Orlando or Charlotte? (Tampa, Port Charlotte: property taxes, insurance, travel)

[ponchoblanco]

Charlotte hmmmmm It's a hole. Trust me when I say it has void of culture. Orlando is much better. The Orlando economy at the moment is much much better then Charlotte. Look at all the people out of work in Charlotte. Charlotte is very expensive now. Orlando has more murders and such but Charlotte is #1 in the county right now for home invasions and burglaries... It's getting rediculous. Food,gas,water,rent, plus all the rednecks. You have a making of a B.O sandwich.

[Metallisteve]

Originally Posted by ponchoblanco

Charlotte hmmmmm It's a hole. Trust me when I say it has void of culture. Orlando is much better. The Orlando economy at the moment is much much better then Charlotte. Look at all the people out of work in Charlotte. Charlotte is very expensive now. Orlando has more murders and such but Charlotte is #1 in the county right now for home invasions and burglaries... It's getting rediculous. Food,gas,water,rent, plus all the rednecks. You have a making of a B.O sandwich.

This is by far, THE worst and most inaccurate take on Charlotte I've ever read...beyond comical.

Void of culture? Try the NoDa district, Dillworth, Myers Park, and South Park to start with. Albeit the last three are a bit pricey, but hey, "culture" today isn't cheap. Orlando's culture...umm...lemme think...oh that's right, it was bulldozed by Lou Pearlman (the last thread of real culture downtown was Church Street Station and Rosie-O-Grady's) and forcefully replaced with fake Disney and Universal venues...and now an invasive Latin culture (all racism aside, Orlando's original "culture" reflects more of a "redneck" culture than anything else).

Economy? Orlando better than Charlotte?!?! How on earth does a place rooted primarily in tourism with one of the worst real estate and mortgage markets in the country get placed above a region boasting 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, a steadily RISING housing market, and nearly every industry known to this country? I fail to understand this logic. People out of work? Please tell me where these folks hang out so I can swing by and guide them to the 30+ jobs posted with my employer weekly.

Expensive??? This is the kicker of kickers. The primary reason we moved to Charlotte form Orlando was to be able to afford to live! Our budget in Orlando was landing us in the slums of Ocoee, something barely habitable in Pine (Crime) Hills, or an undesirable too small of a house on the other side of BFE. We move to Charlotte and pick up a 2300 s.f. 5 bedroom house on a 1/2 acre lot 20 minutes form downtown for under $200k. Our car insurance dropped 50%. We pay $500 a year for home insurance. I could go on and on. Where's the more expensive??????

Comparing Orlando crime to Charlotte? Now you're just digging. If you want to read forum posts and over sensationalized "news" reports and take them as gospel for what's really going on (in any city), you're bound to come up with completely inaccurate conclusions. Some folks seem to think Charlotte has had a jump in random crime lately. They've had a growing voice for the past year, a voice that was recently heard loud and clear by the local leaders and politicians who've since vowed to answer the concerns...and have already acted on it. They're bringing a fire hose to put out a match's worth of fire. What's Orlando got? A deeply rooted new breed of scum and evil that it's never seen...the likes of which NYC saw in the 80's and 90's and what Detroit currently has. The mindset of the criminals in Orlando has changed so drastically that it's just a part of their life now to kill, steal, rape, vandalize, and promote the thug and gangster way of life. It's not even a game to them anymore...it's an inconvenience. No remorse, no regret for doing it, no respect for those trying to correct it and make the region a better place to live. You can't combat this. Good luck trying.

And rednecks? In Charlotte? Have you not ventured into Bithlo, Winter Garden, Christmas, Geneva, Chuluota, north toward Ocala, south of MCO, or in any urban neighborhood in Central Florida where the kids strive to be as much redneck wanna-be as they can with the jacked up trucks and camo everything? Open your eyes!

This is exhausting...

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by Silence Dogood

That coupled with higher crime and higher cost of living in Orlando makes Charlotte a clear choice.

That's actually a misconception. Groceries are more expensive in NC and you get your income and your car taxed. It may seem way cheaper at first, but when you file your income taxes, it's going to hurt. Also, the crime rate in Meckelnburg County (Charlotte) was 7,663.6 crimes per 100,000 in 2006 (no 2007 data yet), compared to 6,397.9 crimes per 100 thousand in Orange County in 2007. I wouldn't say it's because they report more crime in Charlotte either, because they aren't known for having such a tough police force.

IndexRateCoTd
Total Index Crime by County, 2007

Let's put it like this, anyone who moves from ANYWHERE to Charlotte to "get away from the crime" needs to do some research. The news reports are real.

Originally Posted by Metallisteve

Open your eyes!

You know, people can wear rose colored glasses in Charlotte too. Facts are facts, and Charlotte/Meck. County does indeed have a higher crime rate than Orange County, and Seminole County has a lower crime rate than any of the Charlotte vicinity counties.

[dbansal]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

That's actually a misconception. Groceries are more expensive in NC and you get your income and your car taxed. It may seem way cheaper at first, but when you file your income taxes, it's going to hurt. Also, the crime rate in Meckelnburg County (Charlotte) was 7,663.6 crimes per 100,000 in 2006 (no 2007 data yet), compared to 6,397.9 crimes per 100 thousand in Orange County in 2007. I wouldn't say it's because they report more crime in Charlotte either, because they aren't known for having such a tough police force.

IndexRateCoTd
Total Index Crime by County, 2007

Let's put it like this, anyone who moves from ANYWHERE to Charlotte to "get away from the crime" needs to do some research. The news reports are real.



