Raleigh to Jupiter with children? (West Palm Beach, Palm Beach: rent, credit, how much)

[Lawlady]

Oh I do realize it....My husband was commuting to Pompano Beach. Our neighbor across the street drives to Miami. I've been job searching in the West Pam and Melbourne areas. It's awful...just awful. I have an MBS my husband has a Masters in HRM and a JD with a specialty in employment law. I can't even get hired at Wal-Mart or Publix!!! My husband is delivering sanitizer to 7-11s part-time! That's all he can find. We have no health insurance and are about to go into foreclosure on a brand new house we just bought in February. It's crazy.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Lawlady

Oh I do realize it....My husband was commuting to Pompano Beach. Our neighbor across the street drives to Miami. I've been job searching in the West Pam and Melbourne areas. It's awful...just awful. I have an MBS my husband has a Masters in HRM and a JD with a specialty in employment law. I can't even get hired at Wal-Mart or Publix!!! My husband is delivering sanitizer to 7-11s part-time! That's all he can find. We have no health insurance and are about to go into foreclosure on a brand new house we just bought in February. It's crazy.

Is your husband a member of the bar?

My firm has recently added eight lawyers this year.

[Lawlady]

True...When my husband had a job he was commuting from PSL to Pompano Beach ever day. My neighbor drives into Miami. No...My husband would have to take the Florida Bar. He was doing EEOC Training for VPs of corporations.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Lawlady

True...When my husband had a job he was commuting from PSL to Pompano Beach ever day. My neighbor drives into Miami. No...My husband would have to take the Florida Bar. He was doing EEOC Training for VPs of corporations.

Well, I would suggest taking the bar. Firms seem to be hiring! With his background in EEOC training, I think he would be able to get placement fast. Has he ever practiced law? Average starting for first years in mid-large firms is 70k+ up to 140k in Palm Beach County.

[Lawlady]

No, he never needed to sit for the Bar. He made over $100K (last year $250K). Now he's making $30K part-time and no benefits. We never saw this coming!

[BroQuest]

"Jupiter is very nice actually. A somewhat laid back beach culture kind of vibe there. Mixed with a dash of North East intensity.
Lots of retirees...and families. Its really not too bad an area.
The beaches are beautiful. Hope you dont mind seaweed though.
The people are generally very welcoming.
Many are fellow transplants.

The drivers? Well...youve got the old retired couple going 20 in a 40, and youve got the NY transplant doing 60 in the 40.
I honestly prefer it to Seattle though where everyone goes about 20 under the speed limit."



Good points. It is a nice area, but the people, although some nice and welcoming of course, the driving is bad. actually everywhere in fla seems to be bad in fla now, but the intense ny drivers make me mad. one of many reasons natives have left.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by BroQuest

jupiter/pbg/stuart are nice, but those are "pockets" of nice places in s fla to live. generally speaking, raleigh is a nicer place to live than south florida, by far in my opinion. and, we moved back to fla (from nc) and we go to the beach just a handful of times per year... even though you may seem bored in raliegh, the only other thing we have is the beach.

I wouldn't say the only other thing in Florida is the beach . . . but it depends on what someone enjoys doing in their leisure time, and it depends a bit on how much they like to drive. Also, I know almost nothing about Raleigh--I've driven through it, and that's about it, so I can't say what Florida might have that Raleigh doesn't (and anyway, it's not like you can't easily drive to the beach from Raleigh).

However, I can tell you some things that Florida has for me, including some things that I can't really get elsewhere that I miss when I'm away from it (as I am at the moment, which is one reason I'm working on moving back there).

For example, as much as I like hiking (and canoeing) in moutains, hills, deserts and various other areas, I also like hiking (and canoeing) in Florida, because the geology, flora and fauna there are quite unlike anywhere else in the US, at least (and I'm pretty sure some things are quite unlike anywhere else in the world). I know there's nowhere else in the world like The Everglades. Of course, it helps that I grew up there, so I have a kind of notalgic fondness for that geology, flora and fauna.

Although maybe related to the beach, I'd bet the Carolinas do not have the great diving and snorkeling you can experience in parts of Florida. I miss that a lot when I'm away, too.

