[TB13]

Considering a company transfer to Florida from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I'm looking for some information as to where the best places are to raise a young family. I'm essentially going to based out of a home office so I can select any city to live in.

Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

[EscAlaMike]

Do you want to be in a city with lots to do, a suburban community, or a rural area? What kind of lifestyle do you want?

[RMD3819]

I agree with FSUMike. We need more information.

Housing budget?
Kids?

Have you looked into visa issues?

[xxs78]

There are plenty of Canadian in Aventura.It's a good city

[Tiger Beer]

I know this is an odd question...but are the Canadians in Aventura a over-the-top patriotic bunch?

I've lived in Korea & Japan for years teaching English, and they tattoo flags and attack backpacks all over themselves and talk constantly about the Tragically Hip, Canada's only good alternative rockband.

Kinda curious if that phenemenom of Canadians is unique to Northeast Asia, or if it occurs in Aventura and Florida too.

[beachmouse]

My take on overseas Canadians in Europe or Asia is that they're desperately trying to not be mistaken for Americans. Considering the attitude towards the US for many years, I can understand that inclination.

[TB13]

Apologies I should have been more specific in my initial post.

We have a 5 year old and a 3 year old. So good schools in the area is important. Lower crime is preferred, but I'm not naive to the fact that crime exists everywhere (I was a cop for 5 years a long time ago).

For what ever reason I was thinking I'd like to be in the Central to Southern portion of the State and I have no real reason for that to be quite honest. Coast would be nice, but it doesn't appear as though you're a long way from the water anywhere in Florida.

Housing won't be much of an issue as I was looking at some real estate sites and noticed the prices are reasonable. For a context, 2200 sq ft houses in Calgary basically go for $500,000 CDN. We'd flip our and be comfortable mortgage wise in Florida. That being said I don't want to move somewhere where I'm going to be saddled with a 250K mortgage.

Not a huge fan of small towns and don't need to be in a major city. We currently live in the burbs of West Calgary (city of 1.2 million) and are comfortable with that.

I appreciate the information you guys are able to provide.

[beachmouse]

In terms of best schools, I'd aim for the college towns and tech clusters- so Tallahassee, Gainesville, the NASA-ey parts of Brevard County and the Ft. Walton Beach area (lots of tech jobs there, but only about 200K people in the county which might be a bit small for you)

[EscAlaMike]

Maybe the Melbourne-Palm Bay area (south Brevard county)? I don't know much about the public schools there though. Probably not great, but there are private schools everywhere if you would be willing to go that route. It is close to the ocean and close to Orlando as well.

Also, like beachmouse said, Tallahassee and Gainesville have good schools but may be a little small for you.

[jbuck]

Coral Springs is a nice city for families. Lots of parks/pools. I never had any prob with crime there. We liked the elementary school and were walking distance to just about everything we needed: hospital, MD's, shopping and dining, places of worship.