot of uneducated people in areas.

[Rhino127]

Originally Posted by liamnwk

To me florida is a nice place to visit but its too sprawling to put roots down anywhere. You could find jobs in your skillset in Jacksonville or in Miami but the problem is where are you going to live as those 2 locations aren't commutable even if you lived in the middle of the two cities. Even if you play it save and live in Orlando its still 3 hours from miami and Jacksonville and forget it if you find a job in the pan handle. Only if you are wealthy could you really live their otherwise working in IT or finance it would be hard to find a place to live unless you choose to rent.


Places like Houston,tx dallas,tx and altanta,ga are hubs where a lot of jobs are in one central area which makes it more attractive. Jersey is sort of like that too with a ton of jobs in north jersey as well as mass transit between different hubs (New Brunswick, New York, Newark etc). Florida doesn't even have that and it feels more like the boonies which is why you have a lot of uneducated people in areas.

Soooo there are uneducated people in areas of Florida and the cause is that it feels like the boonies ????

There are uneducated people all over the world.

[insanity23]

If you listen to the Jersey negative ppl then your in trouble. I did the same thing you are planning to do. I said i'm done with what is the money pit Jersey. I left 5 yrs ago and i'm lovin it down here. Jersey whats that?

[ocnjgirl]

I don't think any of the posts have been trying to put down Florida at all, just different people telling their different experiences.

[Fountainrunner]

Hi guys,

It's been a little over a year since my last update. Back in August of last year I packed up and drove across country to go back to school, horray for me!!! I originally started this thread because I wanted to get others opinions on whether moving to Pensacola for a year made sense financially for me. In my mind it made perfect sense and others agreed. Unfortunately, that isn't the way in played out. In reality the move was a wash because I somehow poured the same amount of money into the home as I would have if I'd just stayed in Jersey and continued to rent. I've never had a house before, so I did not realize that houses have hidden expenses. Seriously, every time I turned around I wanted to spend money on something for the house or the house needed some kind of repair. I talked a little about that in my last update.

Anyway, I have one more year of school left and call me crazy but I'm thinking about returning to Pensacola to the house after graduation. Before I moved down there I was convinced the house was located in a bad neighborhood but it's in a good area. More importantly, local businesses are expanding and the community is showing signs of improvement too. The hospital located minutes from the house is going through a multi-million dollar re-vamp. As much as I love NYC, I know I'll never be able to afford the outrageous rents and cost of living long-term. My ultimate goal is to have a home and city living just doesn't allow that. Plus, I sorta of miss the house I poured money into improving and it's currently just sitting empty--again. The house needs more improvements but it's at a stage where I could easily move back in and be very comfortable without doing anything. But the real reason I'm thinking about returning is because I'm researching jobs in the field that I'm currently going to school for and there seems to be plenty of jobs in the Pensacola area due to the heavy military presence down there. And surprisingly, the pay is much higher than up here!

Oh, and I also miss the beach.

[JERSEY MAN]

Good luck FountainRunner