[logybogy]

People acclimate and soon enough they start feeling chilly any time the temperature drops below 60 Degrees.

Yeah, there's been some movement from Florida to the Carolinas, Tennesee and other parts of the southeast as Florida gets more expensive and congested. Also, movement from South Florida to Central and North Florida. A lot of retirees cash out the family home and move to lower cost of living areas in retirement out of necessity because that is their main asset. They pay cash for a nice home and bank the rest.

[Huckleberry3911948]

If you have lived a Boston winter sitting in front of air con for a few months is not torture

[blueherons]

I'm from Coastal South Carolina and the summers are hotter and more humid there than they are in South Florida.

[jean_ji]

Many people from points north visit FL during winter and love the weather. They go home and start comparing summer temps in their area to FL temps and are pleased to find their temps are often higher than Florida’s. Some doing more research may even come down to FL for a week or two in the middle of summer to experience it.

Their first mistake is looking only at recorded temperatures, not the feel-like temp factored in with humidity and dew point. It can be 88 in FL with a feel-like of over a hundred on many days, especially in the lower half of FL.

They then compare living in heat waves that may last a week or three in the North to FL’s long months of summer. This year, our first cold wave made it to SWFL in the first week of November while heat and humidity began in late April/early May. A few weeks of extreme hot weather in the North, even stretching that to a month or two, is not in the same league as FL’s summer of 6-7 months. There is no comparison.

Some are disappointed and surprised when they realize the intensity and duration of a FL summer is more than they thought and are willing to tolerate after all their research.

[double6's]

moving to Florida full time from up north is really just trading one extreme for the opposite other..as bad as the extreme humidity and heat gets down here in south Florida I'll take it over the 6 or 7 months of gray cloudy colder days of Maryland..the landscape is much nicer up north though..that's what I miss the most..

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by double6's

moving to Florida full time from up north is really just trading one extreme for the opposite other..as bad as the extreme humidity and heat gets down here in south Florida I'll take it over the 6 or 7 months of gray cloudy colder days of Maryland..the landscape is much nicer up north though..that's what I miss the most..

That's a bit of a stretch. I lived in DC for 11 years and found the seasons well-balanced...and certainly not gray/cloudy beyond January-February. For some reason transplants make everything seem so much drama-queen worse than it really was, like shoveling snow for example which sounds like it was this daily never ending chore versus the twice a year event it really is.

[masssachoicetts]

Worst Idea my parents made:

1. Move to Florida
2. Sell the Mass house


Worst Idea my Grandpa made:

1. Move to Florida
2. Forgot to File 1983 taxes.

[beach43ofus]

^^^biggest mistake I ever made was to leave Florida...twice! It took me 20+ years to finally return, and I'm enjoying the weather immensely. Sarasota's high today is 72, and then a slight warming trend up to 78. Low humidity too. Fabulous!

If you can afford to keep the house up North near your family, AND still spend Winters in FLA (renting), by all means do so. You won't be alone going that route.

If you cannot afford 2 places, then come on down, rent for a year, test drive the weather, and then make your next move.

It doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition. Dip your toes into the FLA weather w/o making any real estate transactions (other than renting), then decide.

I could never live North of the Mason-Dixson line again...been there...done that.

[mwalker96]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

That's a bit of a stretch. I lived in DC for 11 years and found the seasons well-balanced...and certainly not gray/cloudy beyond January-February. For some reason transplants make everything seem so much drama-queen worse than it really was, like shoveling snow for example which sounds like it was this daily never ending chore versus the twice a year event it really is.

Maryland winters are pretty mild compared to what you get further up north. Most people who moves to Florida tend to live further North (North of the Mason-Dixon line). Once you get South of DC that's where the halfbacks are relocating.

[TestEngr]

Many people have no trouble with the switch on a permanent move.

Lived in both, but one difference is in the north you don't realize how many terrible HVAC systems were installed. You really have to search for a house with a real up to date system. In FL many new developments so not as hard to find a really highly rated HVAC.

But in FL suggest only the best hurricane rating on home, so concrete block with rebar and poured concrete in it, garage doors the thick metal interior bars for high windspeed, rafters strapped into ground for the roof, etc.