[Relocation2012]

I am interested in relocating to Gainesville, Florida in the future. If I decided to relocate to Gainesville, I will be living there on my own with no friends or family around and possibly not being married. My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of relocating to Gainesville as a single individual? Also, I have some optional question about Gainesville I hope someone can answer for me;

Is Gainesville affected by Atlantic Hurricanes?

Is the population growing in Gainesville?

What is the crime rate in Gainesville?

What kind of health facilities is available in Gainesville?

What is the job market like in Gainesville?

Your help is greatly appreciated in helping me to decide if I want to relocate to Gainesville in the future.

[BUP41800]

How old are you?

There are people of all ages in Gainesville---students, young and older professionals, and retirees. There are many venues to meet people: work, fitness clubs, interest groups, nightclubs, church, sporting events, etc. I don't think you'd have any problem meeting people as a single person.

As for your question about hurricanes, we haven't been affected by Atlantic hurricanes, but it's the Gulf hurricanes that have recently been troublesome. In 2004, we had damage from hurricanes Francis and Jeanne. They passed about 50 miles west of us. They were weakened as they traveled upstate, but we had a pretty good amount of wind. We lost a lot of large oak and pine trees, and some people were without power for over a week. As a result, many people began cutting down healthy trees in their yard, and our tree canopy suffered.

The population IS growing here. Gainesville attracts retirees from the northern states, UF graduates who love the area and want to stay, and people from South and Central Florida who want to escape the crowds, traffic, and whatever.

Crime doesn't seem too bad here, in my opinion.

Health facilities here are outstanding. We have three major hospitals, including UF's Shands Hospital, which is on the cutting edge of research. Ground was broken yesterday on a new cancer hospital.

I don't know much about the job market.....I've heard that the pay is low in this city. UF is huge, and hires a lot of people.

Other nuggets of info:
It's very expensive to live here. Prices of homes are ridiculous, and taxes are totally outrageous. Our commissioners are conspiring to raise our gasoline tax yet again.

Traffic is a nightmare. Development after development is approved with no thought to the hellish gridlock it will bring.

There are a lot of nice outdoor recreation areas---Paynes Prairie and San Felasco Hammock have great hiking and biking trails with abundant wildlife to observe.

Gainesville has nice museums and a performing arts center, and plentiful restaurants.

It's hotter-than-hell's-hinges in the summer. And summer can start in mid-April and last through mid-October. We are way too far inland for any cooling ocean breezes. Winters can't be beat! Spring is beautiful here. Fall is all about football season.

[root]

BUP41800 (or anyone else for that matter),

You say that it is very expensive to live in Gainesville. So what are the average prices for a home or an apartment in the city or county? How about the prices of the taxes on those homes, as well as inusrance (car and homeoweners). Are these the same prices in other cities in the county (for example the city of Alachua)? Any insight into these costs would be appreciated by all.

Thanks

[BUP41800]

I check out the prices of homes for sale in my area and am shocked.....a house sold last year for $493,000 near my neighborhood. It's 2,800 square feet and on a 1/4 acre lot with a scraggly tree on it. Then throw in a monthly HOA fee and a monthly maintenance fee on top of that. Taxes on that house are well over $8,000/year.
I pay $6,600/year taxes on a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house. If it wasn't for SOH I'd be paying a lot more. Homeowner's insurance is almost $1,400/year. Car insurance runs about $800/year for a 2006 model.
I'm sure there are cheaper areas to live in the county. Alachua is the next largest town--it's probably more reasonable to live there, but they are on the verge of a lot of growth. Many people live in neighboring counties and drive in to work in Gainesville, it's that expensive....at least compared to other counties in north Florida.
Rent is probably inflated here as there's always a demand due to the 65,000 college students in the area.
You can check out the Alachua County property appraiser page for home sales and taxes: http://www.acpafl.org/search.asp (broken link)

[gilette]

I lived in gainesville for 7 years, and wished I would have been single @ the time. Being single is optimal there. It's mostly populated by students and young pros recently graduated; as a result, pay is not too great, but if you are working for "love of the job", you can relax there. There are great healthcare facilities- (my son was born at Shands while another child of mine was born in another city in FL, and the care was optimal at Shands). Crime is higher than other cities of its' size; the student population brings out "the cultish" types; I was offered hash brownies from Krishnas at my office many times. Weather is great there; lower humidity than other FL cities and the rolling hills are beautiful.
Other than the university, there is not much else to do except springs and some lakes. Nightlife is ok, about neutral compared to west coast of FL and a little more broing than east coast (my opinion, of course). You could do worse, especially if you are into "career education" like I was and never wanted to graduate

[root]

So would you say the job market is good then in Gainsville and Alachua? If you guys say the cities are growing, then it must be. Are the wages comparable to those in other Florida cities, especially in the business fields?