Florida also has lots of major and minor league sports to experience. You have two major league baseball teams, three NFL teams, two NHL teams, two NBA teams, etc. most of which will be in within relatively easy driving distances of you as long as you're in South or Central Florida. People who aren't sports fans won't care of course, but that's not me.

Both South and Central Florida have a lot of great shopping, including places like Sawgrass Mills, Aventura Mall, Worth Avenue, etc.

There are a lot of world class, interesting museums to visit, including the Norton, Whitehall, Vizcaya, The Ringling Museum, etc. and including interesting outdoor areas/botanical gardens like the Morikami, Bok Tower, etc., and don't forget about all the springs in Central and North-Central Florida.

Florida has what is probably, in my opinion, the best amusement park in the world, Walt Disney World. It also has Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, etc., which are right up there with the best, plus they're all open year-round. There are also a lot of more interesting, smaller, much more quirky and worthwhile attractions, such as Lion Country Safari, Coral Castle, etc.

There are lots of unique, quirky places to visit, like South Beach, Key West, the ethnic neighborhoods in Miami, etc.

I'm just scratching the surface here, so don't get upset if I left out your favorite things to do, but I think there are a lot of things in Florida that are unique and worthwhile. For me, it helps balance out some of the things that I really miss when I'm in Florida, like mountains, cooler weather, etc. The thing is that no matter where you live, you can't be near/have EVERYTHING you might like to be near/have. You have to think about what it is you enjoy the most, or at least the most for now, and pick a place that has more of those things. I'm moving back to Florida because of all of the above (and then some) AND because my immediate family is there, and I miss them, too.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Bored in Raleigh

Hurricane damage to landscaping, HOA costs, pool screens...yikes! Lots of expenses I hadn't even thought about! Hmmmm...

Of course, you can do as I'm doing an avoid an area with HOA fees and regulations, forget about a pool (I know how much maintenance they are normally, anyway, so I'm just not interested--And I only swim for exercise or to snorkel; I can better do both at the beach than in a small backyard pool), and then you can go without a screen, too. The landscaping damage, other than making sure you do not have large trees that might fall on your house, is just cleaning up some branches, etc. If you're going to bother with landscaping in the first place, cleaning up some branches shouldn't bother you (or the folks you've hired to normally do your landscaping work). Plants have the advantage of being able to grow. If sections of your landscaping are gone after a hurricane, see it as an opportunity to try that new garden arrangement you'd been contemplating.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Seattle_PT

Seriously though as someone who grew up in South Florida, its kind of a weird place for kids.
The mix of Northern transplants, Retirees, Haitian/cuban refugees, and heavy gangster rap culture make for some strange times.

I grew up and went to grade school in the West Palm Beach area. I always thought the multicultural experience I had was invaluable. I partially credit it with my current levels of tolerance and empathy. I went to Palm Beach County's Twin Lakes High School when it was primarily an odd mixture of middle and working class kids from the western suburbs (I was one of those), rednecks, kids from the ghetto downtown (the school's neighborhood before the county transformed it into City Place, etc.), and rich kids from Palm Beach (I didn't really realize until later how bizarre it was that so many Palm Beachers elected to send their kids to a public school in a ghetto--but that was the late 70s/early 80s, so the integration ideal was still important to a lot of people).

Re drugs, that was true when I was a kid, I suppose, too. I certainly did my share of experimentation there. However, a lot of kids DID avoid that, and from my later experience, including years on the road with a rock band, I don't think it's very unusual in the US that high school kids have access to drugs--that seemed to be the case everywhere we played, and according to lots of locals that we interacted with.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Lawlady

No, he never needed to sit for the Bar. He made over $100K (last year $250K). Now he's making $30K part-time and no benefits. We never saw this coming!

On the other hand, you can find real estate so cheap in Florida that you can easily pay for it on 30k. Or with two people making 30k, you can get something nicer. If you bought a house based on, say, a 250k income, so that your mortgage payments are something astronomical like 5k per month, then no, 30k won't cut it. You'd have to sell your place, and hopefully you have some equity in it, then buy something that costs a lot less. You can easily get condos in South Florida for under 50k, even.