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Old 03-18-2011, 03:52 PM
 
Location: Earth
1,479 posts, read 5,065,936 times
Reputation: 1440

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Did you mean Charlotte? I always mix up those names and that would be a more probable comparison. Charleston and Tampa are not at all alike. Tampa gets compared to Charlotte quite a bit.
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Old 03-18-2011, 03:53 PM
 
Location: West Paris
10,263 posts, read 12,457,149 times
Reputation: 24465
Tampa has more things to do, and it is more diverse than Charleston
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Old 03-18-2011, 04:12 PM
 
Location: Sun City Center, FL
177 posts, read 683,161 times
Reputation: 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by BucFan View Post
Wear 80+ SPF and enjoy wherever you decide to live. SC is a nice state - very beautiful places to live (Aiken, Columbia, Hilton Head).

Unless I'm mistaken, aren't citizens of SC taxed heavily?
Not really, but it would be dependent on income, car buying habits, and value of home. We live in Upstate South Carolina. We pay about $1,000/yr for state income tax, $1,300 for property tax on our home, about $200 for tax on our 2003 Subaru Outback ($0 on our 1989 Volvo as cars older than 15 years old are not taxed), and 6% sales tax. House insurance ($5,000/yr deductible) is about $400/yr and car insurance, liability only, for the two cars is $600/yr. One savings in SC is when you purchase a car the sales tax is 6% but the total sales tax is capped at $300. So instead of paying $1200 in sales tax for a $20,000 car, you only pay $300.

If a person has higher income, or a bigger house, or a larger car then the taxes and insurance would be higher.

Now to bring this back to Florida
We listed our home with a Realtor on Wednesday and we hope to move to Sun City Center (SCC) after it sells. In Florida, our state income tax and car tax will go to $0 but our home insurance will be higher (if we decide to insure against perils), our car insurance will be higher (according to what I have read on the forums here), and our property tax will be higher (maybe about $2000/yr for what we are looking at). Our current HOA costs $200/yr and the CA at SCC charges about $512/yr for both of us plus the areas we are looking at have small HOA charges (one is about $35/yr) (and no CDD charges).

We stayed in Clearwater for three months over the winter in a hotel with a kitchen in our room. We ate out once in 3 months and our food bill was about the same as at home. Gas is higher in FLorida as SC has a lower gas tax than most states. I am not sure about relative electricity costs (SCC doesn't have natural gas --- which we use for hot water and heat in SC).

We thought about moving to Charleston -- we used to stay there a few weeks each winter when I was working but the winter weather is better in the Tampa area. DW loves hot summers (she grew up in Malaysia,we lived in Africa right on the equator for 3 years in the 80's, and 7 years in Houston, Texas) and I don't mind the heat either.

Last edited by dlhanson; 03-18-2011 at 04:24 PM..
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Old 03-18-2011, 04:39 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
27,798 posts, read 32,221,189 times
Reputation: 14611
Interesting post - good luck w/ your move.
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Old 03-19-2011, 12:16 AM
 
451 posts, read 929,230 times
Reputation: 745
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSnFla View Post
Perfectly summarized by a native of Tampa....most bright,young, educated natives of Tampa leave this place for opportunities elsewhere....this is one of the many challenges Tampa faces in becoming relevant.
The natives don't represent the whole group, JSnFla. There are bright, young, educated immigrants moving into Tampa from other states, which make up a good part of this city's population. You may decry those who are jumping ship, but the beauty of this city and the bay in general attract a crowd of its own.
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Old 06-24-2013, 12:29 PM
 
8 posts, read 28,767 times
Reputation: 11
Tampa is great if you are in college or settled with a family. Classy, vibrant, young professionals? Hard to find. Tampa is very spread out. Most people live in the unicorporated areas. The city of Tampa is quite dead most of the time. You can definitely still feel the recession. The airport is one of the nicest in the nation, and there are lots of sports events and concerts to attend year round. South Tampa is nice-great restaurants. The joke you will hear about Tampa is the men are alcoholics and the women are shopaholics. Heavy emphasis on materialism, many struggling women with acrylic nails and +2s, always on the top list of trashy spring break getaways, strip clubs everywhere. The weather, beaches, shopping, and restaurants are nice though. Not an easy place to make friends though, esecially Iif you are not into the bar scene. Drivers are rude on the road, red light runners galore, not a bad place just not a super friendly place.
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Old 06-25-2013, 11:27 AM
 
1,748 posts, read 2,159,330 times
Reputation: 1092
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshineinfla View Post
Tampa is great if you are in college or settled with a family. Classy, vibrant, young professionals? Hard to find. Tampa is very spread out. Most people live in the unicorporated areas. The city of Tampa is quite dead most of the time. You can definitely still feel the recession. The airport is one of the nicest in the nation, and there are lots of sports events and concerts to attend year round. South Tampa is nice-great restaurants. The joke you will hear about Tampa is the men are alcoholics and the women are shopaholics. Heavy emphasis on materialism, many struggling women with acrylic nails and +2s, always on the top list of trashy spring break getaways, strip clubs everywhere. The weather, beaches, shopping, and restaurants are nice though. Not an easy place to make friends though, esecially Iif you are not into the bar scene. Drivers are rude on the road, red light runners galore, not a bad place just not a super friendly place.
I don't get the notion of "the downtown Tampa is quite dead"! It's a downtown in a coastal city with one of the nicest beaches in the continental US. What do people expect it to be? Much of the action that could've been in the downtown area, is on the beaches in Pinellas or up and down the coast. I'm tired reading how dead downtown is blah blah (the pictures below show otherwise and in my opinion it's not as bad as people make it to be). It's a business area. It needs to be clean, which it is and attract more businesses given it's pretty iconic for the area due to already having some large buildings. It needs 1-2 signature highrises to redefine the skyline.

Once Riverwalk is complete, it should be a more vibrant place. And once I-275 Westbound is finished, perhaps drivers will calm down(seems there's constant gridlock from Howard Frankland bridge to I-4 junction).

Tampa Photos - Page 62 - SkyscraperCity

Either way, I'll take the beaches over any downtown.
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Old 06-25-2013, 12:24 PM
 
17,455 posts, read 38,845,424 times
Reputation: 24078
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trigger-f View Post
I don't get the notion of "the downtown Tampa is quite dead"! It's a downtown in a coastal city with one of the nicest beaches in the continental US. What do people expect it to be? Much of the action that could've been in the downtown area, is on the beaches in Pinellas or up and down the coast. I'm tired reading how dead downtown is blah blah (the pictures below show otherwise and in my opinion it's not as bad as people make it to be). It's a business area. It needs to be clean, which it is and attract more businesses given it's pretty iconic for the area due to already having some large buildings. It needs 1-2 signature highrises to redefine the skyline.

Once Riverwalk is complete, it should be a more vibrant place. And once I-275 Westbound is finished, perhaps drivers will calm down(seems there's constant gridlock from Howard Frankland bridge to I-4 junction).

Tampa Photos - Page 62 - SkyscraperCity

Either way, I'll take the beaches over any downtown.
Thanks for the link to the nice photos - those were awesome! I love that skyscrapercity site, hadn't gone there in a while.
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Old 06-25-2013, 01:44 PM
 
1,748 posts, read 2,159,330 times
Reputation: 1092
No problem.. yes Skyscrapercity.com is good to keep up with what is being built out there.
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Old 06-25-2013, 10:27 PM
 
Location: Fort Mill, SC
143 posts, read 303,681 times
Reputation: 49
as far as SC taxes are concerned some things are taxed high but there are other areas that make up for it, such as low property taxes and low gas tax.
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