You know, people can wear rose colored glasses in Charlotte too. Facts are facts, and Charlotte/Meck. County does indeed have a higher crime rate than Orange County, and Seminole County has a lower crime rate than any of the Charlotte vicinity counties.

I agree, I currently split time between Charlotte & Orlando, and groceries (not even including their grocery tax), frankly everything is more expensive in Charlotte. And for some reason people seem to ignore all the taxes. Income tax, higher sales tax (and the tax on prepared food is even higher), highway use tax, etc. It all adds up.

[Metallisteve]

Originally Posted by dbansal

...Income tax, higher sales tax (and the tax on prepared food is even higher), highway use tax, etc. It all adds up.

You gotta pay to play...something the folks in Florida refuse to understand. And as a result, you get grid locked TOLL roads, idiotic tax "reform" that's going to roll some cities back to the stone ages as far as serving it's citizens, no mass transit (none worth mentioning), poorly planned cities that develop "new" downtowns to hide their blunders in the worn out and over-used old downtowns, urban sprawl out the yin-yang...

All can be cured by a little tax that doesn't kill anyone. Frankly, I'm proud to pay my part to live in such a great place as Charlotte and not have to rely on how well the tourism industry is doing to get my roads.

The negligible higher taxes are offset by an affordable housing market, lower insurance rates, and an invaluable higher quality of life.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by Metallisteve

You gotta pay to play...something the folks in Florida refuse to understand. And as a result, you get grid locked TOLL roads, idiotic tax "reform" that's going to roll some cities back to the stone ages as far as serving it's citizens, no mass transit (none worth mentioning), poorly planned cities that develop "new" downtowns to hide their blunders in the worn out and over-used old downtowns, urban sprawl out the yin-yang...

If you subtract the toll roads and add a serious lack of funding for widening of local roads, than you just described Charlotte. Quit fooling yourself, Charlotte really isn't that much better than Orlando. Is Charlotte better? Absolutely, just not by far. It's going to look exactly like Orlando in 10 years too, except you can add to it a totally understaffed and incompetent police force to handle a crime wave that is already worse than Orlando (although you apparently are not aware of it, or you don't want to be anyway).

Objectively, there are way better places than both Orlando and Charlotte although people have mixed impressions of these places. Charlotte is blessed with a half decent economy, friendly locals (changing with the flood of malconents), and cheap housing and that's why people consider it the promised land. Other than a neat and tidy downtown and Lake Norman/Wylie, it has nothing that another American city doesn't offer and has a lot of serious problems too, like the aforementioned crime rate (YES, WORSE THAN ORLANDO, YES, WORSE THAN ORLANDO), poorly managed growth, and a lot of ozone pollution.

[dbansal]

Originally Posted by Metallisteve

You gotta pay to play...something the folks in Florida refuse to understand. And as a result, you get grid locked TOLL roads, idiotic tax "reform" that's going to roll some cities back to the stone ages as far as serving it's citizens, no mass transit (none worth mentioning), poorly planned cities that develop "new" downtowns to hide their blunders in the worn out and over-used old downtowns, urban sprawl out the yin-yang...

All can be cured by a little tax that doesn't kill anyone. Frankly, I'm proud to pay my part to live in such a great place as Charlotte and not have to rely on how well the tourism industry is doing to get my roads.

The negligible higher taxes are offset by an affordable housing market, lower insurance rates, and an invaluable higher quality of life.

Negligible? Yeah the difference between 0% income tax and 7%+ income tax is negligible... The toll roads in Orlando actually tend to have less traffic. Maybe they should add a toll to 485, it's a parking lot during rush hour. Charlotte has plenty of sprawl and problems, and taxes haven't cured anything. With 65K+ people moving in a year plenty more problems are sure to follow. And if a hurricane hits NC (it is overdue) you can kiss any insurance rate difference goodbye. With rising property values and no SOH caps lower property taxes could be gone as well. Plus cold winters and similarly hot & humid summers.

[FlaBoundGal]

I had the same option with a company I worked for, Orlando or Charlotte. Visiting both cities it was hands down to Orlando. There is so much to do in Florida that people take for granted that can not be done in other places. Plus, at the time my son was in elementary school and the school and teachers were great. It all depends on the type of life style you are used to and want to have. I was not disappointed in Orlando. If you choose Orlando do your homework on good neighborhoods, schools and locations.

[brri]

Originally Posted by FlaBoundGal

I had the same option with a company I worked for, Orlando or Charlotte. Visiting both cities it was hands down to Orlando. There is so much to do in Florida that people take for granted that can not be done in other places. Plus, at the time my son was in elementary school and the school and teachers were great. It all depends on the type of life style you are used to and want to have. I was not disappointed in Orlando. If you choose Orlando do your homework on good neighborhoods, schools and locations.

I completely agree with you here. It all depends on what one's lifestyle is. I lived in Orlando for six months and personally would not choose it over Charlotte. I think if you are younger and into the Theme Park thing then Orlando may suit you just fine. I and my wife thought Orlando, as a city was quite boring apart from the parks, but it's a great place to live if you have people from out of town coming to visit. There is just more to do there than in Charlotte, but most people who moved to Charlotte don't move here for touristy stuff but for the city's quality of life.

[tothehilt]

I have lived in both Orlando and Charlotte and all I have to say is Charlotte was WAAAAYYYYYYY better. Any way you slice it, Charlotte was better. Just for those of you who are wondering where I'm living now. The Answer is Raleigh,NC.