[mwalker96]

Florida has been a major growing state for decades. Most of Florida's migration is from retired Northerners who want to get away from cold weather for good. It's been the narrative for a long time why Florida has grown the way it has, but it has to be more than just retirees as why the state has grown like it has because Maine has a large elderly population but it's the opposite of Florida by weather and location. Immigration is another big factor but immigration in the US has slowed down quite a bit. What keeps Florida growing still decades later?

[kyle19125]

The illusion that everything is less expensive, the weather is paradise-like minus cold/snow and the premise of casual days lounging at the pool, beach or in an amusement park.

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by mwalker96

Florida has been a major growing state for decades. Most of Florida's migration is from retired Northerners who want to get away from cold weather for good. It's been the narrative for a long time why Florida has grown the way it has, but it has to be more than just retirees as why the state has grown like it has because Maine has a large elderly population but it's the opposite of Florida by weather and location. Immigration is another big factor but immigration in the US has slowed down quite a bit. What keeps Florida growing still decades later?

Looking at an elder affairs chart the percentage of 60 and older full time residents in Florida is just less than 20 % of the population of Florida. In the late 1980s-1990s in the last big population boom it was mostly families that moved down. For example where I live it went from a town of 19000 to about 100,000 in about a 10 year span. We went from 1 elementary school with maybe 1000 kids K-6 to 9 with every one of them having portables on campus and over 1000 kids at each school. A new school went up every year so your kid may have started at one and went to a different school every year because of the boundary changes. In the last years there have been more public schools and quite a few charter and church schools haver been added to the mix.

People move her for every reason imaginable, but mostly because of the promise of a better life. In my case a broken engagement and my love for the ocean and rockets brought me to the space coast. it sure wasn't for the teaching salary back then. LOL I took a big cut and remember using the phrase" I may be poor, but look at this tan."

BTW the 6 new houses being built on my street are big 4 bedroom houses for families so not really aiming at the baby boomers moving down as singles.

[Scottamemnon]

Lately there seems to be a big influx of people from up north who have remote jobs. The lack of income tax here is a huge draw. I know its what led my wife and I to move our family down here to the Jax area.

On top of this the general tax situation in NY, NJ, and CT is causing a huge move south.

[Florida2014]

We came from the West, but the draw for us was

1. Year round warm weather
2. No state income taxes
3. Lower cost of living (compared to where we were living)
4. Yes, the beach. I had no illusions of sipping margaritas by the beach on a daily basis, but it was appealing to us nonetheless.

[mwalker96]

Originally Posted by Scottamemnon

Lately there seems to be a big influx of people from up north who have remote jobs. The lack of income tax here is a huge draw. I know its what led my wife and I to move our family down here to the Jax area.

On top of this the general tax situation in NY, NJ, and CT is causing a huge move south.

Low taxes does make Florida attractive and the South in general.

[mwalker96]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

Looking at an elder affairs chart the percentage of 60 and older full-time residents in Florida is just less than 20 % of the population of Florida. In the late 1980s-1990s in the last big population boom it was mostly families that moved down. For example where I live it went from a town of 19000 to about 100,000 in about a 10-year span. We went from 1 elementary school with maybe 1000 kids K-6 to 9 with every one of them having portables on campus and over 1000 kids at each school. A new school went up every year so your kid may have started at one and went to a different school every year because of the boundary changes. In the last years, there have been more public schools and quite a few charter and church schools have been added to the mix.

People move here for every reason imaginable, but mostly because of the promise of a better life. In my case, a broken engagement and my love for the ocean and rockets brought me to the space coast. it sure wasn't for the teaching salary back then. LOL, I took a big cut and remember using the phrase" I may be poor, but look at this tan."

BTW the 6 new houses being built on my street are big 4 bedroom houses for families so not really aiming at the baby boomers moving down as singles.

I see, the major cites on the peninsula seem to be overcrowded where ascites like Jacksonville continue to grow. Most of the Northerners who moved to Florida are now in States like Georgia and the Carolinas or just flat out moved back North. I see the Panhandle is attracting other neighboring states.

[beach43ofus]

Aside from what all of ^^^^ those posters said, Florida still has a lot of open spaces...available land to be developed <1hr from the beach. Most of it <30 minutes to the beach has been developed though. We will now start to see more infill towards the center of the State like we saw in the Villages, the growth of Orlando and the I-4 corridor.

The effort to repeal the $10k SALT cap just failed, so that will cause another wave of Northerners to come down.

Many Northern cities, county's, states are imploding financially. They have less people to tax, so they tax whomever remains at a higher rate. They are in a death spiral, and anyone that can get out is leaving. Cleveland has lost nearly 2/3rds of its population since its peak. Detroit is even worse off. Chicago's next, Baltimore is a mess, and there are other Dominos too just waiting for fall due to failed policies.

There's still a few years of baby boomers to go too.

Unrest in Central and South America will continue to drive people to Florida. Chile, Peru, and Nicaragua will follow Venezuela with its most affluent fleeing, and anyone else that has the guts to leave.

People also move down because they have "anchor" friends & family members that moved down here already, so they follow them down. I see this a LOT.

2020 will be yet another year of record growth for Florida in tourism revenues, population growth, and residential real estate volumes. I see no end in site.

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

The illusion that everything is less expensive, the weather is paradise-like minus cold/snow and the premise of casual days lounging at the pool, beach or in an amusement park.

EXACTLY

[germanoricua]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

The illusion that everything is less expensive, the weather is paradise-like minus cold/snow and the premise of casual days lounging at the pool, beach or in an amusement park.

It is not an illusion. Except for "less expensive" (which is relative and depends on from where you move) this is reality, at least for me.