need some advise?? (Jacksonville, Orlando, Gainesville: property taxes, appraise, income)

[williebear12]

im a 40 year old male married with 3 children 17,8,4 years old..i will be retired from nypd and my wife is a registered nurse..we currently live on long island in a 1500 sq ft home paying 8,000 in property and school tax..we are looking for a home that is much bigger 2900-3200 sq ft..resaonably priced 375-425 k good schools/low crime/ better taxes than what we have now somewhere close for my wife to work in a hospital..we tired of the taxes of long island and want to make our money go a bit more. can i get some southern hospitality from someone and help us out on our search??

bill

[Stupid Flanders]

Originally Posted by williebear12

im a 40 year old male married with 3 children 17,8,4 years old..i will be retired from nypd and my wife is a registered nurse..we currently live on long island in a 1500 sq ft home paying 8,000 in property and school tax..we are looking for a home that is much bigger 2900-3200 sq ft..resaonably priced 375-425 k good schools/low crime/ better taxes than what we have now somewhere close for my wife to work in a hospital..we tired of the taxes of long island and want to make our money go a bit more. can i get some southern hospitality from someone and help us out on our search??

bill

Southern hospitality? That's a joke, right?

If I were you I'd check out the burbs in Seminole county. OK schools, hospitals, and nice homes. It should have everything you're looking for - except the Southern hospitality.

[backtofla]

yup. southern hospitality? joking right. everyone here in orlando is from ny/nj/puerto-rico. everyone is rude, aggressive, and drives terribly. why leave ny, you got it all right here right?

there are some good folks from these places that are good ppl of course, and most fla natives are good ppl too

[backtofla]

orlando was named "america's angriest city." if that tells ya anything about orlando and southern hospitality. honestly, unless it's family reasons, i cant see why ppl chhose to move here/what ppl like about orlando.

[GR82BAGATOR]

Are you interested in living in Central Florida only? I would take a look at North or North Central Florida...I know you can get the house your are looking for in that price range 4-SURE and there is still some southern hospitality left up here...haha

Check out Ocala, it is a very nice area. I live closer to Gainesville but that's a much younger, college town. I live in Levy County and we have a 3000 sq ft home, appraised at $270K, we built it for $90k in 2001 and my property taxes are $1600 per year, homeowners is $920 per year. It's in a "home only" neighborhood with 1 1/4 acres. I have to drive about 35 - 45 min to my job in Gainesville. Oh and the sales tax rate is 6.25% in Alachua county and 6.5% in Marion County...Orlando is also 6.5%. Florida has no state income tax. Ocala has 2 maybe 3 hospitals and Gainesville has 4, with Shands being one of them.

Good luck and you can't go wrong with Marion county, its about 1 1/2 hours north of Orlando & about 2 hours south of Jacksonville. It's more than horse country!

[THASPECIAL]

If you want "Southern hospitality"....you might be able to find it in some of the small towns in North Florida but your best bet would be to get up into Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina........Im not even going to argue anymore about telling people from up north where to move because people on here act like there isnt anything wrong with Orlando except the usual saying, "OH , It happens everywhere"...which might actually mislead people who are changing thier lives to live here ....if you come down to check it out i would visit good and bad areas because you might not expect Orlando to have some things that it actually does in the area and some of that culture and lifestyle can get out there in the "good" areas so i would come down and check out both good and bad areas so you will know how far away will be safe enough for your family.......I'll put it this way....I can honestly name as many bad cities in the Orlando metro as i can good ......I dont know if Long island is the same as far as having a ghetto in almost every suburb of your metro area but that seems to be the case in Orlando.

[backtofla]

thaspecial, i agree: these are just my opinions/observations:

alt. springs - not too good
lake mary - good
winter springs - good
oviedo - good
maitland - good
casselberry - not so good
longwood - not so good
kissimmee - not so good
poinciana - not so good
orlando (overall) - not so good
bithlo - not so good
sanford - not so good
winter park - good

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by backtofla

longwood - not so good

I challenge that statement. How about the Wekiva area?Are the Lake Brantley schools still good?

The person moving in might actually find some midwestern hospitality in Seminole County, although certainly not southern!

[backtofla]

yes, seminole county is better than orange, mos def.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by backtofla

yes, seminole county is better than orange, mos def.

Have the Lake Brantley schools declined though? I remember they used to be quite reputable. I was mainly challenging the "Longwood, not good" statement since Wekiva is a nice area.