[FLBoy]

Its always hard to answer the "job market" question. It depends...for me not many opportunities in G'ville and I have looked fairly hard. The opportunities that are there pay very, very low for my profession compared to opportunities elsewhere in the state.

It is a fact, or at least it was in the late 90's when I left, that Alachua county had the highest property tax rate in the state. Values have gone way up, but are tailing off a bit just like they are in other markets in Florida. The best thing you can do is look on Realtor.com or other MLS type websites and see for yourself.

I truly love Gainesville and would love to figure out a way to live there...for me it just has not been possible.

[florigidge]

i got my degree from UF in the late 70s and loved gainesville big time then because is was the epitomy of a small college town.

i moved back there in 1986 and stayed until 2003. gainesville had of course changed - and continued to do so.

gainesville for me was a city i could live in and not worry. during those 17 years, there was growth, mainly from large upper scale housing developments (we always wondered who could afford those houses?? not everyone in gainesville is a professional and not everyone is a retiree.), but also with more food chain restaurants, more roadside strip malls, more higher end roadside strip malls, more apartment complexes...just more.

growth is fine; but unfettered growth is not.

i am not sure why someone posted something about "traffic." one thing i always liked about gainesville was the fact i could generally get from one end of the city to the other in about 20 minutes. "rush hour" pales in comparison to rush hour in orlando or miami. rush might add 10 more minutes on getting from one end of the city to the other, but not by much. at least that is my experience. i used to work at UF and i lived in the northwest. it was a bit of a crowd at UF at 5, but once past sw second street and university, it was a breeze.

i've also worked downtown and lived in the northwest and the southwest at different times. same thing. i grew up in miami and worked downtown at one point and lived in coral gables. you want to talk gridlock? oh. what. fun.

so "rush hour" is nothing like rush hour in a big city.

as being single, the only thing i can say to that is how old are you? if you are 30 and under you can have a decent, mixing nightlife. if you are a single woman, with no children, over 40, well, you have to get out and join civic groups and make a nightlife for yourself. otherwise, in the 17 years i lived there i always found it difficult to find single, unattached men. there are an awful lot of families and family oriented activities in gainesville.

but like with anything, you make of it what you can. gainesville has a lot of civic and cultural organizations and you can be as active in those as you wish. there are also "fun" organizations like the florida trail association, the medievil group (sorry, i can't recall its name) - things like that.

as for property taxes, i didn't own a home the entire time i was there. but property taxes are indeed high, mainly because a great deal of property is taken up by state-run facilities, which of course pay not property taxes. the slack is made up on housing. and it can be a hell of a bite.

from what i can tell, rent has skyrocketed in the three years since i've been gone. but there are still smaller apartments that rent for 400 a month or a bit over that if you look for them. if you don't mind really really small one bedroom in the northwest (a good area to live) try the pinewood apt on nw 43rd and 39th ave. they're old but rent isn't all too bad. it would be a place to get the feel of gainesville before moving on to a better place. (i lived there in the 90s; not sure what it is like in 2007. i'm not a realtor; i don't have a vested interested - it's just a suggestion.)

the only way to escape the high property taxes is to live in an adjoining county. alachua county is a large county, so don't count on living in the city of alachua or high springs to escape. you would have to look towards levy or lafayette or others. and people do - the drive in from those counties can be heavy since the roads are two laned.

the job market, indeed, can be a problem. if you are professional or a business owner or an academic, you would do fine. otherwise, it can be a struggle. i used to work for the city of gainesville - every single person in our office had a higher degree. i sat next to a secretary who had a degree from vassar. and there we all were toiling away in routine secretarial jobs. gainesville due to its location, lifestyle, weather attracts an educated populace.

as someone else mentioned, lots of UF grads stay or return (just like i did.)

i will also say that once you get past 40, finding any job anywhere can be daunting, including gainesville.

in all my 17 years in gainesville i was never a victim of crime. nothing (knock on wood). not a property crime, not an auto crime, not a personal crime. i can't even recall friends or coworkers having any problems either. it's there, it's just not what one may think. i was not afraid in gainesville.

but all in all, i think the main thing someone needs to consider when moving to gainesville is: can i find work? all the rest will fall into place from there.

btw, i live in the pacific northwest now and salaries are the same as i made in gville BUT the cost of living, gas, food is sky high here....SKY HIGH. unbelieveable. and i used to think publix was expensive!